Signal or matrix interop would be great. I use WhatsApp as the logistical tool of choice to communicate with my coworkers when away from the company but I wish I could uninstall it. Not my tribe.
You can't uninstall WhatsApp that way though. Not just the web client, but also the app on your phone, which the web client proxies everything through.
There's an interesting philosophical question: if we have a fediverse or open source ecosystem for communication that is deeply integrated into Big Tech, does that make the fediverse stronger, or does it neuter the impact of fediverse as a possible "infrastructure-level" competitor of communication and information sharing?
Signal would have to change how they work for that, at present it shares your profile name after you've initiated a chat using the "username" - very confusing choice of wording.
> Usernames simply allow you to initiate a connection on Signal without sharing your phone number
> Starting soon, your phone number will no longer be visible to people you chat with on Signal, unless they have it in their phone’s contacts. You will also be able to configure a new privacy setting to limit who can find you by your phone number on Signal. And, you’ll now be able to create an optional username that you can share with the people you want to connect with on Signal.
Currently everyone who chats with me cannot see my phone number — even people who have my phone number saved in their phone (I was surprised as I thought it would still show this if they had it saved). There is a setting to entirely hide your phone number from everyone.