Program to set up an auto-responder for Facebook messages

Question

Since Facebook is now forcing all users to download messenger by ripping chat out of its main apps, I am looking for a program having the following feature:

• allowing to set an automated reply in Facebook like "Please send me an e-mail instead at [email protected]"

And if possible:

• works on Windows 7, Linux, Android, or as a Chrome extension.
• can be set to run at startup
• free

Answer 1

I did not find a proper alternative that worked without sending along any additional branding or advertisements, so I built my own based on an existing XMPP client.

Note that this requires that you have some (linux) server available to you to make it run 24/7 (e.g. in screen). I realise this may not be best fit for your situation, but someone else might come across this and find it useful.

EDIT: to prevent link rot, I'm reposting my solution here;

from plugin import BasePlugin

class Plugin(BasePlugin):
    def init(self):
        self.api.add_event_handler('conversation_msg', self.on_msg)
        self.api.add_event_handler('private_msg', self.on_msg)

    def on_msg(self, msg, tab):
        tab.command_say('[Automatic response] I stopped reading Facebook chat. Do try in some other way!')

1. Get Poezio:
   1. git clone git://git.poez.io/poezio
   2. cd poezio
   3. ./update.sh
2. Save the above file to poezio as autoresponder.py
3. Configure it for Facebook chat by editing ~/.config/poezio/poezio.cfg
   1. jid = [email protected]
   2. password = yourpassword
   3. server = chat.facebook.com
   4. plugins_autoload = autoresponder
4. Start Poezio: ./launch.sh

Answer 2

This may not fully match the requirements, but Relaxed seems to be a good match for what you need.

It's a web based application that sends messages out to users if they try to contact you on either Facebook or Twitter, so it doesn't need to be run at all.

It only works on a timer however (although, the timer seems to be flexible, so you could just change it accordingly), and it also supports custom messages.