Signal and Telegram both offer comparable functionality without mandatory recurring fees
Telegram introduced a subscription named Telegram Premium a few years ago. You get similar functionality there – setting colors to your profile or groups that you’re part of, custom emojis (including animated ones), custom stickers, an indicator that you’re on Premium, custom profile statuses, increased limits for sending files, etc. There’s a lot more, I just listed some off the top of my head. They’ve been pushing people into Premium. Telegram is perfectly usable without that, of course. My favorite Premium feature is that you can require unknown senders to pay a fee to be able to send you a message :D Meanwhile, non-Premium users can get spammed normally.
I had an iPhone 5 for a few years, it was the perfect size for me. When Apple enlarged their smartphones with iPhone 6 I jumped back to Android because I had more options there. I went back to iPhone 11 Pro because it was again on the smaller side. After years of rejecting >=6’’ phones I finally gave in with Pixel 8 and Pixel 10…