Proximity voice chat with Simple Voice Chat

Simple Voice Chat adds proximity voice chat to Minecraft: you hear the players near you, louder the closer they are, and quieter as they walk away. No Discord call to set up and no one talking over the whole server. It also has groups, for when you want to talk to your team wherever they are.

Voice chat needs its own network port, separate from the one players join on. On Cobbly you turn that port on from the panel; everything else is the normal plugin or mod install.

What you need

• On the server: Simple Voice Chat as a plugin on Paper or Purpur, or as a mod on Fabric, Forge, NeoForge or Quilt. A Vanilla server cannot load either — switch software in the Software tab first (see Which mod loader should I choose?).
• In every player’s game: the Simple Voice Chat mod, for the same Minecraft version as the server. A plugin server still needs the mod on the player’s side — the plugin and the mod talk to each other. Players without it can still join and play; they just cannot hear or be heard.
• A microphone, if you want to talk and not only listen.

Step 1: turn on the voice port

1. Open your server in the panel and go to the Ports tab.
2. In the Voice chat card, press Turn on voice chat and wait for the short confirmation to finish.
3. Your server now has its own voice address, shown in the card — something like yourserver.cobbly.net:24517. You never need to type it anywhere: the server tells every player’s mod where to connect.

The port is yours for 30 days. The card shows when it runs out; renew it from the same place before then and you keep the same port. If it lapses, voice chat stops until you renew — the server itself keeps running as normal.

Step 2: install it on the server

On Paper or Purpur, install the Simple Voice Chat plugin from the Mods tab, or upload the jar to the plugins folder — How to add plugins to a Paper server walks through both. On Fabric, Forge, NeoForge or Quilt, install the mod the same way into the mods folder — see How to add mods to your server.

Then restart the server. The voice settings are written on every start, so a server that was already running when you turned the port on needs one restart to pick it up — the Ports tab reminds you when that is the case.

To check it worked, open the Console after the restart. You should see two lines like these:

• [voicechat] Voice host is 'yourserver.cobbly.net:24517'
• [voicechat] Voice chat server started at port 24454

The first is the address players are told to connect to; the second is the port inside your server. Both are set for you — do not change port or voice_host in the mod’s config file, because they are reset on every start.

Step 3: install it in your own game

Every player who wants voice needs the mod in their own Minecraft:

1. Install a mod loader for the same Minecraft version as the server. Fabric is the simplest. A launcher like the Modrinth App, Prism Launcher or the CurseForge app does it in a couple of clicks: create a new Fabric profile for that version.
2. Add Simple Voice Chat to that profile. If you install by hand, put the jar in the profile’s mods folder, along with Fabric API if the download page lists it.
3. Launch that profile and join your server with its usual address.

Using voice chat

• Press V to open the voice chat menu. Pick your microphone and speakers there, and test your mic level.
• The default is push-to-talk on Caps Lock. You can switch to voice activation in the settings.
• A small icon on screen shows your state. If it is crossed out, voice chat is not connected — see below.
• Press G to create or join a group, so your team can talk to each other at any distance.
• The first time, your computer may ask whether Minecraft can use the microphone. Allow it.

If it says “not connected”

• Restart the server if you turned the port on, or installed the plugin or mod, while it was running.
• Check the Ports tab. If the voice port has run out, renew it, then restart.
• Check the console for the Voice host is line above. If it says Voice host is '' or shows a different address, the server has not restarted since the port was turned on.
• Check the version. Your mod and the server’s plugin or mod must be the same Simple Voice Chat major version, for the server’s Minecraft version.
• You must be in the game. Voice only connects for players who are joined to that server — it is not something you can reach from outside it.