I’m not a fan of the “war” between Android and Apple when it comes to SMS/texting. The rest of the world doesn’t use SMS/RCS/iMessage as much as WhatsApp and the like, so the US is pretty much lagging behind everyone else on this anyway.
That being said, I have to admit Android did a good job with this!
Signal removed SMS integration, making adoption less likely.
When I could install Signal on my parents phones, and they could SMS and Signal message in the same app, it was great. Especially since any contacts that happened to have Signal, it just worked. My parents didn’t have to do anything.
After Signal removed SMS, my parents just open up Google Messages and message everyone from there. They don’t want to juggle two apps. They also don’t really understand it. They just go back to the “main menu”, select their friends name, and type. Signal shot themselves in the foot.
Google picked up the pieces. Now my family uses Google Messages, but now it automatically switches to RCS for any of their friends that use RCS. Exactly what Signal should’ve been.