I have always been curious about this. Did you get them to use other services or did they stubbornly refuse and you just accepted it? I am talking using Chrome, using Windows, using social media like Tiktok or Facebook or Instagram, etc. Bonus points if you have kids because that is even more work in the privacy realm
And that’s materially different from having to join Discord/Teams/Facebook because that’s where someone you need to speak with communicates with how?
SMS doesn’t require you to join any specific service except the phone service you’re already paying for.
And OP was talking about not answering ‘google chat’. Calling that SMS is comparing apples to potatoes.
Sure, but OP and the people they want to connect with don’t have to force their choice of proprietary app into others when there’s a universal solution that works for all phones.