SMS has one advantage over any other messaging service: Every cell phone that is currently in service is capable of sending and receiving SMS messages.
WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Meebo, AIM, ICQ, Discord, Skype, Teams, Ventrilo, Roger Wilco, Slack, Hangouts, etc. are all optional. You have to install them. And which one a random American has installed is completely unpredictable. There's also a good chance that "I use an iPhone so my religion requires me to use iMessage."
Small point here too: SMS used to be a paid plan option in the US. I never paid for an SMS plan because iMessage was free over data (I just wouldn’t receive texts from Android users). There was a good amount of time when iMessage was legitimately a great option.
Literally nobody is hung up on bubble colours other than you and iPhone users... Most people don't give a shit, and the added benefits of RCS basically bring it up to spec with a typical messenger, and since it's pre-installed it means that you don't need to worry about messenger app segregation. You don't even need to create an account.
From the point of view of an Android user, iMessage falls back to SMS/MMS protocols, so when an iPhone user would click the heart reaction button in iMessage, you'd get a text message that says "Flig Fligerson loves your message."
Instead of pushing a client to other platforms, they deliberately just made the experience shit. I really don't see the appeal in Apple products.
shares documentation that is contrary to their argument.
To make sure your messages are properly delivered, Google uses information like your phone number, device identifiers, and SIM card number. This data may be stored for about a month in order to keep you connected to RCS and in cases where you temporarily go offline.
A small handful of iOS users might complain about iOS, but a majority of us don't give a shit and can't understand why anybody would brag about having an inferior OS.
And sure people make accounts all the time, but if doesn't mean they enjoy doing it. I doubt most people enjoy having to flip between messenger, signal, telegram, and WhatsApp - and RCS fixes most of that since everybody has access to it, and SMS is still a main go-to for messaging in north America anyway.