Yep, once anyone can download an app on their phone and do something like this without any effort in realtime it’s going to lose its (shock) value fast. It would be like sketching a crude boobs and vagina on someones photo with MS Paint and trying to use that for blackmail or shaming. It would just seem sad and childish.

The locking down started with the original MacIntosh (or actually with the Lisa I guess). ISTR they had at least one bit more open period after that, but those have always been the exception.

Wouldn’t it be more correct to say that most Americans also use a messaging app (iMessage). The rest are just stuck with SMS to have compatibility with the iPhone users.

As the iPhone was (is?) not as popular in the Europe as it was (is) in the States that might also be one of the reasons why people here ditched SMS so fast once smartphones got popular.