[rahidz]

One potential solution is to mandate some form of open cross-platform system, where the big tech companies are forced to give up our data and allow us to freely share it with others. So Telegram and WhatsApp would still both exist, but if I download Telegram, I should be able to communicate with WhatsApp users as easily as Telegram users.

[Broken_Hippo]

I*ve been wanting something like this for a while, but I usually use Facebook as an example.

Right now, facebook is like a phone company that only allows folks to communicate with others using the same company. If you could see pages on other platforms and chat with users on other platforms - at least to an extent - that would open up some space for competition and overcome the most difficult part of building any "replacement" or competition to facebook.

All that said, I think this is probably a problem that is more complex than I make it out to be and it might or might not be a feasible solution. The first hurdle would be deciding on the standards for this stuff.