Right now, SCUM is in Early Access, meaning a few features are missing here and there. Something that definitely needs adding in future updates is more control over voice chat.
Right now, it seems that you can talk to other players, and they can talk back. Although there is no way to disable voice chat at all. If you don’t want to listen to other players, you’ll need to mute your game all together.
You can still configure whether you want to use push to talk or have an open microphone though. We have a quick guide below for configuring this, whilst we have more guides for SCUM available here.
Using Voice Chat
Voice chat is enabled by default. As I mentioned before, you currently can’t disable it, change the volume or configure proximity chat. You are stuck with using push to talk.
Head into the settings menu. Do this by pressing Escape. Choose ‘Controls’ to see all of the default controls and bindings for SCUM. Under ‘Modes’, you will see a binding for Push to Talk.

By default, this is set to B. You can change it to anything you want by clicking the B and inputting a new key. For example, a side button on your mouse is a good choice.

It’s likely that we will see improvements to voice chat in future updates, with more control over how it works. You should also note that when in the settings menu, go to the Audio option and choose whether to Enable or Disable push to talk. If it’s disabled, you will have an open mic and other players can hear you at all times.