Xbox Live parties on Xbox 360

Overview

An Xbox Live party lets you invite up to seven people to communicate online while watching films or playing games.

Notes

You must be connected to Xbox Live to join a party. For help connecting to Xbox Live, try the Xbox 360 Connection Solution or the Xbox 360 First-Time Connection Solution.
Anyone who wants to participate in an Xbox Live party must have an Xbox Live Gold membership and either an Xbox 360 headset or a Kinect sensor. Friends who don’t have an Xbox 360 headset or a Kinect sensor can't chat but can still listen to the party over their speakers.
You can be in only one party at a time.
A party can contain up to eight people. Once the maximum attendance is reached, someone must leave the party before another person can join.
If you can’t join an Xbox Live party, see Troubleshoot Xbox Live parties on Xbox 360 for help.

Start a party and invite friends

Here's how to start a party:

Note For information about how to find and connect with friends, visit Find friends and connect on Xbox Live.

On your controller, press the Guide button.
Select Party, and then select Start a Party.
Select Invite Players to Party.
Select or enter the gamertags of the friends you want to invite to the party. You can invite up to seven people.
Select Send Invite.

Invite a party to a game

You can use parties to invite an entire group of people to play a game, instead of inviting them one by one. Here's how:

Start a party using the steps above.
Select a multiplayer game.
In the game lobby—the area where players wait for a game to start—press the Guide button.
Select Party, and then select Invite Party to Game. Follow the on-screen directions. You can invite up to seven people.

Note Once players join the game, the conversation switches to the Game Chat channel automatically. To switch back, see “Change the chat channel” below.

Change the chat channel

You can change the chat channels to choose the players you want to talk to.

To…	Do this…
Talk to only players in your game	Press the Guide button, select Party, then Party Options, then Chat Channel and then Game Chat.
Talk to only members of the party	Press the Guide button, select Party, then Party Options, then Chat Channel and then Party Chat.
Mute an individual	Press the Guide button, select Party, then the player's gamertag and then Mute.