Why does my voice sound different playing games vs Phone and Video call?

[Labyrinth2 0]

I listened to my voice in game with games like TF2 and CS2 and in phone calls and video meetings and there's a stark difference.

My voice sounds a bit deeper playing the games mentioned and the video call and phone is my real voice which sounds more nasally higher.

Why is that?

[✨Saint✨]

The reason for your voice sounding different is probably caused by your internet provider, the faster your connection, the better the quality is going to be.

[Teksura]

Mostly this has to do with mic quality, but it also has a lot to do with compression protocalls.

Think of it like this, when you speak, your voice has to be turned into a digital data stream, compressed, and sent to the other person.

A video call is using a program designed specifically for sending audio and video, that's the primary purpose of the application and the only thing it has to worry about. But for an old video game like TF2, it has to worry about playing a video game as well and sending data about your game to the server. So it's far less dedicated and optimized for voice, the main focus of the game is trying to help you play an online game.

[Kitai]

its because of the bitrate and encoding software the games using, plus a good microphone helps as well,
i dont sound anywhere near as i do irl when i talk online,
i have a deeper voice irl compared to my slightly treble voice with my microphone,

so if you sound completely different irl its because your voice is getting compressed by the encoding software and bitrate,

as a audio engineer its easy to tell how audio works and how it affects voices and sounds,

this was the best dumbed down version i could explain.