@atomicpoet 99% of the time I use iMessage. Almost everyone I know uses an iPhone and iMessage just works.
Once you bring an Android user in then you revert to SMS and suddenly everything is awful. No reactions, no proper groups and sending a picture isn’t free, suddenly you’re billed for MMS (£££)
So Android users here (UK) all seem to use WhatsApp and that’s the easiest fix for iPhone users is to just join them there.