im starting to wonder if they ever had it

So did the first Splatoon. I did voice chat with Ültra using my very clever PC and this nifty piece of software called Skype.

.....

If I had to use my phone, I could simply call them. Or do a conference on Skype/Hangouts. I don't know why it is so hard to implement. They are probably fearing that this could be a downside to the kids market, since parents would rather not have any kind of chat in the games.

It's not the end of the world, but it is clumsy to have to use another device for a funcionality available in most consoles.

I don't know a single PS4 player who uses Skype for chat. Everyone just sets up a party. The in-game chat is pretty quiet in most games, but that's because you don't hear people on parties, they have exclusive communication. It's a basic feature for any competitive game. Everyone on UC4 ranked is on parties. Same with Overwatch. It's an extremely used feature for most. I've played TLOU in competitions and I would never, EVER, enter a match with a team with zero communication.

You're being sarcastic here right? Right?

I could be very wrong, but I do not believe that the smart device app will be the sole means of communication with the device.  And, whether it is or not, I will be very interested to see how it will function.  I find myself with my phone in hand more and more with everything I'm doing.  If the app is intuitive and seamless in its delivery...it may very well prove to be the way to do things in the future.  I'm quite skeptical on this move when it seems to make sense to keep these options within the individual games or the machines ui, but time will tell.

Yeah, thanks Nintendo for being so benevolent!

Even if it works flawlessly, it is still a big downgrade compared to what the competitors offer. This basic technology was available 2 generations ago and now you have to use your smartphone which can run out of battery pretty quick. Not really surprising. It's always one step ahead, two steps back with Nintendo.

It's so obvious that the voice chat is on smart devices to maintain the portability of the switch. By running this on separate hardware, you save power and battery. You are all making the mistake of comparing the Switch to Xbone and PS4.

I think it's a nifty solution, I always have my smart phone available. Plus it opens up for other features as well.

If I buy a switch I will use for singleplayer or local splitscreen only.

Needing an app isn't in-and-of-itslelf a downside. Especially when the device will always be on your person. There is no voodoo. You're plugging headphones in an tapping a screen a few times to send an invite using a better UI than any console has ever had. If you have an iphone, accepting an invite wouldn't even necessitate you unlock your phone. In case you forgot, phones are more user friendly than consoles.