iMessage

Here’s an obvious one: iMessage. iMessage makes communicating with other Apple device owners fast, fun, and easy. Group chats are well organized, and you also have read receipts and a host of effects to play with. You can send friends and family full-sized videos and photos, which I learned that I took for granted – now being required to open up Facebook Messenger to share high-res videos to mom and dad.

Google’s Messages app (pictured above) does work well and offers link previews, GIFs and cross-platform messaging too, meaning I can open up Messages on my web browser to send texts using my MacBook.

Overall, Google has produced an iMessage-like experience well. It works, but Google’s Messages is not as good as iMessage, and likely won’t be for the foreseeable future due to SMS/MMS technical limitations.