BeamMP Voice Chat: How to Talk to Other Players in 2026

BeamMP has no voice chat of its own. Four years of forum threads asking for it have had the same answer from the BeamMP team: use Discord, or build it yourself as a plugin. So if you've joined a public server and wondered how everyone else is talking, the answer is that mostly they aren't. They're in a Discord call with people they already knew, and the rest of the server is silent.

That changed in 2026. Proximity voice chat, where you hear the players near your car and lose them as they drive off, now exists for BeamMP. This post covers every option, how they differ, and how to get it on your own server in one click.

The short answer

• BeamMP itself: no voice chat. There's a community proposal on GitHub (issue #485, April 2026) with no reply from the team and nothing on the roadmap.
• Discord: works for friends, not for a server. Everyone hears everyone at the same volume, and strangers on a public server aren't in your call.
• KissMP: a rival multiplayer mod that had push-to-talk voice in 2021. It's dead; the site is a parking page.
• BeamVoice: an independent paid add-on (from €2/month, capped at 16 players a server) that adds proximity voice through a browser tab.
• Connect Voice: proximity voice chat and a CB radio built into every paid BeamMP server on Connect Hosting. One switch in the dashboard, no key to buy, no player cap beyond your server's own slots.

The rest of this post is the long answer.

Why BeamMP doesn't have voice chat built in

BeamNG.drive runs mods inside a Lua sandbox, and that sandbox has no access to your microphone. That's a deliberate security decision by the BeamNG developers, and a good one: it's why a mod you downloaded from a forum can't listen to you. But it means voice chat can never be "just a mod". Whoever builds it needs a second program running outside the game to capture the mic.

That's the real reason it took so long. BeamMP would have to put audio capture into their launcher and ship an audio server alongside every game server. Everyone who has shipped voice for BeamNG so far has done it with a separate process: KissMP had its own launcher, and both BeamVoice and Connect Voice use a browser tab.

Option 1: Discord

If you play with the same group every night, Discord is fine, and you're probably already using it. The problem starts the moment your server is public. Text chat is the only thing you share with a stranger who just joined, and getting a random player into your Discord call is a five-step detour most people won't take. One forum post put it plainly: "I currently use Discord and it's hard to get everyone to join."

Discord also can't do proximity. It mixes everyone at the same volume on the server side, and a bot can't give two players different mixes. So a 12-player roleplay server on Discord is a 12-person conference call.

Option 2: BeamVoice

BeamVoice is an independent service run out of France that adds proximity voice to a BeamMP server. The player opens a web page for their microphone, and the server plugin feeds car positions to the voice server so voices pan and fade with distance. It has a "GroupChat" radio on higher tiers. It's what most of the "BeamNG with proximity chat" YouTube videos in mid-2026 were using.

Its pricing (September 2026, annual billing): a free tier for one server and two players "without any guarantee of availability", then Starter at €2/month for 6 players, Essential at €4 for 8, Plus at €5 for 12, and Pro at €10 for 16 players across 10 servers. Monthly billing costs about 17% more. Anything above 16 players is a custom quote. It works, and it proved the demand. The catch is that it's a second subscription on top of your hosting, and the player caps are tight if you run a busy public server.

Option 3: Connect Voice (built into your server)

Connect Voice is what we built after watching those YouTube videos and the forum threads behind them. It's proximity voice chat for BeamMP that lives in the same dashboard as your mods and settings, and it's included with every paid BeamMP server on Connect Hosting at no extra cost.

What it does:

• Proximity by default. Full volume within 30 metres of another car, fading out to silence at 100 metres, coming from the right direction. You can tune both numbers live, without kicking anyone.
• Or server-wide. Flip to "everyone hears everyone" for a small friends server or an organised race. Change it back any time.
• A CB radio on top. Channels 1 to 40, channel 19 to start, channel 9 reaching the whole map. Hold a key to transmit. Distance doesn't make the radio quieter, it makes it break up into static, so a convoy that stays together actually sounds like one. /radio 19 works without binding a single key.
• No player cap beyond your server's. Every paid plan has unlimited player slots, and voice has no player tier of its own.
• Owner controls. See who's in voice, and mute anyone for the whole room from the dashboard. The mute holds until you lift it.
• Voice servers on three continents. Frankfurt, Virginia and Sydney. Your room is put on the nearest one automatically.
• Nothing to install. Players get a 5 KB mod with the rest of your server's resources when they join. The microphone lives in a browser tab, for the sandbox reason above; open it once and it remembers you.

What it isn't: a private channel. Voice on a server is public to that server, the same as text chat. Proximity decides what you hear, not who's allowed to listen, so treat it as public on a public server.

Setting it up as a server owner

1. Open your BeamMP server in the Connect dashboard and go to the Voice Chat tab.
2. Choose Proximity or Server-wide.
3. Flip the switch. The first time, your server restarts once (about 20 seconds) to load the plugin. Every change after that applies live.
4. Optionally switch on the CB Radio underneath.

That's the whole setup. The full walkthrough, with range suggestions for different server styles, is in the voice chat help article.

Joining as a player

1. Join the server as normal.
2. Type /voice in chat. The link is copied to your clipboard.
3. Paste it into Chrome, Firefox or Edge, press Turn on voice chat, and allow the microphone. (If the game opened it in its own built-in window, that window has no microphone; paste it into a real browser.)
4. Talk. Voice activity is the default, so there's no key to hold. Bind a mute key under Options › Controls if you want one.

Leave the tab open behind the game. It reconnects on its own next time you play and follows you between Connect servers.

Which should you use?

If you only ever play with friends, stay on Discord. If you run a public BeamMP server, roleplay, or convoys, proximity voice is the single biggest change you can make to how the server feels, and if the server is hosted with Connect it's already paid for.

Frequently asked questions

Does BeamMP have voice chat?

Not built in. BeamMP's own answer since 2022 has been to use Discord. Proximity voice for BeamMP comes from add-ons: BeamVoice (paid, third-party) or Connect Voice (included with paid Connect Hosting servers).

Can you talk in BeamMP without Discord?

Yes, on a server that runs proximity voice. On a Connect server, type /voice in chat, open the link in a browser, and allow your microphone. Nothing to install.

Why is the microphone in a browser tab and not in the game?

BeamNG's mod sandbox doesn't allow microphone access, on purpose, for security. Every voice solution for BeamNG runs the mic outside the game; a browser tab is the version with nothing to download.

Does proximity voice work on free BeamMP servers?

On Connect Hosting, voice is on paid servers only at launch. The free tier hasn't opened for it yet.

How far can players hear each other?

By default, full volume within 30 metres and silent beyond 100. The server owner can set both, live, or switch to server-wide so everyone hears everyone.

Is voice chat private?

No. Anyone on the server can hear voice, the same as text chat. Proximity controls what you hear, not who can listen. Use a whitelisted server if you need a closed group.

Does the first enable restart my server?

Yes, once, for about 20 seconds, because BeamMP only loads new plugin folders at startup. Later changes, including turning it off and on again, apply live.