We hired 3 experienced app developers a few months ago. That's now our app development team working on overhauling these apps. They've already replaced the entire Messaging app user interface with a new modern Compose UI. Messaging v13 is currently in the Alpha channel and v14 is on the way with a bunch of additional fixes needed for it to reach Beta and Stable. Multiple other apps including Contacts are well into the same overhaul process.