> You are a counter-example for sure, but this means that you don't have a group chat platform to plan coordinated events with your friends?

Signal, Text Message, and most importantly and most universal, E-mail. I've coordinated Secret Santa events purely by email for the past 5 years.

Friends? What friends?

More seriously... My wife has friends that she sees pretty regularly, because we still live in her home state near where she grew up, but I really don't. I'm not sure what they use to organize but I do know that it isn't Facebook or WhatsApp.

I have a couple of friends that I keep in touch with over text but we aren't a group of friends. One of my friends does have a large friend group and I happen to be in a group MMS because of him. But it's not a place where events are organized because his friends are also scattered all over the country.

I use Discord for the group that I play DnD and video games with but, again, we're scattered all over the country. Only one of them is nearby.

How this used to work: You invite your friends to dinner, with enough lead time that they can avoid making other plans. They accept, or decline.

I just use text message group chats, and so do most people I know.

Telegram or slack or discord or even iMessage or SMS can provide group chat.

It can make it even easier, especially if you have various groups you interact with on different platforms.