Thanks for bringing up how this is Google's fault -- or, at least, the failure of Google and everyone else who isn't Apple.

iMessage has lots of problems. I've screwed it up a lot of times switching SIM cards, I can never understand why it needs to know if I want to contact my iMessage contact by email or by phone number, or why the messages thread differently depending on what I use. But it GENERALLY works okay.

Meanwhile, I use Signal with one friend, and just about every time I launch the damn app on my phone or desktop, it complains that I need an update, or I need to re-link something, or my safety numbers of changed, or some such crap.

And it's all better than Messenger.

And all of THAT stuff is better than Google's incessant abandonware. I loved hangouts.. until I didn't.