I noticed that too, watching gifs is a hassle now, takes unreasonably long to load even the blurriest of gifs...
At least I GREATLY appreciate the fact theres no text-limit now, makes descriptive rp so much easier when you dont need to split messages up.
Location was public in old chat as well, but its MUCH more obvious now, before it was only in text when clicking on the profile, now its right there with the flag and all lol
Terrible. New chat is clunky and an eyesore, the menus/UI are a mess, its all just so much less smooth. Don't fix whats not broken, this is just a straight downgrade.
Don't think I'll stick around much longer, the new chat is just a pain to interact with.