atm a simple handler that just wants to catch its channels without preparing a full TpAccountManager have to do:

dbus = tp_dbus_daemon_dup(NULL);
factory = tp_automatic_client_factory_new (dbus);
handler = tp_simple_handler_new_with_factory (factory, ...);
...
g_object_unref (dbus);
g_object_unref (factory);
g_object_unref (handler);

IMO this is a bit too much, the only thing TpBaseClient really needs is a factory, all the rest is just legacy or constructor helpers. Since we are going to break API in "next" branch, let's sort this out.

What I suggest:

1) tp_simple_handler_new (TpSimpleClientFactory *factory, ...);
if factory is NULL, then internally it does dbus = tp_dbus_daemon_dup(); self->priv->factory = tp_automatic_client_factory_new(dbus);

2) tp_simple_handler_new_with_am (TpAccountManager *am, ...){return tp_simple_handler_new (tp_proxy_get_factory (am), ...);} this is a trivial helper in the case the user already has an IM.

Like this, the example above strips down to:

handler = tp_simple_handler_new (NULL, ...);
...
g_object_unref (handler);