UEFN Text Chat Channels: How to Set Up Team and Faction Chats

UEFN text chat channels give Fortnite creators a way to separate conversations by team, faction or role. Added in v42.40 on October 15, 2026, the Verse text_channel API controls who belongs to a conversation, who is allowed to send messages and how those messages appear.

That means a team-based island could give Red and Blue players their own conversations while keeping a separate announcements feed for everyone. A player can join several channels at once. The setup happens in Verse, rather than through the normal Fortnite player chat menu.

How UEFN text chat channels work

The API lives in /Verse.org/Chat. A text_channel is tied to a group of agents and registered on the simulation entity. That lets you keep conversations within the teams, factions or roles that need them, instead of putting the entire island into the same feed.

There are two settings to think about with UEFN text chat channels: who belongs to the conversation, and who can speak in it. Membership controls which feed a player sees. CanSend on has_text_member_info controls whether they can write. Set it to false for someone who should read announcements without replying.

How to create UEFN text chat channels in Verse

Start by importing using { /Verse.org/Chat } into your Verse project. From there, you define the participant group and register a channel. These are the pieces you need to wire together, using Epic’s API signatures for the actual Verse implementation:

1. Define a text_channel for your chosen group of agents. For separate teams, create a group for each team; players may also belong to an announcements group.
2. Set member information and use CanSend to choose who can post. The rest can be read-only members.
3. Register the channel on the simulation entity using AddChatChannel(). This won’t succeed if the group already exceeds the text-channel membership limit.
4. Use GetTextChannels() to check registered text channels. Use Enable(), Disable() and IsEnabled() to control and inspect whether a channel allows communication.
5. When a channel is finished, unregister it with RemoveChatChannel(). Test with players assigned to different groups.

Each of your UEFN text chat channels can include up to 100 participants. Anyone beyond that limit is excluded, and registering an oversized group fails. For a larger experience, design smaller team or role groups instead of squeezing everyone into one channel.

How to make team chat and announcements

Picture a capture-the-flag island. Red players need a private place to plan, Blue players need theirs, and a match host needs to announce when the next round begins. That’s three channels. Put each player in their team channel and the announcement channel, then give the host permission to post match updates.

With UEFN text chat channels, the host can post to announcements while ordinary members have CanSend set to false. They can still read those updates. Meanwhile, their team channel remains available for tactics, making the distinction useful during a real match.

How to customise UEFN text chat channels

The text_message_style type controls message colours and labels. Its TextColor setting changes the text colour, while ContextMessage adds a label in square brackets, such as [Tilted Towers] Jonesy: gg. A clear label makes it much easier to see who’s speaking for which group.

A channel can have a default MessageStyle, with individual overrides where needed. Changes only apply to new messages, so older lines keep their original appearance. SystemMessageColor controls notices such as switching channels or being unable to post.

What does disabling a text channel do?

Disable() stops communication on the channel; Enable() allows it again and IsEnabled() checks its status. Those actions are separate from removing the channel entirely. For example, an island could pause team conversation during a results screen without permanently losing the group.

Epic’s normal player chat settings and parental controls still apply. UEFN text chat channels let an island creator manage their own groups and permissions, but they don’t override those account settings.

Are custom text channels different from voice chat?

Yes. Text channels have a 100-person limit, while the voice-channel API supports 80. They are separate types within the wider Chat module. The earlier v42.20 Channel API introduced related chat functionality; the new v42.40 tools specifically expand what creators can do with text.

Unlike Fortnite party chat, UEFN text chat channels belong to the island’s Verse setup. Their memberships, permissions and styles are configured by the creator, so joining a normal party won’t automatically place someone in every island channel.

How to test the channels before publishing

Try your island with several players assigned to different groups. Make sure Red Team members can’t read Blue Team messages. Verify that read-only members can see announcements but can’t post, and check that members of two channels receive both streams. Test channel disabling and the colours of new messages too.

Give each channel a name and purpose that makes sense to players. A team room should feel like a team room, and an announcement feed should be easy to read without a stream of replies. That’s where UEFN text chat channels make a real difference.

Official source: Epic Games, Fortnite Ecosystem v42.40 Release Notes.