Since its founding, the gaming platform Roblox had a considerable drawback: Friends who wanted to play the same game together couldn't do so easily. Typically, they'd have to use a third-party app, like Discord, to coordinate a session. Then landing together in the same game server required tiresome logistical planning.
Roblox announced Monday that those days are in the past with the launch of its new Party feature, which allows friends to gather, select a game, and arrive in the server together. Users 13 and older can also chat with each other while playing.
Garima Sinha, Roblox's vice president of product, told Mashable ahead of Party's debut that the feature is a "huge step" toward the company's vision of reimagining the way people come together.
"It's a seamless way for people to connect, coordinate, and co-experience with their friends, all within Roblox," Sinha said.
Party, which rolls out Monday globally on desktop and iOS and Android devices, appears to be a major win for the platform's nearly 90 million daily users. The feature makes it easy to join the same instance of a game or experience. If someone needs to stop playing momentarily, they can rejoin the Party. A group of players can also travel together across Roblox's different games and experiences.
Roblox's data shows that Party boosts engagement, too. When friends play together, their sessions are an average of 1.9 times longer than sessions of users playing by themselves.
Sinha said that a Party-specific Application Programming Interface (API) launching early next year will give developers the opportunity to create custom experiences for groups playing together. A developer, for example, might give a Party a custom magic power or a secret space in their game's universe. Roblox hopes these extras will make the Party feature particularly attractive to users.
Importantly, Party is only available to use between players who are already friends, which may help address longstanding safety concerns regarding Roblox's youngest and most vulnerable leaving the platform for Discord or other communication apps and encountering predators or bad actors.
Players who are younger than 13 will not be able to chat in a Party, for now. Sinha said that the company is exploring ways to safely let young players communicate in the future. Parents can use Roblox's new parental controls to turn off the Party feature altogether, if they wish.
Those who are 13 and older can text chat with each other via Party. Eventually, the product will include voice chat as well. All chats are moderated by Roblox.
If a Party wants to play a game or experience that exceeds an individual user's maturity label — a setting selected by a minor's parent — that player will have to get permission to change the setting to participate.
Players can turn off Party, block users, edit their friend list, and leave a Party chat.
Sinha said that, partly for safety reasons, the company wanted to make sure users weren't leaving Roblox to coordinate their playtime.
"This will give them a really structured, contained way of playing on Roblox," she said.
