Roblox's New "Quick Words" Feature Is a Good Middle Ground for Families Who Ban Chatting

It's natural for kids to want to chat with the people they're playing with. This might be a safer path.

A month ago, Roblox quietly launched a new feature called “Quick Words.” It’s a way for Roblox users to “chat” with other players using pre-written phrases, a smart middle ground between parents (like me) who don’t allow their children to text or voice chat, while recognizing legitimate reasons a child might want to start yapping.

Here’s how Roblox describes the feature:

“You may see a [lightning] icon next to the chat input bar with Quick Words. Users can send and receive pre-validated phrases to users of all ages within Roblox chat. These phrases are meant to facilitate gameplay coordination. Quick Words are clearly annotated with a lightning bolt within chat and bubble chat.”

Quick Words is also optional. You can disable Quick Words by heading to Settings within Roblox, then navigating from “Parental Controls” to “Settings You Manage,” then, Communication,” and finally, “Gameplay Coordination.” Voila, they’re gone!

Quick Words are, at the moment, entirely authored by Roblox itself. Individual games are not determining what games show up as a “Quick Word,” which means the phrases are generic. When asked, Roblox shared a list of the available Quick Words:

In the “coming months,” however, creators will have influence over Quick Words.

“Creators will be able to edit the ‘Coordination’ and ‘Play’ categories and customize Quick Words for their own games in the Roblox Creator Hub,” said the company in a statement. “Quick Words customized by creators will go through our policy system to check if presets are appropriate for all ages and comply with our game coordination policy.”

Here’s how it looks when you’re actually in a Roblox game:

I…like this?

Though Roblox use is down in the house, I expect that to shift when the temperatures start dipping and we’re spending more time indoors. But last fall, my oldest kid, who knows Roblox chat is banned in the house, asked if there could be a single exception for the time she was spending in the popular survival game 99 Nights in the Forest.

It was, all told, a very reasonable request. As I recounted at the time:

Nine-Year-Old: Dad, why can’t I chat with anyone in 99 Nights?
Me: You’re not supposed to talk to strangers in real-life, and you’re not supposed to talk to strangers in Roblox, either. You can only chat with your friends.
Nine-Year-Old: I know, but when I’m not playing with [FRIEND NAME], I can’t chat with anyone. All I can do is jump up and down and hope someone does what I’m asking them to do.
Me: Do they usually do what you ask them to do?
Nine-Year-Old: No, and then we die.
Me: I’m sorry, kiddo. That’s the rule for now and we can revisit it when you’re older.
Nine-Year-Old: [frustrated sigh]

Quick Words could, in theory, help solve this issue for me, especially once there are context-sensitive Quick Words. “Follow me” and “let’s go” and “trade” are all useful, though, and can help send vague signals to one another while you’re playing a game.

So, time will tell. I’ll report back after I try these out with my oldest.

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

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Also:

• The height of my interest in multiplayer games was always in-person. Despite growing up alongside online multiplayer, I was rarely ever using a microphone.

• Some of that, I’m sure, is because I talk in to a microphone a lot for work. The last thing I want to do when I’m not working is sit down and feel like I’m working.

• While I might not have been in voice chat, I was spending a lot of time in largely unmoderated chat rooms with people older than me. I turned out okay?