aside from the magic features not working; SMS costs money.

On some mobile contracts it's pretty close to free these days, but international SMS's are certainly not. - not sure it's a common use-case but it definitely is a common use-case for me.

Ironically, iMessage not being available on Android causes the other messenger apps to be more appealing. Whatsapp/Facebook Messenger. -- because they can be more ubiquitous across friends.

SMS is not end-to-end encrypted (E2EE). The purpose of Beeper Mini (not to be confused with Beeper Cloud, which is not E2EE) is to allow Android users to send encrypted texts to Apple iMessage users the same way iMessage users can send E2EE texts to each other.

An Android user and an iOS user could both use a third-party app like Signal. But Beeper Mini's main feature is maintaining encryption for chats between Android users and iMessage users, saving the Android users the need to convince iMessage users to switch to a different messaging app. 1. The benefit of E2EE applies to the users on both ends, including iMessage users. 2. With Beeper Mini instead of an E2EE-dedicated multi-platform app like Signal, only one side of the communication pair needs to install something.

Beeper Mini Apple doesn't want to make an iMessage implementation for Android.