I’m not a fan of the “war” between Android and Apple when it comes to SMS/texting. The rest of the world doesn’t use SMS/RCS/iMessage as much as WhatsApp and the like, so the US is pretty much lagging behind everyone else on this anyway.
That being said, I have to admit Android did a good job with this!
Google is taking the “monkeys with typewriters” approach to messaging apps, if they release enough of them they’ll eventually stumble across a messaging app that’s compatible with iMessage.
And then cancel it two weeks later.