Recently Blizzard have been sending out e-mails for the alpha testing of a new function that they’re hoping to implement into their Battle.net client at some point soon. What function? Voice chat.

Currently it’s at an invite-only stage, with Blizzard flagging certain accounts to join in the testing from Friday. At the moment it’s only in the “friends and family” stage, so expect to see bigger names in Youtube and Twitch taking part at some point soon.

“We’ve been hard at work creating an easier way to keep you connected with your guildies, teammates, and friends across all your favorite Blizzard games,” the e-mail states. “Although the feature is not available in all titles at the moment it is still possible to chat via the battle.net app while in a game, and Blizzard will be integrating voice chat “on a game by game basis as applicable.”

Of course at the moment the function is only available to those in the test, so if you get it but none of your friends do… well, you won’t be able to make use of it. There’s also the question of whether or not Blizzard can implement a voice chat good enough to lure people away from third-party apps such as Discord or Teamspeak – especially when such apps are well embedded into gaming culture by now.

We’ll keep you updated as trials continue.