Shiroa

But like, why does it have to be Google? (Or this extension specifically?)

If you’re super attached to the google search results then try startpage. If you’re willing to branch out a bit try Duckduckgo, it’s based on Bing instead and lately seems like more folks prefer Bing’s engine to Google’s.

And as others have mentioned you could use any old useragent switcher to pretend to be Chrome

It is in fact, a US vs Europe thing. Stateside “SMS” is ubiquitous. I put quotes because it’s not really SMS anymore. It’s either RCS between Android users or iMessage between iPhone users. The only time SMS actually gets used is between Androids and iPhones, because as other commenters in this thread mention. Apple refuses to implement RCS on their devices in a way that is compatible with non-Apple devices.