Introduction

If you want to leave WhatsApp behind: Independent messaging apps¹ might be the alternative you are looking for. These apps offer the freedom to choose the app and the provider you like while still being able to stay in contact with your friends. So, you are not just leaving questionable big-tech companies but you also give other people the freedom to decide which apps and providers they would like to trust.

And if you start to think: “I cannot leave Whatsapp because …” – don’t panic! You can just follow the “+1"-strategy and additionally use an independent messenger to enable other people to use it. And … who knows … maybe someday it is not so hard anymore to delete other messaging apps.

Let’s start the easy way: Here it is – your personal recipe to start using independent messaging, inspired by the German Digital Independence Day².

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Determining the right ingredients

At first, you need to answer some questions in order to find the recipe which contains the right ingredients for you.
Don’t worry: No matter which way you choose, you still can communicate with people choosing a different way.³

Maybe you say:
“This needs to be very easy. I want to use my phone number to register. Contacts in my address book should be determined automatically, if they acceped to be shown. Additionally, I can communicate with people who do not want to use their phone number by adding them manually when they tell me their chataddress.”
If this fits for you → recipe using Quicksy

Alternative:
“I want to use independent messaging without being dependent on my phone number. I want to select a username. If I want to I can also register more than one username (one for collegues, and one for family and friends).”
If this fits for you → next question.