Voice, video, contacts and blocks

In each app, every player has settings for whom their voice and video reach and whose they hear and see, a contacts list, and a block list. The realtime servers enforce them on the sending side and the receiving side, for every client, modified or not. Players under 18 get stricter defaults: voice and video stay off until a parent consents, and then reach contacts only; direct messages stay off.

What is switched on

• Live (Game API v2.60.0 to v2.61.1 and replication server v0.43.0): the settings, contacts, blocks and parental consent fields on this page, and the realtime servers that enforce them on both sides. Players under 18, and so the minors' defaults, since 2026-11-04.
• Not yet in production: parental consent. Kids Web Services is not available in production yet: requestParentalConsent answers PARENTAL_CONSENT_UNAVAILABLE with extensions.reason not_configured, so a player under 18 cannot turn voice or video on there yet.

Scopes

Each player has four settings per app, each OFF, CONTACTS or EVERYONE:

Setting	Decides
voiceSend	whom the player's voice reaches
voiceReceive	whose voice the player hears
videoSend	whom the player's webcam video reaches
videoReceive	whose video the player sees

• EVERYONE admits anyone your app's own rules let through: permissions, distance, channels.
• CONTACTS admits only the player's accepted contacts in the app.
• OFF admits nobody. A send with the send setting OFF is refused UNAUTHORIZED.

Both sides must agree: A's voice reaches B only when A's voiceSend admits B and B's voiceReceive admits A. Channel voice follows the voice settings in the same way. Text, channel messages and direct messages have no settings: they follow the permission keys and blocks.

What a player chooses, and what applies. The settings the realtime servers apply are the player's choices capped by policy:

• 18 and over: the choice. EVERYONE until the player chooses otherwise.
• Under 18: each medium is OFF until a parent has consented to it in this app (below), and then the choice, at most CONTACTS.

So a player can only ever lower what policy allows. A choice above the cap is kept, and applies up to the cap: a player under 18 who chose EVERYONE gets CONTACTS once a parent consents.

Contacts

Contacts are mutual and per app: an accepted contact is in both players' lists. One player asks, and the other accepts. If both ask, they become contacts at once. Contacts are what CONTACTS admits.

Blocks

A block stops communication between two players in the app, in both directions, while it stands: voice, video, text, direct messages, channel messages and voice, a player's events and the app-defined messages one player sends another. Movement, avatar and actor state and voxel edits still pass, so both players go on seeing the same world. Either player's block is enough. The blocked player is not told, and gets no error when something they send is dropped. Blocking also removes every contact and request between the two, and unblocking does not bring them back.

What your app's own code sends (a hub's realtime events and channel messages, the Game API's notices) has no sending player and is not filtered by blocks. A hub that carries one player's words to another checks the block first: see players.blocked. Muting a player stays on the device.

Direct messages and players under 18

A player under 18 holds no use_direct_messages: their direct message is refused UNAUTHORIZED, and a direct message from a player to them is dropped. A direct message your app's code sends passes, so a hub must never pass one player's direct message to a minor as its own (players' data, blocks and reports).

What the realtime servers do

From replication server v0.43.0:

What	The sender gets
Voice or video with the matching send setting OFF	UNAUTHORIZED (error 7)
A direct message from a player under 18	UNAUTHORIZED
Any send under an actor id that belongs to another player	UNAUTHORIZED
Communication between two players when either has blocked the other: voice, video, text, direct messages, channel messages and voice, a player's events and app-defined messages	nothing: dropped
Voice, video, text or a direct message to a player who lacks use_voice_chat, use_video_chat, use_text_chat or use_direct_messages in the app	nothing: dropped for that player
Voice or video that the two players' settings do not admit	nothing: dropped for that player
A direct message from a player to a player under 18	nothing: dropped

• Receiving needs the permission key too. Before v0.43.0 only the sender's keys were checked, so a tier without use_voice_chat still heard voice. Now that player hears none. Check your tiers (Permissions).
• A player under 18's settings never go above CONTACTS, whatever is stored.
• An actor belongs to its player. A send under an actor id that another player created, or that another player is using, is refused.
• What passes: what your app's code and the platform send (they have no sending player), and a player's own traffic to their own sessions.
• Changes apply within a second to the live sessions of every player they concern, both players for a contact or a block, without a reconnect. A change of the player's access tier applies when their token is next refreshed.

