Edit - y’all are awesome! I’m gonna check out all of these - thank you!!
–
A family member is moving out of country and convinced the best way to keep in touch is with WhatsApp. I really don’t want to install any Meta shit on my phone.
Any recommendation for a FOSS or other alternative from a company that’s less of an ethical dumpster fire?
As is the highest up vote, Signal. However, if you refuse to install WA (you should) and they refuse to install Signal (scold them for being dumb), a backup is to bridge WhatsApp with Matrix and use Element on your phone. Way more complicated than Signal and I still strongly recommend they use Signal.
Does this work with WhatsApp groups chat?
Yes, here’s the supported features for the recommended bridge: https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/whatsapp/
This is cool, are there downsides? Like will messages be strangely formatted or anything for my contacts?
Also, are there bridges for other apps? Signal, telegram, messenger? I’d love to have one messenger app to rule them all
Works great for me. Only oddity is “quotes” in Discord sometimes dont show the content unless you tap on them. And yes, look at the bridges page for more. https://www.beeper.com/ is a hosted version of this with a custom app.
Any recommendations on where to start learning how to set up a bridge like that?
Yeah but IMHO bridging whatsapp misses the point. We need people to start being aware and choosing conscious ethical pieces of software for the sake of humanity.