Yeah but what do you use it for apart from receiving verification codes?
I use it because I quite like the spam detection feature.
This is also why I still use it. Of all the SMS apps I've tried, it also has the most visually pleasing UX (for me personally). I get an incredible amount of spoofed SMS spam, most of it related to off-market real estate nonsense. Messages has been the only app successful in blocking them.
What kind of spam detection do you mean, isn't this a messaging service?
Yes. You can (and sadly do) receive spam SMS. Google Messages is quite good at spotting them
But do we know that it's the app and not an underlying library that other messaging apps use too?