The API

All of these take the player's app-scoped token for the app, sent to the app's own datacenter (gameApiUrl).

query Settings($appId: BigInt!) {
  myCommSettings(appId: $appId) {
    isMinor
    voiceSend voiceReceive videoSend videoReceive   # what applies now
    choices { voiceSend voiceReceive videoSend videoReceive }
    voiceAllowed videoAllowed                       # the most each may be now
    voiceConsent videoConsent                       # a parent consented, in this app
  }
}

mutation OnlyContactsHearMe($appId: BigInt!) {
  setMyCommSettings(appId: $appId, input: { voiceSend: CONTACTS }) { voiceSend voiceAllowed }
}

setMyCommSettings changes only the fields it is given. null in choices means the player has not chosen, which is EVERYONE.

Field	What it does
requestContact(appId, userId)	Asks another player of the app. Answers ACCEPTED at once if they had asked first, else PENDING. Refused BAD_REQUEST while the caller has blocked them.
acceptContact(appId, userId)	Accepts their request; NOT_FOUND if they have not asked.
removeContact(appId, userId)	Removes a contact, declines their request or cancels your own. false when there was nothing.
myContacts(appId)	Accepted contacts, most recent first.
contactRequests(appId)	Waiting requests: INCOMING ones first, then OUTGOING.
blockPlayer(appId, userId)	Blocks them. Blocking again changes nothing.
unblockPlayer(appId, userId)	Lifts your block. false when there was none.
myBlocks(appId)	The players you blocked, most recent first.

• The other player must be one of the app's players: NOT_FOUND otherwise.
• A request to a player who blocked the caller answers PENDING, and nothing is stored.
• Each player may have, per app, 100 waiting requests, 1,000 contacts and 1,000 blocks; past that, SOCIAL_LIMIT_REACHED (409), with the message naming which.
• The lists carry user ids. Show names with playerProfiles(userIds).

Parental consent for voice and video

A player under 18 asks a parent or guardian to allow one medium, VOICE or VIDEO, in this app. Kids Web Services, a parental consent service run by Epic Games, emails the parent, and once the parent consents the medium opens, up to CONTACTS, within a second.

mutation AskParent($appId: BigInt!, $email: String!) {
  requestParentalConsent(appId: $appId, feature: VOICE, parentEmail: $email) { status }
}

• status is REQUESTED (the email went out), ALREADY_GRANTED (nothing sent) or NOT_REQUIRED (the player is 18 or over; nothing sent).
• The parent's address goes to Kids Web Services and is not stored by Crowded Kingdoms.
• Consent is per app and per medium. voiceConsent and videoConsent in myCommSettings say whether it is given. When a parent withdraws it, through Kids Web Services or by writing to Crowded Kingdoms, the medium turns off again within a second.
• PARENTAL_CONSENT_UNAVAILABLE (503) when consent cannot be asked; voice and video then stay off for the player, and nothing was sent. extensions.reason says why (Game API v2.61.1): not_configured, the deployment has no consent service yet (production, for now): do not retry; provider_refused, the service refused the request (an address it does not accept): a parent's other address may work; provider_unavailable, the service did not answer: retry shortly.
• RATE_LIMITED after three requests in an hour.

What your game shows

For a game that offers voice, video or chat:

• The settings, per medium, from myCommSettings. When a medium is off for a player under 18, say that a parent's consent turns it on, without naming an age, and offer the request.
• Controls that match: do not offer a microphone or a camera whose send setting is OFF, since its sends are refused.
• Contacts: the requests waiting in both directions, with accept, decline and remove.
• Block, wherever players meet, and the list of blocked players with unblock.
• A report option, beside block: Safety reports and moderation.
• The recording notice and indicator, when the app's safety log records voice or video: the safety log. This one is required.

In the SDKs

The player's own controls, with the app token: CrowdyJS 18.25.0 client.safety (commSettings, setCommSettings, requestParentalConsent, contacts, contactRequests, requestContact, acceptContact, removeContact, blocks, block, unblock); CrowdyCPP 0.76.0 client.safety(), the same names, each with an Async twin; CrowdyPy 0.24.0 client.safety, in snake case (comm_settings, set_comm_settings, request_parental_consent, …). The refusals read with socialLimitReachedOf and parentalConsentUnavailableOf, which gives the reason (social_limit_reached_of and parental_consent_unavailable_of in CrowdyPy; graphql::parentalConsentUnavailableOf in CrowdyCPP).

Errors

Code	When
UNAUTHORIZED (UDP error 7)	A send the rules above refuse.
SOCIAL_LIMIT_REACHED	409: the player has as many contacts, waiting requests or blocks in the app as allowed. Remove some first.
PARENTAL_CONSENT_UNAVAILABLE	503: consent cannot be asked now; extensions.reason is not_configured, provider_refused or provider_unavailable (above). Do not retry in a loop.
RATE_LIMITED	429: a fourth parental consent request within an hour.
NOT_FOUND	The other player is not one of the app's players, or (acceptContact) has not asked.
BAD_REQUEST	A contact request to a player the caller has blocked.

All codes are on Error codes.