Epic Games Launcher Confirmed as Source of Mysterious PC Chimes
Epic Games has confirmed that its launcher played 'party chimes' more often than intended and says it is updating the software to cut down on the random sounds that puzzled Windows users.
The noises were traced after a Fortnite news page on X found the Epic Games Launcher playing audio at random, according to TweakTown, which reported that audio files matching the sounds were located in the launcher's "social chimes" folder. Each sound corresponds to an action carried out inside a game party, such as a party member leaving, push-to-talk being activated or deactivated, or a message notification. Users reported hearing them even when they were not in an Epic Games party.
Epic confirmed through its FortniteStatus account on X that the party chimes were playing more frequently than necessary. The company said it is updating the Epic Games Launcher to "narrow which events play a sound while the launcher is in the background."
TechRadar reported hearing the chimes on a Windows 11 system at very random intervals, sometimes when the launcher was not visibly open. No pop-up notification accompanied the sounds, which the report said added to the difficulty users had in identifying their source.
TweakTown states that Epic plans to introduce an option to toggle the chimes on or off in the future, but that the toggle is not a top priority at present. Replies to Epic's posts criticised the company for not offering a way to remove the sounds altogether.
Until an official control arrives, a workaround circulated by TweakTown is to delete the audio files from the directory Program Files (or Program Files x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Extras\SocialChimes. The fix is temporary, because Epic Games Launcher updates will probably overwrite the folder and restore the files.
There is no indication that the sounds came from unwanted or unknown software running on affected machines.