Roblox custom chat gui script projects are one of those things every developer eventually looks into because, let's be real, the default chat system can feel a bit stale after a while. While the standard Roblox chat is functional and does the job, it doesn't always "fit" the vibe of a stylized horror game or a high-energy simulator. If you're trying to create a truly immersive world, you want every element—including the way players talk to each other—to feel like it belongs there.
Creating your own system isn't just about making things look pretty, though. It's about control. When you write your own logic, you decide how messages are displayed, who gets special tags, and how the UI behaves on different screen sizes. It's a bit of a rabbit hole, but once you get the hang of it, you'll never want to go back to the stock settings.
Why Even Bother With a Custom Chat?
You might be wondering if it's actually worth the headache. Roblox has spent years refining their chat system, so why reinvent the wheel? For most people, the answer is branding. If your game has a sleek, sci-fi aesthetic with neon blues and sharp edges, the rounded, semi-transparent default chat box looks out of place.
Beyond aesthetics, a custom script allows for features that the default one just doesn't handle easily. Maybe you want certain players to have "Developer" or "MVP" tags next to their names. Or perhaps you want system messages to pop up in a specific color when a boss spawns. When you're running your own roblox custom chat gui script, these additions are trivial to implement. You're the boss of the UI, and that freedom is a game-changer for player experience.
The Evolution: TextChatService vs. Legacy Chat
Before we dive into the nuts and bolts, we have to talk about how Roblox handles chat these days. For the longest time, we had the "Legacy" chat system. It was modular but honestly a bit of a pain to customize if you didn't know exactly which folders to override.
Then came TextChatService. This is the modern way to go. It's much more streamlined and gives you built-in hooks to modify messages before they even appear on the screen. If you're starting a new project today, I highly recommend building your custom GUI around TextChatService. It's more performant and, frankly, much less likely to break when Roblox pushes a platform update.
Setting Up the Visuals
Before you write a single line of code, you need a place for the messages to live. This is where your GUI design skills come in. Usually, you'll start with a ScreenGui in StarterGui. Inside that, you'll want a ScrollingFrame for the chat history and a TextBox for the input.
The ScrollingFrame is the heart of the chat. You'll want to set it up so that new messages appear at the bottom and push older ones up. Pro tip: Use a UIListLayout inside the frame. It'll handle the heavy lifting of stacking your message labels perfectly. Set the VerticalAlignment to bottom, and you've already got something that looks like a professional chat window.
Don't forget about the input box. This is where players type their messages. Make sure it's easy to click (or tap, for mobile users) and that the font matches the rest of your game. A lot of devs overlook the "CanvasSize" of the scrolling frame—make sure your script updates this as more messages get added, otherwise, players won't be able to scroll back to see what they missed.
The Scripting Logic: Making it Talk
Now for the "script" part of your roblox custom chat gui script. The basic flow looks like this: the player types something, the client sends that text to the server, the server checks if it's okay (filtering!), and then the server tells all the clients to display that message.
Handling the Input
On the client side, you'll listen for the FocusLost event on your TextBox. You only want to fire the event if the player pressed the "Enter" key. Once that happens, you take the text and send it through a RemoteEvent to the server.
The All-Important Filtering
This is the part where most new developers get into trouble. You must filter your chat. Roblox is very strict about this, and for good reason. If you bypass their filtering system, your game could get flagged or even deleted. You'll need to use TextService:FilterStringAsync on the server before broadcasting the message back to players. It might seem like an extra step, but it's non-negotiable for staying on the platform.
Broadcasting to Everyone
Once the server has the filtered text, it uses FireAllClients to send the message data (the player's name, the text, and maybe their chat color) back to everyone in the game. Each client receives this data and clones a "Template" text label into their ScrollingFrame.
Adding Flair: Ranks and Colors
One of the coolest things about a custom system is adding "Chat Tags." We've all seen them: "[VIP] PlayerName: Hello!" To do this, you just need a simple check on the server. You can check a player's MembershipType, their rank in a group, or even if they own a specific GamePass.
When the server sends the message data to the clients, it can include a "Tag" string and a "TagColor." When the client-side script builds the message label, it just checks if those values exist and prepends them to the message. It's a small touch that makes players feel special, and it's a great way to monetize your game by selling VIP ranks.
Optimizing for Performance
If you have a game with 50 players and everyone is talking at once, a poorly written roblox custom chat gui script can actually cause some lag. Every time a message is added, the UI has to re-calculate the layout.
To keep things smooth, you should implement a message limit. If the ScrollingFrame has more than, say, 50 messages, delete the oldest one when a new one arrives. This keeps the number of instances in the game low and ensures that the UI stays snappy. Also, try to avoid using really heavy UI effects like UIGradient or UIStroke on every single message label if you're expecting a high volume of chat.
Mobile Considerations
Don't forget the mobile players! On a phone, the keyboard takes up half the screen. When a player taps your chat TextBox, you might need to shift the entire chat window upward so they can actually see what they're typing. Roblox has a property called GuiService.GuiNavigationEnabled, but you'll mostly be watching for UserInputService events to detect when the software keyboard opens. A chat that works perfectly on a 27-inch monitor but breaks on an iPhone is only half-finished.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
I've seen a lot of people struggle with "Rich Text." While RichText is awesome for making certain words bold or colored, it can be a bit finicky when you're measuring the size of your text labels. If your labels aren't resizing correctly to fit long messages, check your AutomaticSize settings and make sure your text constraints aren't fighting with the UIListLayout.
Another big one is memory leaks. Every time you connect an event in a script, it takes up a tiny bit of memory. If you're creating new connections every time a player chats and never cleaning them up, you're going to have a bad time. Luckily, if you're just cloning labels into a frame, Roblox handles the cleanup when those labels are destroyed.
Wrapping It Up
Building a roblox custom chat gui script is a rite of passage for many Roblox developers. It forces you to learn about UI design, client-server communication, and the platform's safety requirements. It's not just about changing the color of a box; it's about creating a communication tool that feels integrated into your game's world.
Sure, it takes more effort than just leaving the default chat alone, but the payoff is worth it. Whether it's the satisfaction of seeing your custom "Developer" tag in the wild or just having a chat box that doesn't block the most important parts of your game's HUD, a custom chat is a massive upgrade. So, grab a RemoteEvent, start designing that ScreenGui, and see what you can come up with. Your players will definitely notice the difference.