In testing I did, it is possible to run WhatsApp on Android without access to "Contacts" For example, 1. Export contacts from the Contact app to a file if it

In testing I did, it is possible to run WhatsApp on Android without access to "Contacts" For example, 1. Export contacts from the Contact app to a file if it is not a new phone 2. Disable Contacts app 3. Install a different contact database such as OpenContacts from F-Droid or Github 4. Import contacts from the file into OpenContacts WhatsApp will not import the contacts in the OpenContacts database Further, no other app will import these contacts either This solves the "access to contacts" issue