Honestly, I generally use my phone or 3rd party apps to voice chat anyway, so i'm not too vexed by this. The chat app makes sense from a docked standpoint, even though it could just be solved with a bluetooth headset.
What I'm most excited about is the potential of the chat app itself being stand alone. That means i don't have to be tethered to the switch itself. I think this is going to be like a refined XBL app that were on the Microsoft phones. I'm hoping it's super robust in the sense that i can get reminders of scheduled events that we can set up (especially here on GAF) I can receive messages, invites to games, and party chats without needing my switch to be on or even nearby. I actually use the chat app for league of legends to set up duo times (no voice though).