I think this might only be true on Android? Apple has a strict policy that the basic app functionality must work even without permissions. And testing right now, I can send messages to direct numbers without having given access to my contacts.

Original poster explained that the functionality is having a contact list. WhatsApp will either access and use ALL your contacts or none on iPhone as well as android. Having jumped through many hoops to preserve conversations without leaking contacts, I’m highly attuned to this…

Recent iOS versions allow you to share only a small subset of contacts, which is really useful for apps like these

As does GrapheneOS with its Contact Scopes permission.

nope. he literally wrote "cannot initiate messages if you don't give it access to your contacts" and that's false on iphone. on iphone whatsapp has its own separate contact list if you don't give it access. and it is like this for years.

Not true in India. WhatsApp initially worked without access to the Contact list, and you could send a message to someone by typing their number directly in WhatsApp. But after a few updates, it does not allow you to start any new conversation without access to the contact list. And if you still ignore it, further updates prevent you from using WhatsApp at all unless you give it access to the contact list.

I doubt whatsapp is customized per country and no idea what's going on there. For me it was like this probably 4-5 years ago. Right now whatsapp on iphone allows me to create a new contact and then message that contact. The contact is only saved in whatsapp. App has no access to my contacts.

> Apple has a strict policy that the basic app functionality must work even without permissions.

Is this true? How does Apple enforce this? I ask because WhatsApp initially worked fine on an iPhone, without any access to the contact list, but after a few upgrades, it demanded access to the Contacts list to send messages to new numbers, and did not allow you to do so by typing a phone number directly.

> WhatsApp is the only chat app I've encountered that refuses to work if you don't give it access to your contacts*

I've never given it access to my contacts. (iOS.) It's worked fine. I recently started giving it access to a limited set of my contacts, but that was for convenience.

Add Zuck's contact to the group and share that one only.

This is why you should use Graphene's contact scopes and only allow access to contacts that you want to contact on WhatsApp.

I don't have this issue at all, I just selectively only give it access to some contacts.

It seems to no longer even scan the contacts by itself, only when you hit "New Chat", press the triple dots and then "Refresh".

Still a pretty garbage app but at least in terms of this it seems to have actually improved.

Telegram did this for me when I tested it years ago. Instantly uninstalled.

on android telegram is optional, whatsapp is required

Perhaps you'd be interested in learning that you can initiate chats to phone numbers (regardless of contact status) by going to wa.me/<phone-number>

I've never tested it without contacts permissions though.

They broke that just several weeks ago, at least for me.

Same for me, has been broken for about 4 weeks.

You can send the phone number to yourself in chat and then click it to open it for chat.