xbox game bar party chat wont pick up my voice but the audio widget does

no, i don't use the party chat, i'm in the game that has voice chat, but the microphone isn't bein picked up, so i can hear my crewmates, but they can't hear me and when i go to the xbox app>settings> audio, there is a gray bar right under where it says Voice volume and under that gray bar, you can set the volume, that gray bar looks like it should light up or show you if your microphone is being picked up but it always stays gray. When i go to the xbox game bar and launch a party, it looks like it picks it up there fine, but in the settings of the xbox app it does nothing, same for the game(sea of thieves) whenever i try to speak in the game nothing comes out on my side and the green message icon that shows if your voice is getting picked up doesn't appear at all meaning it's not picking up the microphone for some weird reason.

Of course, mate.

Ok:

Open the Xbox Game Bar and join/initiate a party chat (don’t leave the party till the completion of the solution).

Now open the Xbox Game Bar Settings by clicking on the Gear icon and in the menu shown, click on Party Chat (in the left half of the window).

Then set your Audio Output to the headset and if it is already set to the headset change it to another device (if you only have one single device, then try to use a dummy device from applications like Virtual Audio Cable).

Repeat the same for Audio Input and then close the Settings Windows.

Then click on the Widget Menu and choose Audio.

Now make sure the output (in the Mix tab) and input (in the Voice tab) is set to your headset. And make sure the system sounds are on max.

Then repeat steps 2 to 4 but make sure your headset is set as audio output and input device.

Now close the Settings window and check if the party chat and the game's volume have started to work fine.

If not, then check if disabling Push to Talk in the Party Chat settings of the Game Bar solves the issue

That's not really my issue. My friends can hear me while I have Game Bar up on screen. As soon as I exit and play my game, my friends can't hear me. I just figured out that if I pin the party chat widget on game bar so it stays there when I exit game bar, my friends will still be able to hear me. For now that's what I'll stick with, but I'd like to be able to remove the party chat widget from my screen.

When I click on my name in the left hand corner. Settings/audio. It shows a pic with a sad face. At top it says Game Bar is needed for voice chat. What i click on win-g. Click on the speaker. It shows under voice. Windows default input/headset microphone (xbox controller) with a check after it. And when I say anything the bar moves right and back to left. And the setting widget says mic is on.

There is a workaround: in Game Bar you can pin the party chat so that it stays active when the Game Bar overlay disappears. Click the pin icon on the party chat widget. Hopefully they fix it properly soon.