You're right, at least in my case. But my messenger is Hangouts (the far right icon on my dock--it works with SMS too!) and I rarely call people. If I need to, I usually just end up using Google now or call them from Hangouts anyway. Hangouts is pretty useful--it replaces a seperate group chat, SMS and phone app for me.

Ninja edit: I just realized the picture I posted was from right after I reset my phone in attempts to fix the note 4 lollipop battery problem. The play store icon isn't supposed to be there; it's Hangouts now.