> but the chat just pops back up if someone else sends a message to it, so I imagine this would turn communication into a game of whack-a-mole My first thought

> but the chat just pops back up if someone else sends a message to it, so I imagine this would turn communication into a game of whack-a-mole My first thought exactly. Speaking from experience on our current chat platform, after one conversation on a topic ends (assuming it does definitively end, and doesn't overlap with other conversations), its not long before another begins.