Why does someone have to REQUEST chat now?

Is this a new feature? when someone tries to chat to me during a game i have to CLICK accept, why?!!?!. I just want to read their chat while playing?

https://www.chess.com/news/view/new-feature-site-wide-chat

Ok, yeah it's always been on EVERYONE. And only recently that confirmation came up. If thats a new feature, it's terrible.

Thanks for the info

In game chat should still work the same as far as I know. However, private chats, outside a game, require approval.

Interesting. It isn't for me. Inside game chat i have to click accept even when someone just says GG. It wasn't like that before, thats why i came here

I guess they may have added that to try and eliminate some abuse.

ummm No. I am logged into my PREMIUM paid account, and when i play a game i have to ACCEPT an incoming message from anyone trying to send anything like GG or whatever. Literally i have to click accept or decline down in the chat window when i am playing. That have never been the case until this/last week

I'm the same as op, have to accept requests from everyone no matter the settings.

Because 99.999% of the "chat" here is not even chat.  Its a bunch of babbling.

I often don't notice chat and I certainly don't bother with it while playing a short game.

I don't like this either, the request/accept/decline thing is very distracting. I'd like to just let people type at me if they want.

Kick it in the shins.

What's the logic for this? If a user has chosen to enable chat, why would they then choose to decline a chat request without seeing what's been sent? It's just an extra click and a distraction for no purpose. It would make more sense to have an option to decline further chat after seeing the initial message.

Why is there no input on this? It's a horrible feature

On my laptop there is a "toolbar" on the left side of the screen. Among the icons is a "?" that says, among other things, "make a suggestion."

I suggest this be used instead of bellyaching in a forum which is basically only scanned by the site's bots for naughty words .

That's a helpful suggestion. Why did you have to spoil it by being

gratuitously rude?

When in a game they can just use the game chat.

however, outside of that game others in live chess can request to chat with you.

That is my point of asking. I have to accept ANY chat of a person i am playing at that time. Such a small detail which is seemingly trivial. But not to me honestly

just horrible

I agree with the OP, and with comments from many others:  this is a horrible feature (or bug).  It is distracting, and undesired, since I have already enabled Chat in my Settings.
By the way, I always say "GG" after any normal game (like a polite handshake):  if this means that the other player sees a "request to chat" instead, it's really horrible.  I have made the same comments in the site suggestions.