That’s an interesting point regarding iMessage I’ll think about…
Something I will say though is that we wrote the macOS and iOS guides (and are writing the Windows guide) because operating systems are challenging to replace, and in some cases impossible even on a technical level, if you already own an iPhone that’s going to help you.
Additionally, when it comes to operating systems they’re something we consider basically the least important thing to “swap out” when it comes to improving your privacy stature:
On the other hand, there are no technical challenges to swapping out applications in most cases, which is why so much of our focus is on swapping out applications and cloud providers, rather than “making the best of” the apps/providers you already use.
There are social challenges like you say though, certainly. Improving privacy overall is inherently a social challenge though, so…
When it comes to social challenges like getting people to swap messengers, I think that Privacy Guides should take a hard-line approach and very strongly push people down the “swap out your apps for these alternatives” path, because ultimately that would be the best-case scenario in the long-term.
When it comes to technical challenges like the reality that pre-existing hardware isn’t always compatible with the most private software, or that some private software isn’t feature-complete, I think that Privacy Guides can approach those situations with more grace towards the users, informing end-users on how to do the best they can within those limitations, while still encouraging people and developers to make better choices when it comes to future purchases.
This is why I currently consider operating system guides different from application guides in our knowledge base basically.