WhatsApp is totally fine. Also, if it were gone, it would immediately be displaced by something else.
The features of 'WhatsApp' should be a standard or de facto standard, that comes with every plan globally.
WhatsApp only exists because Carrier incumbents are unwieldy and stupid - I worked with them for years, they're incapable of an ounce of innovation, and tried to control the entire mobile web.
If you're old enough, you'll might recall 10 cent WAP pages.
They fought desperately to control every inch, the iPhone broke their control, it would have been slow moving without Jobs breaking their hold, now Apple has a similar control, ableit much more capable.
> WhatsApp only exists because Carrier incumbents are unwieldy and stupid
Honestly, I'm glad. The less involved telcos are in my instant messaging, the better. Using my phone number as a universal identifier is bad enough.
I feel like we peaked with XMPP in the early 2000s (federated, end-to-end encrypted, not phone-number-based) and are now just regressing into various silos.
> If you're old enough, you'll might recall 10 cent WAP pages.
I'm alive enough to experience 10 cent calls and texts to neighboring countries right now.
Plenty of options for chat apps where your account is essentially your phone number. People would quickly organize around one of the options.