Ugh. We started using it for work during the lockdowns, but now it's only used for odd rare work messaging. Might see if I can get the boss to knock it on the head.
I am currently fuming about this too. I don't even have auto update enabled on my apps so how did it happen? Turns out WhatsApp apparently can roll out server-side updates at any time??? And there's no way to opt out of this stupid update either.
I can't not use it either as it's the only way I can stay in touch with most of my relatives, I can't get them to switch to Telegram or Signal...
The irritating thing is that apparently the toggle switch was already there all this while. I really hope there's enough backlash to force meta to reintroduce it because this is total bs. The server side updates are really not cool either :/
Well, for me I don't trust meta. And yes I know WhatsApp is meta, but I'm sort of locked into it on account of almost everyone I am in contact with using it. Just don't like the idea of meta based AI possibly using my messages for learning.