Facebook Messenger going berserk

I have an iPhone 7 and both Facebook and Messenger apps on my phone. Can anybody explain why Facebook messenger will sometimes show "active now" and other times just show the word "messenger", even when the person is active. I keep all of my apps updated. I even had a Facebook friend in the same room at the same time while they were active on Messenger just to help me check and see if it was my phone or the app. Their availability was on but it still didn't show them being active on my messenger. I don't know if this has any affect on it or not but I also had my husband's Facebook account on my phone too, along with his messenger. When he got his iphone 7, I deleted his Facebook and messenger account from my phone and he set it up on his phone. Everything is set up correctly on his phone also. Whenever I send a message to him through messenger, It says "active" for just a second and then goes back to saying "messenger" without him ever reading it from his end. I tried logging into his account from a desktop and it does the same thing. Is it possible that his account is still linked to mine somehow, and if so how can I fix it? I've deleted the apps and reinstalled them twice on my phone. Am I missing something or is Messenger just messed up? Please help