I'm gonna give the devs a chance before I judge. Maybe the paid aspect is to maintain strong privacy protocols? Good security isn’t cheap. Let's face it, we don't want another data-leaking mess. If paying a bit keeps our convos safe, it might be worth considering.

From a tech perspective, this is about money. Sites get paid more for video ads that play sound, which means they're incentivized to default to noise. It's a dark pattern for sure, but money talks. Autoplay is detectable and blockable though. Check out extensions like uBlock Origin that let you …