Nobody ever uses WhatsApp for the actual app. People use WhatsApp only because it's a walled garden that doesn't federate with any other servers so it's impossible to contact anyone through it without joining yourself.
I don't think anything will ever change that. The problem isn't WhatsApp but the general problem of "each person is only reachable via certain contact methods" which can't ever be solved by anything.
The DSA forces platforms to allow federation and to expose public API endpoints.
So it solves this because it makes it possible for your to talk with someone on a different app.
The risk being that the experience will be miserable. I can totally imagine a world where you can talk between Signal and WhatsApp, but reactions don't work, sending files doesn't work properly, changing permissions in a group doesn't propagate, etc.
Unless you force everybody to use the exact same protocol, with the exact same features, and to never add or change a feature.
Well Signal Messenger is nice. I am using WhatsApp because of network effect: some people are on WhatsApp and not on something else (Signal is the most popular alternative where I am, Threema is third. Never heard of Veilid).
Fwiw, my family and friends are also not on matrix. Setting up an iMessage bridge (with a spare apple device) and a sms bridge has enabled me to use matrix with them.
It's nice being able to message from my phone and Linux desktop without any trouble
I'm so tired of this answer. You have phones, right? You know, you dial ten or so digits and then you flap your mouthholes at the grill and pretend you're human?
Nah, let's just use the platform owned by the war criminal because everyone is there with our tech-ignorant relatives as our excuse. I hope you all meet a Rohingya one day.
"If you don't like reality, numb it out like the rest of us man."
We do have to practice tolerance of certain things, but genocide is not one of em. I'm sorry it makes you uncomfortable to know that you're using the same platform that was used by state-supported mass murderers and the executives knew about it and took the money, but allowing others to tend to their own discomfort is the deepest of compliments.
Man you have no clue how many people I moved to Signal. I actually contributed to Signal years ago. So respectfully, f** you (if you're going on that tone).
There are just some people that still keep WhatsApp, meaning I need it.