Eh. I sympathize, but if you were to implement the same as a client-side app rather than a hosted service, AFAIK there's little history or legal precedent for

Eh. I sympathize, but if you were to implement the same as a client-side app rather than a hosted service, AFAIK there's little history or legal precedent for shutting such a thing down. Well, there was the kerfuffle between Microsoft and Google over Windows Phone access to YouTube, but other than that... Admittedly, a client-side app might not be allowed into walled-garden app stores, limiting its reach if targeting mobile operating systems. Still, mobile isn't everything. I find it strange that after the long history of multi-protocol IM clients back when it was still called "IM", there are so few attempts to do the same for modern protocols. I think the barriers are partly technical – e.g. better encryption/obfuscation, more features and faster pace of changes making it harder to keep up. But even that can't explain everything: many APIs are not obfuscated at all, and many services can be boiled down to pretty simple functionality. Part of it, I think, must be social – like people aren't even aware that it's a possibility, or worth spending effort on.