SineNomineAnonymous

Cutting off your family because you care about privacy is still weird unless you have poor relationship with them. Op mentioned not hearing back from them so it seems they're not even using any other methods.

That honestly sounds more sad than anything else.

That's because iMessage isn't big in relative terms. It's pretty much only Apple users (and to make it worth it, you pretty much need a phone, just having a mac.and relying on iMessage isn't very useful tbh) and people don't always realise it but iOS isn't that big. It's a minority in the smartphone world.