I have been looking at Fairphone and Volla, and it feels like the Smartphone scene for Linux is going very strong right now.
Think of it like this: We got 3-4 end-user ready Ubports smartphones, made by IN Europe(Volla/Gigaset is), with recent hardware, swappable battery, very good service and repairability in various formats. You can even purchase Gigaset phones (commercial equivalents of Volla) in stores/Amazon for a very good price.
The immediate orbiters of Linux smartphones like Fxtec, Planet Computers and Jolla are also based here.
I think we reached the year of the Linux phones. Atleast it is not the niche it was in 2020. I wonder how usable ubports is. If you got any experience with these phpnes on ubports, feel free to share.
Though I’d rather recommend you just get out of WhatsApp entirely (it’s still owned by Meta after all), one way to go would be by using a matrix client (like element) with the WhatsApp bridge.
I wish I could. I use Signal where possible but most of my contacts don’t care and use WhatsApp. How would the bridge help in terms of privacy as the messages still need to pass through WhatsApp right?
The messages would still go through WhatsApp, but they are e2ee anyway. The part where it would protect you is that you wouldn’t have the app installed on your device, so Facebook won’t be able to get your location, access your contact list, etc.