Each platform has its own gimmick and features meant to attract users. Their own hooks that sink in. Some of them are better than others, and it all comes down to personal opinion. What someone likes about one phone might be something another person hates about it. Some of them, though, leave such a positive mark that people want to see something similar on the competing platform.

Apple's iMessage is one such feature. At least, it appears to be.

I have plenty of reasons why I stick to iOS for my daily driver more often than not. I just prefer it over the other option, so it's what I fall back on. Don't get me wrong, I still use Android handsets throughout the year, but the iPhone is what I go back to.

I recently tried out the Pixel 3 and I ran into the same thing I always do when I switch: back to standard text messaging. Now, Google is getting better with this as it adopts RCS and the carriers do as well. But it's still not iMessage. But, if I'm being honest, a lot of what makes iMessage so great, and so popular, falls flat with me.

Up until very recently, for instance, I never had a reason to use stickers or Animoji, the latter of which is definitely one of my favorite features of iOS to date. Not because the people I text aren't using iMessage as well (most of them are), but mostly because it just doesn't come up. I prefer the written word over stickers, GIFs, or emoji, so that's what I rely on.

Enhanced links, though, is definitely a nice feature that I don't ever want to lose. So there's that. And I do love that iMessage is encrypted, simply because that sense of security and personal privacy is nice.

I realized as I was switching back to iOS and iMessage that I still like to see the blue bubbles, too. It's a small thing, but iMessage obviously has its hooks in me. All of the other little features, like read receipts, typing notifications, and more are a nice bonus, too. (Those things are supported by RCS as well.)

So I wanted to find out if iMessage has become one of your favorite features of iOS as well. More than that, if iMessage is one of the primary reasons you actually stick to using iOS over Android. Let me know!