You probably haven't had to use it very much, then. I've been using for as long, and it took so many of those years just to be able to finally receive pictures

You probably haven't had to use it very much, then. I've been using for as long, and it took so many of those years just to be able to finally receive pictures and group texts. (I think those two have only really worked for a year or two now.) When group messaging was broken, it was really broken; I missed out on conversation entirely, or received the messages such that each participant had their own individual thread. And even today, I still often find situations where I have a new voicemail despite my phone never ringing. I even check the call log on my phone and nothing ever came in. The MMS updates and this new suite of UIs are definitely welcome additions if you ask me, and hopefully indicative that the service isn't circling the drain after all (which I've been anticipating for some time now).