The Nintendo Switch Online app voice chat is a bit of a mess

When Nintendo said they were routing all of the Switch’s voice chat through a mobile app we all were a little concerned. Now with the Nintendo Switch Online app released we’ve been able to test it out with Splatoon 2 and it’s worse than we could have ever thought. There’s some good news in this app, but it’s got nothing to do with the voice chat portion of it.

If you put the whole ‘Lounge’ part of the Nintendo Switch Online app aside and just look at Splatnet 2 then there’s something decent we can talk about. The first Splatoon also had a similar website where you could view stats and history of your online matches and this extends it with the ability to purchase (with in game currency) exclusive items and you can share to social media your stats and the app generates neat little images for you too. It’s nice and clean, it works and it adds to the game, hopefully, other Switch games like Arms and Mario Kart have similar support added later.

That’s where the good news ends.

The ‘Online Lounge’ is what Nintendo are dubbing the voice chat functionality for Splatoon 2. At its core the app allows you to invite friends from multiple sources into a private match to play Splatoon 2 and chat with each other using your phone. The invites work quick and you can jump into a chat room quite easy. When you play a match it’ll split up the teams into two and you can only hear the people on your team. The voice quality is pretty good and it was nice and clear even with people from other countries.

The lack of options right from the get go is a problem, the app does seamlessly split your group up into two chats when the game starts and returns you to the ‘lobby’ when it’s over – that part works fine. But what about if you don’t want to be split apart? What about if you want to trash talk all your mates – there’s nothing to do but mute yourself, no other options.

What about if you want to talk your group of mates and take on the world in a public battle or even a ranked battle? There’s no facility for that. Maybe that’s planned at some point in the future, this is a ‘beta’ after all. Nintendo doesn’t want kids talking to strangers, that’s commendable but to be restricted to just playing with your mates together is stifling.

There are also some rubbish technical decisions with the app itself. You can’t multitask out of the app in either iOS or Android. So if you flick over to Twitter or Discord to check with your mates where they are it, pauses the chat. If you pull up the command center to turn on Wi-Fi or adjust your screen brightness it pauses the chat and you appear to drop out. Both iOS and Android have the facility to background these processes and literally, every other communication application in the world uses them.

The worst part of is that the app has to remain open, but you can’t even lock your phone. That means the screen is on the entire time. You’re using the screen, wifi, and audio – it drains the battery something fierce. No app should monopolize your phone in this manner.

What about the actual mechanics of using a separate app as well for this. Nintendo has decided for whatever reason that they don’t want to put voice chat into the Switch OS itself. Perhaps it’s something technical but not being able to plug your headset in (or connect with Bluetooth) and just chat using the system is just below standard.

There’s an acronym they use in the software development called MVP. It means a minimum viable product, it’s what you build when you have to get something out the door and have it ‘just work’. The Nintendo Switch online app is less than that, it’s less than the standard anyone expects for such an idea and from next year we’ll be paying for it.

It looks so much worse in person. Source: Kotaku

There’s absolutely no reason to use this over something like Discord in its current state and Nintendo should have just delayed it along with the rest of the online services. This is Nintendo’s first big misstep with the Switch, the whole idea is completely tone deaf and while Nintendo always does their own thing, they can’t do their own thing and have it be worse.

If you do want the app to improve and change for the better, make sure you leave feedback the app itself. It’ll send it to Nintendo directly, hopefully, they’re listening.