>When iMessage launched in 2011, it was the first widely available messaging app to provide end-to-end encryption by default,... Until very recently, iMessage

>When iMessage launched in 2011, it was the first widely available messaging app to provide end-to-end encryption by default,... Until very recently, iMessage provided no way to verify that you and your correspondent were not both connected to the server, rather than each other. So guaranteed end-to end encryption wasn't possible. Even now, with a recent version of iOS, they allow the users to blithely exchange messages without any identity verification. The identity numbers used to do this are hidden behind menus. So not really E2EE in any practical sense.