Wouldn't make any sense for Apple. What would they get out of it? Apple is a hardware company and iMessage is a huge selling point for iPhones.
I'd honestly pay a subscription for it if Apple ever offered it.
It seems crazy to me to believe people still use text messages, but you do you USA.
Whatsapp is so ingrained to the economy that clothing stores create groups where they share their products daily, automated banking services and customer service is already available thru Whatsapp, you can create automated bots... Telegram also provides bots, groups, news feeds and many others.
Carriers have way to much say here in the US.
Apple gets away with it because they control everything about the iPhone and will hold it away from carriers if said carriers defy Apple.
Google didn't (and still doesn't) have that luxury.
People don't go out of their way to get a Pixel like they do for the iPhone.
They could tell the hardware manufacturers what to do through licensing agreements regarding Android, but there's really nothing they can do about the carriers. Verizon is still going to put their messaging app on all their phones as the default app. All they would have to do is say we're not carrying this phone and every manufacturer will cave.
Until that stranglehold gets broken, we're fucked.
I still find it so surprising that the US is stuck in SMS after everywhere has moved on so long ago. Nobody where I live (Japan) nor where I'm from (Spain) uses sms, that I know of.
We're stuck with it because it's the only option that works on every phone out of the box.
There's no setting up a separate account
No downloading 3rd party apps
It's not dependent on a specific platform
It just works (and for a lot of people, that matters)
The only downside is that its outdated as shit.