Note
GobchatEx is a community fork of MarbleBag/Gobchat (AGPL-3.0), modernized and maintained by Shuro. It took a lot of inspiration from quisquous cactbot and uses the excellent Sharlayan module from FFXIVAPP to read FFXIV's memory.
GobchatEx is a Windows overlay that floats on top of Final Fantasy XIV and gives roleplayers a far better chat experience - readable colors, smart highlighting, distance-aware filtering, and grouping, all rendered over the game without getting in the way.
The same message, plain in-game and then through GobchatEx:
| In-game | With GobchatEx |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- Roleplay-aware formatting - automatic colors for speech, emotes and OOC comments, plus tunable tab styles and chat density.- Chat tabs - create as many tabs as you like and choose which channels each one shows and how it's formatted.
- Indentation style - line up wrapped chat lines under the timestamp or the character name, so each speaker's lines form a clean block (Settings → Formatting).
- Smart highlighting (mentions) - a case-insensitive word list that always highlights, plus per-character player mentions that learn each character you log in as and highlight their name. Opt-in fuzzy, partial-name and Miqo'te matching catch typos and name fragments.- Range filter - fade out or hide messages by how far away the speaker is (measured live from the game, in yalms).
- Groups - sort players into the game's seven groups and any number of your own; each group is named, toggleable and styled. Right-click a player in the overlay to add or remove them from a custom group on the spot.
- Hide individual lines - right-click any line to hide it; reveal hidden lines again with the closed-eye toolbar button (session-only).
- Chat log - optionally write your chat history to a file with a customizable format.
- Smart autoscroll - scroll up to read in peace; new messages stop pushing the view. Scroll back to the bottom to re-enable it.
- Draggable & resizable - click the pin button to unlock the overlay, drag it by its toolbar and resize from any edge; position and size are saved automatically.
- Always show overlay - keep the chat overlay on screen even when no character is logged in (Settings → App → Always show the chat overlay, or the tray menu), instead of it appearing on login and hiding at the title screen.
- Global hotkeys - bind Show & Hide and Focus search under Settings → App → Hotkeys.
Everything is configured from one settings window - pick a theme, then tune formatting, colors, tabs, mentions and the range filter to taste.
Screenshots
 App - FFXIV Modern |
 App - FFXIV Modern Light |
 Formatting |
 Colors |
 Tabs |
 Mentions |
 Range filter |
 Logs |
 The overlay floating over the game |
The easiest way to install GobchatEx is the installer - it sets everything up for you and enables in-app auto-updates.
- Go to the latest release and download
GobchatEx-win-Setup.exe. - Run it. GobchatEx installs per-user (no admin prompt) and starts when it's done.
Important
GobchatEx's UI is rendered with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime (Evergreen), which ships with current Windows 10/11. The installer provisions it automatically if it's missing, and the .NET runtime is bundled - so nothing else is required.
Prefer a portable build (no installer)?
Download GobchatEx-win-Portable.zip from the latest release instead:
- Right-click the zip → Properties → tick Unblock in the bottom-right, then OK.
- Unzip it wherever you like (everything is already inside a
GobchatExfolder). - Open the folder and run GobchatEx.exe.
The portable build doesn't provision WebView2, so if GobchatEx won't start, install the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime yourself (it's already present on most up-to-date Windows 10/11).
Switching from portable to the installer later? Your settings carry over automatically - both builds keep your profiles in %AppData%\GobchatEx, which is separate from the program files. Just run GobchatEx-win-Setup.exe, then delete the old portable folder once the installed copy starts (it gives you working auto-updates).
First launch & details
The first time you start GobchatEx it shows a short setup screen before the overlay appears. Pick your language and theme, choose whether GobchatEx should automatically check for updates, and - if it finds an existing %AppData%\Gobchat install from the original Gobchat - whether to import your existing profiles (the old folder is copied over and left untouched in its original location). Your choices take effect on that first launch and the screen does not appear again; you can change all of them later under Settings → App.
GobchatEx renders its UI through the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime that ships with Windows, so there is no one-time browser-engine download on first start.
