There are many great voice solutions, and they don’t need visual integration with tools, while chat visually would, as it requires input from user hands.
So any other voice solutions out there, simply as skype, does great job, and there would be no advantage making own solution.
Are you only able to use the chat in projects for which you have permissions? I noticed when I was in someone else’s project editor I couldn’t see the chat box
That’s correct, yes. Otherwise, you’d be able to grief people in their projects. I think it’s right that the project owner controls who can chat in their projects.