Tested & working with patch 1.22, but not tested with the HoS or B&W expansions.
Known issue with the "no button prompt" alternate version: Button prompt is still briefly displayed sometimes.
Note: Friendly HUD by wghost81 is an excellent mod that can also hide the Talk icon/text. It is very actively maintained, unlike this mod, so I recommend using it instead.
What it does: This small edit hides the speech bubble icon that appears over NPCs who are far away.
Alternate versions:
"Just text" version - Hides the speech bubble icon, but still shows "Talk" text from far away.
"No button prompt" version - Hides the speech bubble from far away AND the "E - Talk" button prompt when close.
Installation:
Just download & install with the Nexus Mod Manager.
Or, download manually & extract the .zip file into your "The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\mods" folder. (Create the "mods" folder if you don't have it.)
If you have any other mods that modify the file below, you'll have to merge them. I made a tool called Script Merger that tries to merge .ws script conflicts automatically.