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This is exactly why they spun it off. They've known for a while that many people are walking away from FB, so they're adding apps to retain you as a customer, and all the data collection that entails.

Same here. Messenger spinning off kept me on Facebook. I use Messenger all day long; I like the the UI, especially reactions and replies. I now log into Facebook once or twice a month. It just gives me FOMO. No need for that.

I just wish those services exposed a chat protocol that I could connect to from a single messaging app. I'd straight up pay for access to such a thing.

It's not a protocol, but an app, but bitlbee and even pidgin tend to support a lot of these various chat services with plugins.