Overwatch 2 Ping System Revealed

Blizzard revealed their all-new ping system for Overwatch 2 Thursday.

One of the longtime highly requested quality-of-life features from the community over the years, a ping system is finally set to make its debut in Blizzard's hero shooter with Overwatch 2.

"We’re adding this quality-of-life feature because we are dedicated to improving players’ experiences and including the community in our development strategy," Blizzard said in a developer blog post."

Of course, one of the worst nuisances players have had to deal with in Overwatch is getting insta-lock, no voice chat teammates.

As such, Blizzard said that the inspiration behind the ping system came from a value the Overwatch team holds dearly: Every Voice Matters.

"We wanted to create a system that would enhance voice communication as well as provide alternative ways to share information with your team," Blizzard systems designer Gavin Winter said. "One of our goals was to augment speech and give people a way to visually interpret voice communication. We also wanted to support all voices and create a system to communicate for players that would prefer to avoid voice chat."

While the bar for a great ping system was arguably first set by Apex Legends years ago, it appears Blizzard is looking to establish one that is just as good, if not better in Overwatch 2.

Not only will Overwatch 2's ping system serve as a bare minimum for those without a mic, but it is also intended to enhance voice comms by contextualzing pings depending on what players are aiming at within their line of sight.

Blizzard's example: if you’re playing Tracer and ping an enemy Reaper, your teammates will hear Tracer call out that Reaper’s location.

"It’s a more accurate, clear and understandable way of communicating rather than hearing someone yell, 'Reaper behind' or 'Reaper, Reaper, Reaper!'" Blizzard principal designer Adam Puhl said.

The Blizzard blog goes on to explain that in Overwatch 2, the ping changes depending on hero abilities. When you ping a Reaper who's in your line of sight, the hero you're playing will call out his location. However, when he breaks line of sight, your ping will show his last known location. Some of Reaper’s abilities, like Shadow Step and Wraith Form, will cause your ping to show his last known location.

"A ping can be 'stuck' to a hero while they are visible, and the ping shows the last known location when they aren’t visible," Winter said.

Holding down the ping button, however, will open a wheel that allows players to tell their teammates where they're attacking, defending, need help and more.

There's also a unique set of interactions for responding to a teammate’s ping.

Using the communication wheel to tell your team to "Group Up" or "I need healing" will activate a ping on top of your hero. Your teammates can respond to your ping to let you know if they're with you or where you can group up with your team’s Support heroes.

Lastly, Blizzard was sure to point out that this ping system is a work in progress that will evolve as more data comes in from testing in order to fit the gameplay and culture of Overwatch.

"We are hoping this system will help with toxicity in-game," Winter said. "If you don’t like a person pinging so much, you have the option to turn the ping system off through block or squelch for that specific person. We do have heavy spam protection right now that we are open to adjusting, but we really want to see what works best for the community."

The Overwatch 2 PVP closed beta is set to arrive for PC players on April 26, 2022. For those looking to try it out once it arrives, feel free to check out our guide on how to sign up for the Overwatch closed beta.