How to: Disable chat in game (hud_saytext "0" / hud_saytext_time "0" equivalent in CS:GO) - The Ultimate Mute-Guide

In Global Offensive Match Making you will often meet people who use the in game chat function to distract or insult you. The best thing you can do in such a situation is ignore them. In this guide I am going to show you how to disable the text chat in CS:GO.

What is this all about?

In Global Offensive Match Making you will often meet people who use the in game chat function to distract or insult you. The best thing you can do in such a situation is ignore them. However, sometimes they give you a hard time trying to do so.
In previous games of the Counter-Strike series you were able to switch off the in game text chat by setting "hud_saytext" or "hud_saytext_time" to "0". These commands won't work in CS:GO as they were removed.

In this guide I am going to show you how to disable the text chat in CS:GO nevertheless.

How it's done

To disable text chat you have to enter the following command into your console or bind it to a key in your config/autoexec/valve.rc:

The Command

ignoremsg

What's the difference to setting "hud_saytext" to "0" in CS 1.6 or "hud_saytext_time" to "0" in CS:S?

There are two major differences:

In previous games of the CS series you could set hud_saytext(_time) to 0 and safe this to your config and never be bothered with chat messages again. In CS:GO you have to use the "ignoremsg" command every time you join a server. Otherwise all chat messages will be displayed.
If you are looking for a permanent solution please take a look at section six (What other commands are there to control communication?). It features an alternative command.

Furthermore, "ignoremsg" works like a three four-position switch:

If you enter it once it will only ignore broadcast messages (messages from your enemy):


If you enter it twice it will also block team massages:


Pressing it a third time will Ignore all messages. [New Setting added in June 2016!]

If you enter it for a third fourth time it will switch back to allowing all messages:

Extra: Disabling radio messages

There is a very similar command for disabling radio messages.
Please note: Usually you shouldn't disable radio messages as a lot of players use them in match making to inform you where they have contact with the enemy, dropped the bomb etc.
However, there are situations where people spam radio commands (e.g. to hear "easy peasy lemon squeezy" on Inferno) and you cannot hear enemy movement due to this. This is where disabling radio messages is an advantage.

The Command

ignorerad

How does it work?

It works like "ignoremsg" except it is only a two-position switch:

By default CS:GO will always allow radio messages. If you enter "ignorerad" once it will disable radio messages:


If you enter it a second time it will allow radio messages again:

Enabling/ Disabling chat with the press of a button

As mentioned before you have to enter "ignoremsg" and "ignorerad" every time you want to disable/enable chat or radio messages which can be rather bothersome.
A comfortable solution for this problem is to bind these commands to a key. This way you only have to press this key in order to switch your setting.


bind "Key" "ignoremsg"
bind "Key" "ignorerad"

Just copy it into your *.cfg and replace "Key" with keys of your choice.

Please note: As it has no disadvantages over the use of the "ignoremsg" command I now recommend the Superignoremsg-Script you can find below in the walkaround-section of this guide for everybody.

Extra: Creating an autoexec.cfg

If you do not have an autoexec.cfg or valve.rc or any other way to execute scripts in game don't panic. You have two choices: If you do not want to bind it to a key you can go the easy way and simply enter "ignoremsg" or "ignorerad" into your console in game every time you want to disable chat or radio messages.

If you want to bind "ignoremsg" or "ignorerad" to a key you will have to create an autoexec.cfg.

Step 1:

Go to your Windows desktop, click your right mouse button and create a new text file.

Step 2:

Open it and copy the following line into it. Be sure to replace "Key" with keys of your choice. I myself use "KP_PGUP" for "ignoremsg" and "KP_PGDN" for "ignorerad" - it's the 9 and 3 on the keyboard's numpad.

bind "Key" "ignoremsg"
bind "Key" "ignorerad"

Please note: If you want to usemy Superignoremsg-script as recommended by me you should only copy the second line (bind "Key" "ignorerad"] and my script from the section below.

Step 3:

Write "host_writeconfig" in the last row of your text file.

Once you did this your text file should look this way:

Step 4:

Save the text file as "autoexec.cfg". Use quotation marks ("") to get sure you don't end up with a autoexec.cfg.txt.

Step 5:

Copy your new autoexec.cfg to your Counter-Strike Global Offensive "cfg" directory. Depending on where you installed Steam this might be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg.

That's it. You're done!

What other commands are there to control communication in game?

Valve added a further command that enables you to control communication:

cl_mute_enemy_team 1

It completely mutes the entire enemy team (text and voice chat).

However, since Valve disabled cross team communication in competitive and casual game modes it is more or less an alternative to ignoremsg at stage one (ignore broadcast messages).

