That's obviously not true or we wouldn't be having many of these discussions.

It’s clearly a US vs everyone else thing.

Despite your username, I just have to laugh. Millions of Americans use something other than iMessage. Apple doesn't have anything like a monopoly.

True but it only takes one or two to become a problem, unless you really have a small circle of friends.

Agreed that I don't get the entire "iMessages is essential". I also have never seen it been used, I'm a zoomer and most of my friends use iPhones, but with snapchat or anything else for group messages. Maybe it's a generational thing!

The funniest part is all the olds (of which I am one) talk for your generation on this topic. Of course anyone who actually interacts with zoomers knows that this “green bubble blue bubble” thing is a media beat up: discord, Snapchat, instagram are what matter to western zoomers for group chats

"western" is too wide categorize for this topic because it's different per country.

Definitely not the case for Americans