This feature needed to be in the game when it first game out. Is it not logical that if you can hear what all of your linkshells are saying at any given time, that there should be an elegant/convenient way to respond to them? If they make linkshell communication as difficult as it is now, they should just make it so that your linkshell channels are off by default except for the one you're "active" in, since right now there is no direct way to communicate with them save going through the laggy UI to switch.