As somone who has slowly moved away from big tech, one of my steps was to use unofficial clients (open source) and web wrappers. For others it's impossible to move fully off a platform for reasons like work, school and family. Ulimatums for these don't work for everyones situation.

Many people use open YT apps or proxies. Versions exist for Twitch. There are ways to access Spotify. Nitter is back (for now). Their used to be some FB wrappers (I think they exist but are pretty bugged at this stage). Why would OP expect any less of WhatsApp.

And to answer OP. The best I've heard is use a PC with a burner number and a web wrapper on mobile. It requires some sort of regular login on the PC.

[–] danielquinn@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Far from impossible, I'm doing it. Living in the UK, everyone uses WhatsApp, but lots of people are also on Signal. When they hear that I won't use Meta products, everyone always says: "I understand, good for you" and about 20% of them will either find me on Signal or install it it find me there. The other 80% talk to me via text or email. It's inconvenient, but still quite doable.

Defeatism is how you cede ground to the bad guys.

[–] MonaySimpson@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

I'm in the same boat now but I also transitioned off slowly. I was saying that it's not always possible for everyone in every situation.

One that comes to mind is being told to use it for work and posting in your lunch break to see what the options exist before immediately quitting on the spot.

FOSS options do exist for many services, and that's all OP was looking for. I don't see the point in telling them to never seek out the unofficial version of a service.

[–] eremophila@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 days ago

"impossible" mkay