I loved WhatsApp when using it for work. We just a nice clean messenger. After I left that job I stopped using it, and then Facebook bought it so won’t use it now.
Signal is good but not as good as I remember WhatsApp being.
Apple needs to get on the ball. iMessage is a different standard than SMS, so they should be able to handle more responses than just the meager "tapback" offering. Clearly, messaging to non-iMessage recipients just sends a text version of the react, anyways.