Thus completely missing the point of this product’s entire existence and value proposition. This is not helpful and bordering on snarky. ‘Take note’ that people are well aware of the existence of other messaging services. They don’t want them. They want iMessage. The kid saying that they’re using “Tox on a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS” is sitting by themselves during recess whether you like it or not.
Eh, many of my friends have WhatsApp, and I don't really like it. Almost all of them "have" Facebook messenger, but again, no one wants to use it. Maybe I'm biased because it's true for me, but I don't really buy this "nothing's special about iMessage" claim.
Which sucks, because Apple's approach here (while not unexpected) is very disappointing.