PC gamers have been hearing random chimes from their computers, and the culprit is the Epic Games Launcher. The sounds interrupt gameplay and background tasks, creating a distraction that players did not ask for. This issue affects anyone who keeps the launcher open while playing other titles.
Epic Games Launcher update reduces background audio triggers
The noise comes from six audio files used by the launcher's social and party features. These chimes play when a party member joins or leaves, receives a party message, changes party joinability, or enables or disables push-to-talk. The Epic Games Launcher runs these events in the background without explicit user initiation.
Epic confirmed through the Fortnite Status account that the party chimes were triggering more frequently than intended. The company said it was updating the launcher to reduce the number of events that can play sound while it runs in the background. A future update will add user settings to disable chimes entirely.
Users can temporarily remove WAV files from the launcher's SocialChimes folder if the noises are becoming bothersome. This is an unofficial workaround, and any future launcher update may automatically restore them. We looked at the last Epic Games Launcher update earlier while tracking Epic software changes.
Source: TweakTown
