Yeah, its basically that. When i moved from IMessage to Google Message(this was before i went down the FOSS rabbit hole), you have to remake your group chats or someone who is your contact would have to send a text that makes you rejoin a group chat even though you no longer see any of your old messages. One of the biggest annoyances from Apple, its way to locked down to the point that you cant even export your messages, unless its with another apple device.
What do you mean exactly start over? If you don’t have iMessage, you can’t talk to other people with iMessage.
Yeah, its basically that. When i moved from IMessage to Google Message(this was before i went down the FOSS rabbit hole), you have to remake your group chats or someone who is your contact would have to send a text that makes you rejoin a group chat even though you no longer see any of your old messages. One of the biggest annoyances from Apple, its way to locked down to the point that you cant even export your messages, unless its with another apple device.