Firechat has a jQuery dependency and that puts a lot off people off (me included!)
But it would seem that Firebase and Ionic would be the perfect combination for making a cross platform WhatsApp messenger, or messenger component in an app. I can't find a tutorial for this online, nor one for just using Firebase for a messaging app. Yes, there are examples of Socket.io messaging apps and there are plenty of chat app examples but that's not the same thing.
I'm talking about logging in to a messaging app and then sending 1 to 1 messages to another person, from your address book, who is also logged in. I don't even want access to the phone contact list (I'd rather get the address book from all the people who've ever logged into the app). I guess I'm after making my own Slack, but with a mass address book (at first).
Anyone any ideas or am I going to be doing this from scratch?