Proximity voice chat on your server: installing Simple Voice Chat
On most servers you talk in text chat, or your whole friend group sits in one Discord call where everyone can always hear everyone — including that one player three thousand blocks away down a mineshaft. Proximity voice chat flips that around: you simply talk into your microphone, and only players standing close to you can hear it. When someone walks away, the sound fades until it's gone. For roleplay it's pretty much indispensable, but it adds a surprising amount to a survival server with friends too. Simple Voice Chat is the best-known way to make it happen, and the installation is very doable — as long as you don't forget one thing: the port.
What proximity voice does to your server
It sounds like a detail, but distance-based voice changes how players behave. On a roleplay server, real scenes suddenly emerge: you can eavesdrop on a conversation by sneaking closer, a market square sounds like a market square and a whispered meeting genuinely stays between you. On a survival server it works in a simpler way, but just as well: those building a base together talk together; whoever heads out alone gets some peace and quiet. New players can also join the conversation straight away, without having to hunt down a Discord invite first.
To be fair: not every server benefits. On a minigame or anarchy server it adds little, and there will always be players without a microphone or without any desire to talk. So keep text chat in good shape; voice is an addition, not a replacement.
Mod or plugin: which version do you need?
Simple Voice Chat comes in several flavours, and which one you need depends on your server software:
- Running Fabric or NeoForge (for a modpack, for example)? Then you install the mod version for your modloader in the
modsfolder. - Running Paper or Spigot? Then there's a plugin variant you simply drop into
plugins, like any other plugin.
The functionality is the same either way. Unsure about the installation itself? The knowledge base walks you through it step by step: how to install a plugin.
The most important thing to remember: your players need the mod too. Voice chat only works when the client plays along, and the vanilla client can't. So every player installs Simple Voice Chat themselves through a launcher with Fabric, NeoForge or Forge; the mod is available on Modrinth and CurseForge. Good to know: players without the mod can still join and play — they just won't hear any voice chat. So you're not locking anyone out. Bedrock players joining through Geyser do miss out, though: there's no client mod for Bedrock, so voice stays silent for them.
The UDP port: where it usually goes wrong
Minecraft itself talks to your players over a single port. Simple Voice Chat uses its own additional connection over UDP, on port 24454 by default. And that's exactly where nine out of ten installations go wrong: the mod is on the server, everyone has the client, and still there's nothing but silence — because that UDP port isn't open.
On a hosted server you simply request an extra port through your panel and put it in the mod's config. How that works at MC-Node is covered in the knowledge base: adding an extra port to your server. Then open Simple Voice Chat's configuration file — config/voicechat/voicechat-server.properties for the mod, plugins/voicechat/voicechat-server.properties for the plugin — and enter that same port number there:
port=24454Restart your server and the voice connection comes up. Do mind the difference between TCP and UDP: the port you're assigned has to allow UDP traffic, because that's what all the voice runs over.
Setting up groups and distances
By default you can hear each other up to around 48 blocks away, with the sound fading as you move further apart. You adjust that distance in the same configuration file. For roleplay, many servers pick a somewhat smaller distance so conversations stay genuinely private; for survival with friends the default is fine.
The mod also has groups: players press V to open the voice chat menu, where they can create or join a group. Group members hear each other everywhere, regardless of distance — handy for a build project on opposite sides of the map or an event with teams. Whispering works too, with a smaller audible range, for when you want to say something to your neighbour only. As the admin, you decide in the config whether groups are allowed and how far voices carry.
Alternative: Plasmo Voice
Simple Voice Chat is the best known, but not the only one. Plasmo Voice does essentially the same thing — proximity voice via a server and client mod — with its own ecosystem of add-ons for extra features. Quality-wise there's little between them; above all, pick one and stick with it, because the two systems don't work together. Your players have to install exactly the mod your server runs.
No sound? Here's how to fix it
The vast majority of problems come down to a handful of causes:
- The UDP port isn't open or doesn't match. Check that the port number in
voicechat-server.propertiesexactly matches the port assigned in your panel, then restart. This is cause number one. - The microphone isn't working. Check in the mod's voice settings (client-side) whether the right microphone is selected, and whether your operating system gives Minecraft access to the microphone.
- Versions don't match. Preferably run the same version of the mod on client and server; after updating one, update the other too.
- The connection won't establish. The mod shows a message on screen when the voice connection fails. If all players see that message, it's almost certainly the port and not the players themselves.
You don't need to worry much about server resources: Simple Voice Chat is lightweight and runs happily alongside everything else on any plan. Don't have a server yet? At MC-Node you can get started from €0.50 per month, at around €1.10 per GB of RAM. Everything runs on our own hardware with NVMe storage in the Netherlands, DDoS protection is included and plans can be cancelled monthly.