Neat idea for a different way to handle chat.

Description of chat box: A Picture of a touchscreen smartphone, with different apps on the screen.

• App labeled "Data Collection" which gives all general game messages, such as funds received and important events taking place.
• App labeled "Threat Assessment" which gives combat messages.
• App labeled "Forums" which will have sub categories for:

1. World chat, labeled with some core aspect of the game's lore.
2. Guild chat, labeled with the name of the guild that the player is in (it won't appear if the player is not in a guild).
3. Party chat, labeled "*'s Team" (the * will be replaced with the party leader's name, and that category also won't appear if the player is not in a party).

• App labeled "Messages" which is for private chat.

Local chatting would be voice chat, and whether or not someone could hear you voice chatting would be determined by how close they are to you in-game.

Obviously this is not for a fantasy type of game, but not restricted to sci-fi; it could be more like a gta style setting.

The commonly included looking for group and trade channels would not exist, as the auction house system and group finder system have pretty much replaced the need for those channels, and people advertise anything they want to advertise in any channel, treating it like a global channel anyway. There would be no restrictions on what you can talk about on the global channel.

As the app name suggests, the channels would function similar to a forum, but more like what you find on Youtube. By default, it would operate like a normal chat channel, but you would be able to click on a comment in order to report, friend or reply to it, which would make conversations more easily distinguishable. It would bump the whole string of replies up to the top, but with everything hidden except what the latest person said, and have the option to show all the previous comments, just like in Youtube comments.