My family has all switched to Signal, including family overseas in Europe (non-English speaking, varying age groups). It has all the features you mentioned, as well as gif responses my aunt and parents are into. Personally I find the look and feel of it to be preferable to whatsapp as well. It’s not as visually cluttered imo and has none of the spam/scams I had been getting on whatsapp.

I also use signal now as my primary messenger over sms or anything else. I love being able to edit responses and emoji react even tho I don’t have an iphone anymore. Plus all the added security of encryption of course.