In today’s Kiss at Base C ride, riders, including myself, report that we are not seeing all the chats.
While there might be some logic behind what is missing and what is seen, it appeared a bit random to me. It was clear I was missing parts of the conversation from certain riders but a few minutes later I can see their messages again.
Direct messages seem to be fine.
How many people were on this ride? My understanding is that, much like the number of cyclists rendered on the screen, you can only see chat messages from the 100 closest riders (with the exception of the ride leader, whose messages are seen by everyone). So, if someone is chatting while moving between being within and beyond the 100 rider limit (or whatever the limit is) you may see some of their messages but not others.
Is this part of the new update?
I know we can only see 100 closest riders, but in the past we can see messages from everyone as long as they are close enough in distance.
If it is indeed part of the new update, then I urge Zwift to roll it back.
Plenty of popular group rides routinely have more than 100 participants. And while I do not necessarily need to see all the avatars, I do want to see people’s chats. The verbal communication aspect is what makes group rides enjoyable for many of us. It seems foolish to limit chats to the closest 100 riders when friends in the same ride may sometimes move in and out of the 100-rider bubble.
I don’t think it’s new, as I have always had issues seeing chat messages from riders beyond a certain distance. (Truly, I don’t know if the limit is distance or number of riders, but have always had issues with not seeing every single chat message in a ride, especially if there are a lot of riders. This often makes trying to decipher the conversation a bit interesting.)
The same thing happened today during the BMTR flat century ride. There were roughly 300 riders in the B group.
People reporting that they only receive some of the messages.
Additional confirmation, this seems to be a general issue. Seen it in all events I’ve ridden since the update. Everybody doesn’t even see leader’s messages, and messages from other events come through (even run events).
It’s very disruptive on social rides, so this one needs a fix.
I’ve reported this in the bugs forum, or we can use this thread to collect information.
This is definitely something new to the latest patch, I’ve never had this issue before. I ride in a large group on a daily basis and many of us are experiencing this (we talk in DIscord). The chat randomly works and then doesn’t, person 1 can see person 2’s chat, but person 2’s response is not seen by person 1. It does not seem to matter if that rider is within the closest 5,10, or even 100 riders or not.
Extremely frustrating. Part of the fun of the group ride on zwift is the chatter. I left a ride today after an hour because I could t interact with the group and it became just a boring group ride that couldn’t keep my interest. Zwift needs to fix this.
I’m on board with other suggestions here. Fine with the 100 rider visibility limit (though it would be nice if more powerful devices were allowed too render additional riders), but chat messages from all participants in an event should be visible to all other participants provided they are within the standard distance/time differential.
Thanks for posting this Tim, I just posted on another thread here with someone whose had a similar issue on these smaller more regular group rides like KAB.
I really am hoping we can get this fixed, it has hampered the social component of the group rides
This funkiness has certainly impacted the fun of group rides (far FAR fewer people are lol’ing at my jokes), but it is also making it very difficult for sweepers to help riders that need it. Something has definitely changed making it more difficult to enjoy the ride.
This is so frustrating - the chat is part of the fun of the workout. This change has destroyed the banter on our training rides. Zwift needs to fix this!!!
I concur with the other posts. Ever since the December 21st update, restricting chat to only those riders immediately close to you vs. entire ride group is a bad bug or ill conceived feature.
This not only ruins the great dynamics of group rides and events, but makes any conversation fragmented as riders move in and out of proximity. Even more disruptive for keepers is the inability to properly communicate with riders off the group who need help, or to stay in touch when back on a sweep.
Of all the bugs I’ve encountered in Zwift, this issue has been the most disheartening. That it is widespread and has had little acknowledgment and no resolution suggests it wasn’t a big, but has been a purposeful gameplay update. Please, please go back to the way chat was!!!
Agree with everyone. Noticed the same issues with latest update. As a sweeper on BMTR long ride with huge participants I can’t see all the chat (if indeed limited to 100) especially for those behind me reaching out for help!!! Very upsetting for riders who thought I was ignoring them!!
Very well put! I can deal with disappearing riders, draft problems, getting constant fence alerts although I’m behind the beacon, etc. but chat within the many group rides held by different groups consistently each week is what makes these group rides! Let’s get this fixed, please, Zwift!
The recent update where we can now not see everyone’s messages to the group in a group ride has really changed the dynamic of the ride. It’s definitely less social and surely that’s half the point of Zwift! Get it fixed!
I agree with everyone’s comments above… the chat shouldn’t just be limited to the closest 100 riders. The chat should be enabled for everyone on the group ride. This new chat change has changed the dynamics of the group ride… and it is not good. Please fix this.
experiencing draft problems? 
As a regular on KAB rides and sometimes one of the leaders, I have noticed a significant change to how the most recent update has affected the ride. (and not in a positive way)
Example: Monday 2-1-21, I was not yet the leader and was helping sweep. I was off the back of the group, about 5-6 sec and asked if others that help sweep would come back… no response… I continued to drop to the rider that needed help and was about 12 sec back, when we started to close the gap… I continued to ask for help from other sweepers, but no response. (I purposely didn’t direct message anyone to test the “newly enhanced” features of zwift.) I sent about 6-8 messages to the group with no response and nobody seeing my messages… When I was finally only 2 sec off the back did someone start to see my messages.
Today (2-3-21) I was helping sweep and a rider off the back had sent numerous messages to the group chat, but nobody was seeing them, they then had to direct message me in order to alert us that they were in need of help back to the group.
As the leader the chat issues make it a lot harder to coordinate the group, keep everyone together and give all the best group ride possible. I often miss a lot of the messages people are sending and I have heard that not everyone is seeing the messages I am sending. (despite the fact everyone is supposed to see all of the leader’s messages)
I also notice other riders “blinking” in and out at times. I’m assuming this has to do with the number of riders within my proximity and zwift trying to decide who to show me and who not to show me… Unfortunately this also negatively affects the draft/position in the blob calculation that my client device is trying to do. So I’m moved throughout the blob and have seen myself kicked out the back of a group, even when I shouldn’t have been. (I do have over 14,000 miles on zwift over the last year, so I’m not new to this.)
I’ve also noticed a change to the sticky draft effect. I was cruising along (during a free ride) at about 3.5w/kg and got “stuck” behind someone doing 1.5w/kg. I had to push over 4 to get past them and then continue on. This is a more extreme occurrence, but I have noticed that it has gotten significantly worse since the last update.
I am running an Apple TV 4K, with a hardwired Ethernet connection and have not experienced anything as frustrating as what has been going on with the latest update, since I started zwifting.
I feel that, like others have stated, there needs to be a change to this and that this change needs to happen ASAP. Even a reversion to the previous version would be better than what we are dealing with at this point.
Thank you for your time.
I have written on several threads now about the bugs caused by the 1/21 and1/25 updates and their detrimental effect on group rides. Example: Game Update - January 21st, 2021
I haven’t seen any response from Zwift team in the last eight days and their last response was we’re looking into it. It’s hard to feel this is acceptable given how important group events are to the Zwift platform. I know they needed to fix TdZ but it doesn’t feel like that should be at the expense of the basic functionality of all other group rides and races.
At this point, I am wondering if the most effective thing to do might be for multiple clubs/event organizers to band together to directly appeal to Zwift HQ as a united front about this in a jointly signed letter/post. These clubs are the backbone of Zwift activities and I think if they spoke collectively their voices would have more weight than individual riders posting here. Perhaps those of you who are ride leaders and sweeps could speak to your clubs and see if they would be willing to do something like that?
I am not a ride leader or sweep but would be happy to try to help with language or in some other way if that would be helpful.