I mean… There’s alternatives.

Telegram and Signal are the obvious first choices, although both have their own set of issues.

Matrix is a good contender but it isn’t really beginner friendly, and even if you manage to run your own server or bridges, it’s a PITA to maintain. Beeper is fairly good and allows you to have more control over your messages - but then you’re still bridging into WhatsApp and Messenger and other IMs.

Though pushing your friends to switch to these services can be beneficial at the end, but it ain’t easy. Most people will still call you a conspiracy nut for not liking the fact that megacorporations like Meta have their fingers in every aspect of your life (in fact I’m surprised Amazon hasn’t made their own IM service yet), and replatforming those people is just super hard.