I would personally love to see Hey come back with a free Apple version of their service which gives the user a hilariously long @hey.com email address and lets them use it.
Yeah, like the digital equivalent of work to rule. 1MB storage, no attachments, forced signature, etc.. It would be hilarious to see Apple respond to that because it's still more ethical than all the trial subscription scams they allow on the app store.
I wouldn't even put any limits on the account (outside of the fact that your address would be an exceptionally unfriendly string.
Since this sign up is through Apple, I assume Hey would have the device ID, and could limit repeat/duplicate/spam sign ups in some way.
I am also assuming that the marginal cost of hosting an account is trivial.
In this situation, _worst case_, someone creates a free account, likes how it works, and then has to pay $99 elsewhere in order to get a reasonable address.
This would kind of be the definition of malicious compliance. And honestly, ya, I would love it.