I’m sure the pinging mechanic is still there, as I’m positive this only happens when you are playing local co-op (and possibly over the internet on far away islands) could you imagine the ping system with internet co-op? it’d be a mess.
And I’m sure that they won’t be calling for you halfway from the island, only when you are in view
I'm not talking about internet or multiplayer.
Just villagers, and I get it now as said in my above post.
They'll probably speech bubble ping only when you're near them, instead of the exclaimation mark ping.