According to new reports, Fortnite is going to be getting a feature players have desperately wanted for years. If true, the latest Fortnite Season 4 mechanic will take trash-talking in Epic Games’ battle royale to new levels.
Fortnite Proximity Chat is Coming SOon, According to New Leak
If you thought getting taunted with an emote was bad, Fortnite trash-talk is about to get a whole lot worse, according to a new report. In an August 7 post on X, dataminer Loolo_WRLD revealed that Epic Games plans to add Proximity Chat to Fortnite. Although at the time of writing, it appears the feature will only be offered in the game’s popular “Battle Royale” mode.
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“BREAKING: PROXIMITY CHAT IS COMING TO BATTLE ROYALE. It will be optional, so you can enable it and disable it whenever you want.” The Fortnite dataminer clarified that Epic Games will allow you to toggle the feature on or off at any time. So if you don’t want to get taunted by a teenager no-scoping you across the map, well, at least you have the option to disable the chat feature.
There is no estimate as to when the mechanic will be released. Although dataminers uncovered the files after the launch of the new Shock ‘n Awesome season, which launched today, Proximity Chat will likely be released sometime in Fortnite Season 4, which runs from August through November 2025.
Based on previous feature rollouts, we may also see the Proximity Chat appear in testing servers.
Epic Games Has Banned Trash Talk Before
What makes Proximity Chat in Fortnite so interesting is that Epic Games has previously taken measures to curb trash-talking in the Battle Royale. In 2024, players were outraged when the “Laugh It Up,” “Take the L,” and “Whipcrack” emotes were disabled in the game. At the time, Epic Games defended the decision, stating that the emotes had become “too toxic.” Users who paid for the emotes were, of course, not thrilled by the changes.
I can’t help but wonder if Proximity Chat will be disabled in Fortnite after a week of being live. Likewise, people will likely abuse this mechanic badly, as we all know gamers aren’t always the most mature community. I lived through the decade of teabagging in Halo and CoD Xbox chat rooms, so I know what to expect. All jokes aside, I think the big difference here is that Epic Games is allowing players to disable the feature.
Hilariously, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 became absolute chaos when proximity chat was added back in 2024. Although in that implementation, you could only taunt your foes after sneaking up and grabbing them from behind. Still, Fortnite Proximity Chat is a huge deal. It’s a feature players have been begging Epic Games to implement for nearly a decade now.
It will be a game-changer when it’s eventually rolled out.
