No misconceptions - it’s a word that has more than one meaning, especially in this context. That’s why I said I was unsure which version you meant. I’m not attacking you or doubting you, there’s just not enough information here. Not just about what you mean, but also to ensure you have fundamentals reasonably covered to the point where worrying about where Signal’s servers are should be a sticking point for you.

Free as in no money needed to install? Free as in freedom from proprietary software? Free as in free from specific geographic snooping? Free from centralization under a single entity? When the start and end of FOSS are “Free” and “Software,” I am free as well to see 2 words next to each other and understand there’s ambiguity left to sort out and just ask what you mean. Seems like you mean all of those things - correct me if that’s not accurate.

I’m also not having a disagreement with you, at least not that I’m aware of. I’m trying to get you to take a step back and see if your concerns really bare themselves out, and if the balance you note in the title is actually a search for balance at all. Your post title is about balancing convenience and privacy, but the point of the post is to just ask “What is an E2EE messaging app that doesn’t touch any equipment in the US?” Which is an entirely different question.

Also, there’s no balance if you have a “spyware phone” and find some unicorn app that uses quantum entanglement to send the messages if your keyboard on that spyware phone is giving up what you’re typing anyway. Which is a very real possibility and I’m not seeing indication or not that you’re using non-default keyboards. Or even what phone you’re using as we might say “spyware” but what and how deep Apple and Google track users are fairly different. Balance can’t be found if a vulnerability undoes all your security improvements. If I have a rootkit on my laptop, virus scans of incoming PDFs doesn’t undo the rootkit, right?

Also, if you’re on Android do you have Whatapp sandboxed in a separate profile? If not, then you’re already giving up enough that Signal’s servers are the least of your concerns. Anything that you do where that’s a concern shouldn’t be done on your phone in the first place. Your device isn’t trustworthy enough, and changing one app isn’t going to fix that. And that’s OK - my phone does things I can’t change and so I have to ultimately just know that it’s rated for no conversation more sensitive than what’s for dinner and what time do we meet for someone’s birthday. It’s something I just have to accept.

Look, you’re asking for help and I’m trying to provide some based on partial information. So you can either help us all in this community with information to help you, or not and come away frustrated and angry with no results.