Edit - y’all are awesome! I’m gonna check out all of these - thank you!!
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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/
Any recommendations on where to start learning how to set up a bridge like that?
https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/setup.html?bridge=whatsapp