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Have Problems with Switch Online app? - Let Nintendo know.

NoKisum

Member
Nope.

Right now it is voice chat only. You cannot type/text/message your friends. let them know!

This is severely disappointing, especially considering the initial reveal made the app seem like a carbon copy of Discord. But now I see it has less features. Terrible, Nintendo. Terrible.
 
Stop shitposting so hard and do something about it if you really want it to change:

JHEMLw2g.png

You seriously have to keep the screen on and the app front and center to use it? No fucking way.
 
Yup. Remember how Nintendo fans said voice chat would drain the battery on the Switch? Well now it's going to wreck your phone. Can't even do anything. Gotta make sure auto lock is turned off.

EDIT: Whoops I must have misread.

And as for your last sentence, the app itself disables auto lock, like youtube does. So that's something.
 

Nesther

Member
Yup. Remember how Nintendo fans said voice chat would drain the battery on the Switch? Well now it's going to wreck your phone. Can't even do anything. Gotta make sure auto lock is turned off.

Yeah in it's current form it will only be somewhat useable if you're playing at home with your phone plugged in.
 

Somnid

Member
You can't use the voice chat feature while the phone is locked??? Is that joke?

Does iOS even allow apps to do this (Not Apple's special permissioned apps)? I though most apps had to wake lock in order to do this because of the privacy implication of silent recording apps.
 
This whole thing is straight garbage. What the hell were they thinking? It's a complete failure at every level, right from the controllers not having headphone jacks all the way down to the app itself. Why would they think it's acceptable to release it in this state with the intention of eventually charging people money to use it? This has to be the most obtuse, cumbersome, and inconvenient chat system in online gaming history.
 

moeman

Member
My theory as to why Nintendo decided to handle voice chat this way on the app:

If little kids are given the phone/tablet by their parents, the "always on" feature prevents parents from having to disclose the phone's password to their kids and forces kids to stay in the app to prevent the connection being interrupted so they can't use other apps.

Why this couldn't have just been relegated to parental controls and not imposed on everyone is beyond me. Nintendo needs to stop pretending like everyone who plays their games are children.
 

phanphare

Banned
I'd rather not have a 12-foot headphone cable running across the floor to my Switch. Using headphones with my phone seems like a much better solution in this situation.

that's you

also having this functionality on the Switch itself wouldn't make the app disappear so you'd be all good

either way the point I was making was how it's quite easy to judge the app without actually trying it by the very nature of it being an app instead of on the Switch itself. I don't need to try the app out to know that that aspect of it sucks.

Eh, I was going into it with an open mind because who knows, they could've really nailed the app.

But the fact that it won't even let you turn off your phone screen and voice chat is incredibly mind boggling. That alone is bothering me more than most other things here.

they could have really nailed the app but it's still an app on a device that's not the Switch
 
Does iOS even allow apps to do this (Not Apple's special permissioned apps)? I though most apps had to wake lock in order to do this because of the privacy implication of silent recording apps.

FB Messenger, Discord, Skype, and hundreds more.

Only Nintendo doesn't allow it.
 

Hugstable

Banned
I'd rather not have a 12-foot headphone cable running across the floor to my Switch. Using headphones with my phone seems like a much better solution in this situation.

Doesn't the Switch have Bluetooth capabilities? Would them being able to let bluetooth headsets connect be a thing that's possible in the future?
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Yup. Remember how Nintendo fans said voice chat would drain the battery on the Switch? Well now it's going to wreck your phone. Can't even do anything. Gotta make sure auto lock is turned off.

The app does prevent auto-lock on its own, but yeah, this is bullshit. Not really usable unless you have your phone plugged in (so that's another cord to fit into the equation, yay). Otherwise this thing will kill most phones in 2-3 hours (if fully charged beforehand).

Useless.
 

NoKisum

Member
My theory as to why Nintendo decided to handle voice chat this way on the app:

If little kids are given the phone/tablet by their parents, the "always on" feature prevents parents from having to disclose the phone's password to their kids and forces kids to stay in the app to prevent the connection being interrupted so they can't use other apps.

Why this couldn't have just been relegated to parental controls and not imposed on everyone is beyond me. Nintendo needs to stop pretending like everyone who plays their games are children.

Swapnote got Nintendo extremely terrified of the internet.
 
There is a big issue with bluetooth audio at the moment.

I have a decent Sony Android TV, PS4 Pro and Switch. None of these devices allows me to stream audio through a bluetooth headset.

The closest we get is the audio streamed through a PS4 controller. On that basis I think the only way to correct this is for Nintendo to alter the pro controller or joy cons to include a headphone socket - unlikely with the latter I would think and then there would be battery issues due to the extra power this would draw.

