Text chat

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Revision as of 06:07, 8 January 2022 by Naleksuh (talk | contribs) (Update history: second one is not related to chat, first one emoved it from the chat message, second one replaced the message itself which even if it showed in the chat is outside its scope but it doesn't anymore because of the first patch. no relati)
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The public chat.
Got anything funny to say about that, funny man?
The Soldier to the late Scout

The text chat is a communication feature available only in PC versions of Team Fortress 2. It is displayed in the middle left side of the HUD.

There are 2 types of chats: public and party chat. Public chat is the general chat, which can be accessed by pressing Y by default. It shows messages sent by all players of any team and spectators. Also shows notifications as player receiving items, duels status, etc., and server messages in community servers. Players can send a message only for their team by pressing U — messages sent only for teammates are displayed with a team-colored "(TEAM)" tag —.

The party chat is a special chat, which can be accessed by pressing the Chat button on the upper left side of the main menu, but also by pressing P by default. It shows messages sent only by party members and party status. Messages sent here are displayed in the tab that opens when pressing the button, but also in the public chat as green text. Messages also play a specific audio cue when sent.

Players can also send messages via the console with the commands say, say_team and say_party.

As of June 16, 2020 Patch, in order to use the public chat, a player must have an premium account and a non-limited user account on Steam. Players can still use the party chat without restrictions.

Chat filter and restrictions

The user can filter certains entries in the chat by accessing the "Filters" tab in the public chat. The options are the following:

  • Joins/Leaves
  • Name Changes
  • Public Chat (disables messages sent only for all teams)
  • Server Messages
  • Team Changes
  • Achievement Announce

After sending 2 or 3 messages in a row, players will have to wait 5 seconds to send more messages.

Several slurs and inappropiate words are filtered by the Steam Text Filtering, which can be accessed through the Advanced options. Public chat can also be fully disabled in said dialog.

Update history

October 1, 2014 Patch
  • When you mute a player, the mute settings now apply to text chat as well as voice chat. If you want the previous behavior, change convar cl_mute_all_comms to 0.

June 16, 2020 Patch

  • Restricted certain new accounts from using chat in official matchmaking modes
  • Added "Enable text chat" and "Enable voice chat" options to the top of the Advanced Options dialog to disable in-game text and voice chat

June 24, 2020 Patch

  • Added rate limit checks for in-game text chat

October 1, 2020 Patch

  • Added support for Steam Text Filtering for persona names and chat. This is enabled by default.
    • You can update your settings in the Adv. Options dialog
    • You can also update your settings by opting into the Steam Lab

June 22, 2021 Patch

  • Removed the disconnect reason from the message when players leave the server

Gallery