You can create a simple on/of switch or toggle for cl_mute_enemy_team easily:

bind "KP_RIGHTARROW" "toggle cl_mute_enemy_team 1 0"

(put this in your autoexec.cfg, anywhere above host_writeconfig)

Note: KP_RIGHTARROW is the keypad's right arrow key, the key that is directly between the PGUP and the PGDN keys I used above on a standard layout keyboard.

There is also

cl_chatfilters "0"

using it will disable chat completely, pretty much like the second stage of ignoremsg. However, I cannot recommend to use it anymore at this point because an update that was released mid 2016 added a sound that is played whenever someone writes something.

Last but not least there is

cl_mute_all_but_friends_and_party "2"

using this one will mute everyone that isn't a) your friend or b) in a lobby with you (text and voice chat).

Note: It is also possible to set it to "1". Setting it to "1" will activate it only for non-competitive game modes. "2" will activate it for all game modes including competitive matchmaking.

Additional commands for controlling voice chat only

voice_enable "0/1"

Disables/Enables voice chat.

voice_scale "1 or any value below 1, e.g. 0.5"

Controls the loudness of others people in voice chat. Setting it to "0" will mute other people but still allow you to talk to them see when they talk because voice stays activated and thus the voice pop up messages will be displayed.

In November 2019 Valve also added a "clutch key" binding.

clutch_mode_toggle

Once you bound it to a key (bind "key" "clutch_mode_toggle") you can press that key to mute everyone until the current round of the game has ended.

Ignoremsg doesn't seem to work, is there a walkaround?

Valve has affected the functionality of the "ignoremsg" command more than once by releasing a flawed CS:GO update.

I created the following script as a walkaround:


bind "Key" Superignoremsg
alias Superignoremsg Superignoremsg1
alias Superignoremsg1 "ignoremsg; cl_mute_enemy_team "1"; cl_mute_all_but_friends_and_party "0"; echo Stage1; alias Superignoremsg Superignoremsg2"
alias Superignoremsg2 "ignoremsg; cl_mute_enemy_team "1"; cl_mute_all_but_friends_and_party "2"; echo Stage2; alias Superignoremsg Superignoremsg3"
alias Superignoremsg3 "ignoremsg; cl_mute_enemy_team "1"; cl_mute_all_but_friends_and_party "2"; echo Stage3; alias Superignoremsg Superignoremsg4"
alias Superignoremsg4 "ignoremsg; cl_mute_enemy_team "1"; cl_mute_all_but_friends_and_party "0"; echo Stage4 - default; alias Superignoremsg Superignoremsg1"

I combined two commands to recreate ignoremsgs functionality. Press the key to cycle through the modes of ignoremsg as before.
The script won't interfere with the original ignoremsg command's functionality and can therefore used by everyone without any known disadvantages.

Please Note: The fallback mode of this script has limitations. As long as ignoremsg works this script will not interfere with it and give you exactly what Valve wanted to give you out of the box: A four stage switch as described in the upper section.
However, if ignoremsg fails this script will mute players from the enemy team on stage 1-3. But it will not mute players that were in your lobby and friends on stage 2-3. Instead of this it will only mute the enemy team and all people in your team that weren't in your lobby or friends on these stages.

Is there a way to disable chat in GOTV?

Yes.

The command is:
tv_nochat "1"

By default it is set to "0". By setting it to "1" you will disable chat in GOTV completely.

Final Words & Translation

Have fun! And if you like this guide comment it and give it five stars. :)

You could also check out my recent Workshop contribution:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=575942315



Turkish Translation of this Guide by Ibrahim Pasha.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=862595591


Also check out my Operation Shattered Web guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1918987240

[Shivares]

it works with CS2 but it will say #Ignore_Broadcast_Messages and #Ignore_Broadcast_Team_Messages

[roesti]

Thank you very much for this guide. Toxicity was really annoying lately, at least for me. Your scripts and the hints here in the comments are such a relief. Just playing the game is so much more fun, without unneccessary disctractions. Best and most efficient solution for people like me who are playing causally more than 95% of the time.

[3st]

As stated in the guide above, Valve decided to remove the old "disable chat" commands from 1.6 ans Source and replace them with "ignoremsg". I recommend making a bind or using my script. That way you can get rid of the chat.

[aloan]

I just wanted to avoid being distracted & i don't want it to cover my screen

[3st]

Is it for a movie? There is "cl_show only death notices 1" but it will also remove the radar and AFAIK it is cheat flagged so you will need to set sv_cheats to 1 - it isn't usable online.

[aloan]

I want to make the chat UI itself completely invisible, any idea ?

[ＫＵＲＡ]

thanks

[Mehrshad]

good guide +rep

[3st]

Have you tried cl_mute_all_but_friends_and_party "1"?

[CyanTankJr ☢]

P.S. I'm Counter Strike fun from '99 y. when 1st edition classic started....