> Anbox scales across different form factors similar like Android does. It works on a laptop and a mobile phone.
Additionally in the README.md on their Github page (https://github.com/anbox/anbox):
> Anbox ... can be used on mobile operating systems like Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS or Lune OS too.
So conceivably something like this could be a great start.
That being said, if we managed to run windows games on linux, I'm pretty sure we can find a way to run android apps without a VM.
I know that's not quite the same thing, but it's not like they're inventing a new OS platform from scratch: apps developed for Linux will run on the phone, and apps developed for the phone will hopefully repay their developers' time by being compatible across many Linux devices, especially when/if other full-Linux phones become available.
(A caveat - I don't know how much of this is hardware-dependent, e.g. the CPU.)
Stuff like Facebook and Instagram can be used in browser but are missing basic features on their mobile web versions and constantly yell at you through popups to use to the app instead. Hopefully the popups at least don't occur on platforms that don't have the app available. Facebook for example recently removed Messenger from their mobile web version to make people install the app.
Telegram is nice, works everywhere, the protocol is open, clean and relatively easy to implement.
I also will make the rest of the family switch to Telegram. I am sure that as long as they are able to write message to each other, they will be fine with it.
Quite frankly, the main advantage of Whatsapp over Telegram is that it is more widely adopted. But beside that, not much.
Considering that the libre 5 will be the first matrix native phone, maybe get them to switch to matrix instead, which is actually open source in both clients and server and has encryption with an actual security assessment. still no stickers though...
Thing is I (and I guess most people) don't want to do app evangelism, but just use the existing communication protocols my peers use. People in your network will have their own networks, and so on, and telling them to quit them networks or to add another app to their phone is going to annoy them.
Regarding my other contacts' networks: I certainly do not impose other people what app to use, but at the same time I have no interest in doing something (e.g.: running an app I honestly don't like) just because everybody is doing it.
In all honesty, if someone has something to tell me or I have something to tell someone, we will surely find a way to communicate. Keep in mind that, at least for now, all mobile phones can make phone calls and send text messages (at least to negotiate other means of communication).
Although, it's obviously not done yet.
It would be fantastic if there were a way to run Android apps. Even if they need to be rebuilt for the platform, at least not requiring developers to re-write their app would be a huge start. Also getting support into things like React Native would be good. Most developers I know (including myself) are willing to build apps for different platforms, but aren't necessarily willing to make big code changes or do rewrites/ports that involve lots of effort. Whatever can be done to help make it easy for devs to get their apps running would likely be a good investment. Developers, developers, developers!