Usually, facebook does not enjoy this kind of extensions. Facebook required "Social Fixer" extension to remove its key features http://socialfixer.com/blog/2013/10/05/facebook-requires-soc...

Ah, thanks for the warning!

Why would what seems like some CSS tweaks need to have access to my FB and browsing data?

That's a good question! In addition to CSS tweaks, I am finding having a button there is nice, and the links to people's profiles cannot be clicked on now (which I only know how to do through Javascript).

why would anyone prefer this over a decent jabber client like irssi+bitlbee?

I know right? In the same vein, I've often wondered why folks would prefer Windows 7 over OpenBSD too. Total mystery.

Not OP, but here's some off the top of my head:

* group chat

* facebook stickers

* easy(ish) file uploads

these are fair points, but frankly i have never needed to upload a file to facebook or use a group chat, and i have never seen a facebook sticker but i would probably find them distracting. i use bitlbee+irssi because it is the least distracting way in which i can consume facebook chat to communicate with people on their platform.

Totally makes sense! Yeah, this app isn't for everyone. I am personally very regularly in many active facebook group chats and love the stickers. To each their own.

Yeah, these are definitely some reasons why I like it!

XMTP support is being taken away by FB in April so it will be a proprietary closed protocol : /

I also like @randallma's points as well!

that's extremely unfortunate news. maybe bitlbee can get a custom plugin for whatever newfangled protocol they decide to roll.