In response to receiving user input command for sending a contextually aware communication, a computer system is configured to use game state data to determine a target location that a player is focusing on in a virtual environment in a video game, identify a unit that the player likely wants to communicate about based on at least priorities of unit types and proximities of units to the target location, and select a communication action for performance. Different communication actions can be performed in response to the same user input command when the game state data indicates different game states.