For me it's the fact that you can generally see the other person typing in an iMessage, while you can't in normal SMS. That tells me whether the person is repl

For me it's the fact that you can generally see the other person typing in an iMessage, while you can't in normal SMS. That tells me whether the person is replying right now, so it's worth keeping my phone out, or busy and therefore won't be getting back to me for a while. The time savings add up.