Group Chat

like Instant Messaging for ad-hoc/small groups (family/friends) - most (all?) instant messaging apps support this.

Option	Pros	Cons
MMS/RCS (group SMS)	Works over cell without real data	groups weak, media limited; see next row
iMessage	standard for MacOsX/iOS	everyone else falls back to SMS/MMS/RCS), and Apple often makes experience ugly or broken
WhatsApp		owned by Facebook; can't use for SMS
Facebook Messenger	your grandma has it	Facebook
Signal.app	Most secure; open-source; can also use for SMS; has Reply, even if not real Threading	Maybe a little less polished UI than the big guys? I'm not sure that's true anymore.
Telegram	has Reply, even if not real Threading	Spam (unless you pay $30/yr); can't use for SMS
Jabber/XMPP	open-source	Few service providers; most people not famiiar
DeltaChat	Can use your existing email account (though moving away from that?)	Using gmail account is a pain; nobody's heard of it. Surprisingly, no threading.
KakaoTalk	Pros	No support, get announcements in Japanese
WeChat		Chinese, ties to government
GoogleChat/GoogleTalk	Anyone with gmail has account	(2021-08-28) A Decade And A Half Of Instability The History Of Google Messaging Apps

Bill Seitz