Installed builds update themselves: GobchatEx checks on startup and the patch-note screen can download and apply the update for you. (Portable users just download the latest release and replace their files.)
Tip
You can also check any time without restarting: open Settings → About and click Check for updates. On an installed build this can download and apply the update and restart, even when Check for updates on start (the App page) is turned off.
A new tray icon appears: a letter "G" whose color shows GobchatEx's state at a glance.
- Black "G" - running, but not connected to FFXIV (looking for the game).
- Gold "G" - connected and the chat overlay is on screen.
- Black "G" with a gold outline - connected, but the overlay is currently hidden (e.g. at the title screen, or auto-hidden because another window is focused).
Tray icon: left-click opens the settings window, right-click opens a context menu.
Hotkeys (Settings → App → Hotkeys, off until assigned):
- Show & Hide - shows or hides the overlay.
- Focus search - brings the overlay forward and puts the cursor straight into its search field.
Running notes, admin rights & closing
- The overlay is not visible in front of FFXIV when the game runs in full-screen mode (use borderless/windowed). GobchatEx was written for FFXIV 64-bit, DirectX 11.
- Reaching the gold (connected) state may take a while on your first start. While GobchatEx is still waiting for FFXIV, an on-screen greeter splash is shown; its X button quits GobchatEx.
- GobchatEx needs no administrator rights and starts without a UAC prompt. The only exception is when FFXIV itself runs as administrator - GobchatEx then can't read its chat and asks whether to restart as administrator. As a rule of thumb, run both as administrator or neither.
- To close: right-click the tray icon → close.
GobchatEx takes commands straight from the game chat. Send them on the echo channel (/e) prefixed with gc - e.g. /e gc help. Start with /e gc help: it lists every command. An unknown or malformed command replies with a short error that points you back at help.
Command reference
/e gc help- list all commands./e gc group <number> add/remove/clear <player> [server]- edit a custom group's player list without opening the config (handy in a macro). The number is the custom group's position in Settings → Groups (the Custom groups section, starting at 1). The number and the action can be given in either order, so/e gc group add 1 …works just as well as/e gc group 1 add …. Names are case-insensitive; for a player from another server add it in brackets, e.g./e gc group 1 add M'aka Ghin [Ultros].clearempties the group and needs no name. The command only ever touches your custom groups - the premade FFXIV friend groups are owned by the game./e gc group list- list your custom groups with their numbers./e gc profile load <name>- switch to the profile with that name (useful inside an RP-flag macro)./e gc player count- how many players are nearby./e gc player list- nearby players with their distance./e gc player distance <name>- your distance to one player (e.g./e gc player distance <t>for your current target)./e gc config open- open the settings window./e gc config reset frame- reset the chat overlay's size and position./e gc info on/offand/e gc error on/off- temporarily show or hide GobchatEx's own info / error lines./e gc close- quit GobchatEx (an alternative to the tray icon's close).
Common problems
Range filter seems not to work - open the Range Filter config page; if GobchatEx can't read players from FFXIV, a red message explains why. Make sure FFXIV is running, reopen the config dialog (GobchatEx needs a moment to load), or close GobchatEx and delete the sharlayan folder under resources so it re-downloads.
GobchatEx doesn't start - check gobchatex_debug.log. An error mentioning the WebView2 runtime means the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime is missing or out of date - install it from the link under Installation.
"GobchatEx is already running" - only one copy of GobchatEx can run at a time. If you start it while it's already open you'll see this notice and the second copy closes - the running one is by your clock in the system tray (its "G" icon).
If GobchatEx makes your roleplay nicer, you can support development on Ko-fi - thank you! 💛
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL-3.0-only) as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 3. See the full license text or visit https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
GobchatEx is a fork of Gobchat by MarbleBag, licensed under AGPL-3.0.
© 2010-2026 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. A REALM REBORN is a registered trademark or trademark of Square Enix Co., Ltd. FINAL FANTASY, SQUARE ENIX and the SQUARE ENIX logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.