Bluetooth is obviously pretty limited really - a couple of controllers is enough to draw all its power and any audio after that will be laggy. Contrast that with devices where there are no controllers - like the iphone/ipad - bluetooth audio streaming works fine from those.
 
There is a big issue with bluetooth audio at the moment.

I have a decent Sony Android TV, PS4 Pro and Switch. None of these devices allows me to stream audio through a bluetooth headset.

Yeah it's pretty weird huh. I have the same devices and am annoyed at the lack of Bluetooth audio.

Similarly on the Apple side, AirPods work seamlessly with my Apple Watch, iPhone and MacBook but when it comes to the Apple TV they don't. You can get them to work, but using a completely different pairing process to the other devices which needs to be repeated each time. It seems like everything that connects to a TV is off-limits when it comes to Bluetooth audio. Odd stuff.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
What we are seeing is the opposite, thousands of automatic 5 stars reviews
Yeah, that's not good either. I myself chose the middle route and gave it 3 stars, with a detailed review stating how voice chat can be improved by allowing the chat audio and mic inputs to be switched to the Switch itself, which allows the app to act as a sort of remote, where you can throw in your pocket, and only pull out when you need to.
 
A useful thread where we can come together to help make the changes we'd like to see instead of just calling everything "embarrassing".

Thanks OP!


There are ways to voice concerns without acting like bratty entitled children.
 

-Horizon-

Member
Was this pulled off Google play? I can't find it anymore

Still there on the US play store.

But I don't think it shows up if you just search "nintendo" or "nintendo switch". You will actually have to go to an actual nintendo app like mario run and then go to the bottom of its page for "more by nintendo co ltd" to see the actual nintendo switch online app.
 

Koren

Member
Which I don't understand why they decide to push this out instead of waiting for their OS team to just add it into the switch itself.
There's only two (bad) reasons I can imagine: avoid any children to access chat with only the Switch (but that would be solved with only a phone sign-in, like 2SA) or spare the console the additional CPU usage (but since I've used voice chat on Wii...)

Nothing make sense, and it's a huge hassle (and less than 2 years ago, I didn't even had a smartphone)
 
D

Deleted member 465307

Unconfirmed Member
I'm really glad this is a thread. I'll be sure to send my feedback in.
 

vgamer1

Member
I had to uninstall the app, as I couldn't output bluetooth audio to my car with it installed.

Are you kidding me?
 
Be sure to write a 1 star review too. This whole thing is absolutely embarrassing and STILL BEHIND the original Xbox.

At this point it's not really behind as much as it is completely insane.

Like, a car you enter through the sunroof and drive by voice command while sitting in an upside down chair isn't a "dated" design, it's just one cooked up on a hearty blend of crack cocaine and meth.
 
We actually think that the phone is going to deliver a better, more robust execution. In terms of the APIs that we can build into an app, the fact that phones are ubiquitous, the fact that it allows us to do much more rapid improvements and updates to the service, that’s why we think a phone execution—and specifically a mobile app execution—is going to be better for the consumer.

How can I put all this in there, and then say "I have a huge problem with your logic".
 
I'd rather not have a 12-foot headphone cable running across the floor to my Switch. Using headphones with my phone seems like a much better solution in this situation.

How does having it on the console itself as well hinder your ability to use the shitty app they made?

There should be options, not force you into one freaking thing where no one has a choice. And if you do it like that, you better make damn sure that it operates like people expect it to. How can they put garbage like this out where you can't use any other phone apps, can't even put your phone to sleep. It's an unnecessary thing that can't even do the simple things right and holds your phone hostage.
 

Terrell

Member
I don't know how this is still a 4.4 on Google play store from what I can see

Thousands of 5 stars...

If you read some of them, a lot of the 5-star reviews are trolling, to... I dunno, ensure that people who only look at positive feedback can also be assured that it's garbage? It's counter-intuitive, but that's trolling for you.
 
How does having it on the console itself as well hinder your ability to use the shitty app they made?

There should be options, not force you into one freaking thing where no one has a choice. And if you do it like that, you better make damn sure that it operates like people expect it to. How can they put garbage like this out where you can't use any other phone apps, can't even put your phone to sleep. It's an unnecessary thing that can't even do the simple things right and holds your phone hostage.

The people defending this seemingly have no concept of options.

Like... right now I can use the Xbox app on my Win10 PC to party chat with my Xbox friends. And I can use that same app to control my Xbox even.

I don't literally have to though.

Nintendo could:

Support this dumb app and
Support 3.5mm headsets and
Support Bluetooth headsets

Nothing's forcing this nonsensical solution into being the only solution, beyond Nintendo's bizarre unwillingness to integrate this functionality into the OS. Functionality that pales in comparison to Microsoft's implementation on Xbox 360, which is baked into an OS layer that's effectively slimmer than the New 3DS's.
 
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