What if the switch lacks the extra headroom needed so process voip smoothly? It's a tablet with just barely enough power...

Still, I'm enjoying mk8d. Don't need voice chat :|

If the original Xbox could do it, so can the Switch.

I think its a little more straight forward than all that.

Switch Hardware.

1. Battery - Already knew battery was a tight fit. By pushing off this app/features, one less battery consumer.
2. CPU Cores - Working to keep Cost of Materials, power usage, heat, etc as low as possible but wanted to maximize as much horse power for games as possible in portable mode. By pushing off this app/features, console can remain 100% utilized to the game and not process chat, online features, etc.

Then you consider that nearly 100% of folks who bought a Switch own a smartphone, Nintendo likely figured they could build a much better communication / app system on a phone that could also run seamlessly while game is also running.

Of course, it looks like a complicated p.o.s. that created more problems than it was trying to solve and will surely drive people to simply not use it. #Nintendoing

My only hope is that there is a non-app version of online play where I can just play online. Without using my phone or crazy wired headsets. I can forgo chat or just call someone directly and use a bluetooth headset.

EDIT:

I may be being too synical here. With portable system that would require your phone to get online while on-the-go a phone app also has potential benefits. But, at this time the app has several issues and the forced corded headset concept is just something that should not have been offered as the only option. 

People were saying that Nintendo NEEDS to have their own hardware to create the best experiences. Looks to me like they're absolutely comfortable using 3rd party hardware for their games.

No, it's because they're such a great developer. Only they can create the perfect hardware and then perfectly optimizing everything for it. Without the perfect hardware to their perfect games, their games would only be half perfect.

All this years and you still don't get it.

Oh, I do get it. I know exactly why Nintendo "needs" their own hardware and I also know exactly why people say that they need it. I just don't want to spell it out.

You might want to ask Goodnightmoon about the real reason. He seems to get it better than I do.

Apparently their hardware is so weak they need to borrow power from other devices. Hope their PC app comes soon.

The real question is: why should anyone pay for this service?

The PC app will most likely come with a $10 subscription and so much DRM that you won't ever gonna get it off your PC anymore.