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Sorry, while it requires unrestricted access to all my contacts, I'm not using it.

Of course it uses your Contacts. Would you prefer to add your contacts to WhatsApp individually and maintain a second set of mostly duplicated data?

I would prefer to add the group of contacts I want to Whatsapp. I might want my social group there, I don't want my professional contacts on there.

So yes I would prefer to have the option of adding contacts separately.

It doesn't have to.

We could use something like ENUM mapping [1] on the device and there would be one single set of data that the user is in control. Even better, it would mean that I can choose the granularity of access to different communication channels, so if someone has my phone number they wouldn't be able to know my other messaging handles unless I make it public.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number_mapping

Just because they have access to your contacts doesn't mean they store. Most likely all they do is check to see if they're on WhatsApp.

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