One of the most requested features finally makes its way Battle.net desktop app. Blizzard Voice now provides Battle.net users the ability to have native voice chat across all of their games without the need for third-party apps.

　　All you have to do is update your Battle.net launcher, after that you'll see a prompt letting you know that Voice Chat is available. In order to use it just go to your friends list and create a channel then click on the headphone icon.

　　Prior to Blizzard Voice, players need to use third-party apps Skype or TeamSpeak in order to voice chat with teammates, guildmates and friends. World of Warcraft had some built-in voice chat features, but those were limited to just WoW and no other Blizzard titles. It makes sense that Blizzard would offer these features natively on their platform.

　　After launching the ability to live stream directly from any Blizzard game, it seems that Blizzard Voice was the next logical step for the massive game developer to take for making life easier for all Battle.net users.

　　Blizzard Voice is live now for the Battle.net desktop app on PC and Mac. In classic Blizzard style, we've embedded the patch notes below.

Improvements

　　You can now create a channel to use voice and text chat with your friends.

　　To start a channel, use the "Create a Channel" button, or right-click your friends on the Friends List.

　　All channel members have permission to add or remove their friends from and channel.

　　Players can be dragged from the Friends List to channels to make adding individuals quick and easy.

　　Voice Chat

　　Blizzard Voice provides high quality voice audio and superior stability, all from the Desktop App you are already using!

　　A full range of audio settings allow you to customize your voice experience.

　　Additional controls in the chat channel allow you to individually mute and change player volume.

　　Chat

　　Send and receive URLS as clickable hyperlinks!

　　Users can now markdown text with bold, italics, strikethrough effects in chat. Here's how to add the markdown:

　　Bold = ** or __ before and after the word/s you want to make bold.

　　Italics = _ before and after the word/s you want to make italicized.

　　Strikethrough = ~~ before and after the word/s you want to strikethrough.

　　Sounds & Notifications

　　Revamped the sounds and notification settings for the App.

　　All sound and notification settings have been reset to their defaults, and some will now be ON by default.

　　General

　　The icon in the upper left corner of the friends list now shows you your own in-game status as others will see you.

　　Bug Fixes

　　Streaming

　　Fixed various stability and performance problems with streaming.

　　Fixed some issues that would cause audio degradation in streams.

　　General

　　Fixed an issue that would prevent AltGr from functioning in browser windows.

　　Fixed an issue that could cause a crash on startup.

　　Fixed an issue that would occasionally cause \"session expired\" errors when reconnecting after having logged in from another location.

　　Known Issues

　　Currently voice chat in Battle.net App and Overwatch are separate systems, meaning it is possible to be in more than one voice channel at the same time.