> There are other things to criticise with WhatsApp, but not that.
Nitpick: Facebook can obviously grant themselves the ability to read your WhatsApp messages, by pushing out a new client. What they can't do is covertly read your WhatsApp messages: WhatsApp is well-studied enough that people would notice the malicious client update within a year.
Google or Apple can also grant themselves the ability to read your WhatsApp messages. Someone grabbing your phone while it's unlocked has the same ability.
Nitpick indeed, but correct :-)
Absolutely, and this is why one of the only viable options for truly private communication is Signal on a degoogled ROM like Graphene. Matrix also works, but you need your server.