There's no official way to get iMessages on a non-iOS device like an Android smartphone, but a new Android app aims to provide a workaround, at least temporarily. weMessage is designed to allow you to get iMessages on an Android device, but for it to work, a Mac is required.
weMessage uses a weServer app on a Mac, which takes iMessages that are delivered to a Mac and forwards them to an Android smartphone or tablet. As described by the developer on reddit, the weServer app acts as a bridge between a Mac and an Android device, using Accessibility features to tap into Apple's Messages app for the Mac.
weMessage works by using Apple's developer tools that hook into the Messages app, as well as by turning on Accessibility features that will perform the message sending. There was zero reverse engineering involved in the creation of this app, so all messages being sent are legitimate. In addition, I believe this implementation is fair, as you still need to have an Apple device to use iMessage, but it is merely being extended to all devices.
According to the developer, all iMessage features are supported, including group chats, attachments, notifications, Do Not Disturb, content blocking, and more, with notifications enabled by sending messages to the Google Firebase platform.
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That is, AOL had AOL Instant Messenger (AIM - just recently shutdown) which was THE standard for instant messaging for both AOL users and non-users alike. Competitors came around (Yahoo, MSN Messenger, etc.) and everyone complained that AIM wasn't open to integration. You had to run each messenger as a separate app but eventually, some of the smaller players integrated their's with each other. AOL did not and there was no API for 3rd parties to use in a universal communicator. Other communicators were better, feature-wise, but most of the world was using AIM. When asked "why not?" they had some lame excuse like "complexity." (translation - what do WE get out of it?)
Only after AOL started losing marketshare in droves did they begin to allow others to integrate. By then, anyone with an @aol.com address was the laughing stock of the Internet and the biggest use was for an aggregator like Trillian, Pidgin, etc. to allow messages to Grandma who still swore AOL = Internet.
Right now, Apple is in the "What do WE get out of it?" stage.