What's the purpose of the Switch Online Voice Chat app?

A lot of Switch owners hate the Switch Online voice chat app, but Nintendo is keeping it around anyway. Is there an underlying purpose behind it?

[PhoenixUp]

“Nintendo consoles have pretty much always been synonymous with family-friendly themes, similar to that of Disney. Thus, that presents an issue when dealing with something like voice chat since it carries quite the opposite reputation of “family-friendly.”“

That’s a horrible reason for Nintendo to add such unnecessary steps to have simple voice chat, especially when DS, 3DS & Wii U featured it no problem with only Wii’s method of voice chat being convoluted with Wii Speak.

Not to mention that PlayStation and Xbox are also family friendly platforms yet offer voice chat in the most basic functionality. They also offer party chat, which is strange that Nintendo isn’t offering since it’d allow people to voice chat with people on their friends list at any time.

[AKR]

You quoted a very small section of the article, not bothering to look further into the argument:
Trying to criticize half a story simply doesn't make sense. I kindly ask you to analyze the full piece before casting judgment.

"This is where the app comes in. While Nintendo isn’t able to physically monitor every single conversation, the app has been designed in a way that it only allows actual real-life associates to get connected with each other. So, if someone doesn’t want to use the app (or can’t), then they’re left to either connect with players another way or not at all. The alternative methods like using Skype or Discord still involve a player only interacting with people who they actually know; so again, Nintendo still ends up looking good when it comes to roundabout supervision. Like before, this is still just a theory, but I wouldn’t put it past Nintendo for going with this approach for the sake of preserving its fairly clean reputation."

"Of course, what this situation still ends up boiling down to is that Nintendo has taken a process that’s been around for years and has made it incredibly convoluted. This alienates the folks out there who would like to enjoy it seamlessly, as is the case on other platforms. But the real kicker here is that it doesn’t seem like Nintendo is truly forcing the voice chat app down its customers’ throats. As evidenced by Fortnite skipping it altogether, it would appear that it’s totally up to each individual developer to decide whether or not to use the app."

[Aenea]

That whole bit with "this is where the app comes in" is still nonsense tho. PS4 and X1 allow one to talk to only people you know. In fact, it's the only voice chat I do, I'm not going to talk to people I don't know...

[rainslacker]

An app on the console can serve every purpose that it does on the phone.

The problem isn't so much that they have a phone app, its that the phone app is the only option.

So, in other words, it's the not at all aspect of the system itself that people are griping about.

I don't get the roundabout supervision thing. The app means they're still in charge of the servers, and the moderation, and the security of the app itself. They put the app on an easily hackable phone system, instead of their slightly less easily hackable consoles. If something were to go poorly, they'd still be held culpable.

As far as having disparate accounts to connect people, again, that can be solved with the feature being integrated into the system.

[PhoenixUp]

I did read the entire article. I just happened to respond to this quote because it brings up a recurring negative trend that Nintendo has been doing ever since they implemented Friend Codes.

I’m just stating that Nintendo intentionally butchering their online service to play digital nanny is an absurd practice. Nintendo has already seen how various other social online platforms, especially the non-gaming varieties, treat its users with respect no matter their age.

If Nintendo was that focused about who they voice chat with on their platform, there’s especially no reason not to have party chat since they’d only be talking with people on their friend’s list, yet Nintendo won’t even give that basic luxury. Vita did party chat for free and it’s less powerful than NS, so Nintendo really does seem shortsighted in this especially when voice chat will most likely be locked behind a paywall.

Fortnite doing voice chat simple should be the basic standard on the console, not something that should be on a case by case basis for each individual developer. It should be especially embarrassing for Nintendo when a third party game uses a feature more effectively than a first party title.

All this just makes me really skeptical about Nintendo having the nerve to charge for online no matter how cheap the subscription price is.

[CrimsonWing69]

It’s just Nintendo being Nintendo.

[TakeABreakGamers]

When gamers can't take a break from Console Wars... Lol

[Aquietguy]

I don't use voice chat so I can't speak on it. I do like the app for keeping up with my stats on Splatoon 2 and ordering gear through the app.