Naven
Answers
What are the alternatives to WhatsApp for a family?
Signal if privacy is the priority, Telegram for large groups, Naven if you want no phone numbers and something that works on a school device. All are free.
The deciding factor is usually the least technical person in the family and the most restricted device. A grandparent on a borrowed tablet and a child on a school Chromebook are the two constraints that eliminate most options.
A browser-based tool clears both: a link opens in whatever browser is already there, with nothing to install.
The phone number question matters more for extended family than for a household — a group of twenty relatives on WhatsApp is twenty numbers shared with nineteen other people.