Although the privacy related changes were somewhat expected, the timing and aggresive timeline will likely play out in Facebook's favor.

While giving users a 1 month grace period to either comply (share their data) or delete their account already seems like a pretty aggressive window that limits the ability for users to fully assess options or migrate existing groups/chats to alternative platforms, the short timeline combined with the on-going pandemic, and the fact that WhatsApp has become one of the primary means of communication for many around the world will likely lead to a very limited drop in users leaving the platform as a result of this policy change.

Beyond Febuary, once users have already shared their data, there is likely minimal incentive for groups or individuals to overcome the network effects and move to another platform in the short term.