[kefyras]

>And my understanding is SMS can still be pricey.

It hasn't been for like 15+ years since pretty much every subscription has either unlimited*/or more than you can reasonably use minutes/SMS.

>Not sure what's weird about SMS in the US?

Don't you get (or used to) charged for incoming SMS?

[ghaff]

Both outgoing and incoming SMS used to have charges but (AFAIK) all the major plans now include unlimited SMS. I think the US went to mostly "free" SMS before much of Europe did which probably explains WhatsApp becoming the most common thing. (The only people I use WhatsApp with from the US are international.)