As of 2022 I have so far refused to install Whatsapp on principle. We deserved federated IM and 10 years ago we almost had it with XMPP. To me Whatsapp were the

As of 2022 I have so far refused to install Whatsapp on principle. We deserved federated IM and 10 years ago we almost had it with XMPP. To me Whatsapp were the antithesis of this, by binding IM to mobile numbers and phones and making it an entirely closed system. By blurring the lines between themselves and SMS, they made using their platform ubiquitous. iMessage is much the same - people don't even know the difference between it and SMS. We've all been robbed.