That's how I tried to use my Pixel but between losing Hangouts, having the UI changed seemingly randomly (how many different homescreen changes are really necessary?), and the constatn bait and switch of Google releasing core apps and dropping them (Allo and Duo), I gave up. Using Nova for my homescreen helped, and I probably could've stuck to Messages but I would lose the ability to see my messages from my computer. I've had my iPhone going on a year now and haven't needed to look at /r/Apple a single time.