Android may have the wrong colour bubbles for messaging, but its users can at least pat themselves on the back for having better managed notifications (those things that can really irritate a person if not managed properly).
Notification and spam management can drive one to leave a platform if it is not easily manageable. People don’t believe me when I say I left iOS (a second time) for Android because the lack of spam caller management drove me mad on my iPhone. I’ve posted at length about it before, but it related to the Truecaller app not being allowed but iOS to take over managing the dialler function.
But to get the best value out of managing notifications, you really want to get familiar with what all you can tweak. Reading the linked article will help give some insight into this. I’ve really cut down dramatically on those beeping alerts, but only allowing the most important/urgent ones top give audible alerts. For most, I’ll just see a counter over the icon to indicate there are messages. It has made my day a lot more peaceful and prioritised.
Also muting, permanently or even timed duration, for many group chats, makes your life a lot easier. You don’t need to read every back and forth message as it happens between 300+ people in the community. This also means I catch up on some social sites when I want to see what is happening, not as it happens throughout the day.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/android-handles-notifications-better-than-ios/