I am trying to get rid of WhatsApp. My strategy for this is: Use iMessage with friends in the Apple world. Convince the Android folks to start using Signal. Has been quite successful so far.
Signal has stated that they will not support RCS (possibly that they can't due to technical limitations).
Have your Apple friends install Signal, too.
> To access your data on a new device, you might have to enter the passcode for an existing or former device.
> Messages in iCloud also uses end-to-end encryption. If you have iCloud Backup turned on, your backup includes a copy of the key protecting your Messages. This ensures you can recover your Messages if you lose access to iCloud Keychain and your trusted devices. When you turn off iCloud Backup, a new key is generated on your device to protect future messages and isn't stored by Apple.
I didn't realize messages was an exception to storing the key on local devices.
iCloud Backup is not end to end encrypted.
That linked article is designed to be intentionally misleading.
Ironically, Fluffychat, a Matrix client, is the outlier - it relies on Google Services Framework to deliver messages
[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/telegram-rus...
It now seems to be pivoting towards ad support, but isn't this exactly what people have been trying to get away from Facebook for?