iPhone 8Plus iMessage lag

Hi guys! Not sure if I'm posting in the correct forum.

So, I recently got the new iPhone 8Plus in November. So far, I've noticed there's pretty noticeable and also frustrating lag on iMessage. It doesn't happen on Safari or in other apps like Facebook messenger or email. When I try to text in iMessage it consistently lags, but it doesn't crash. Sometimes if I restart my phone it goes away, but lately that hasn't been helping. I've also done the master reboot and that stopped it for maybe three days before it came back again. I'm assuming it may be an iOS 11 software issue?

Has this happened to anyone else and, if so, has anyone found a solution to this problem? It's a brand new phone and works fine otherwise, so I really would like to avoid going to the Apple Store to fix this minor issue.

Thanks!