I prefer whatsapp to telegram and discord, and especially WeChat.

I definitely try to force people onto signal but apart from that whatsapp is decent. Whatsapp collects your metadata, and likely sells it, but your messages are encrypted using the signal protocol, which makes it better than discord, telegram, or WeChat, in my view.

And especially better than the alternative my american friends like to use, which seem to be snapchat and instagram messages.