you can now press T to open a text chat. you can choose between talking to everybody, just allies (same faction), or just people close by. Y will enable/disable the chat.
TEXT CHAT ADDED
Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)
Build and release context
Steam update times within 24 hours of this post. Matching dates do not confirm which build it describes.
Build 7157829 · public branch
Steam updated · First observed