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> iMessage requires a dedicated Mac, for example You had me really excited until this part. I'm moving away from a Macbook soon and my most missed feature will

> iMessage requires a dedicated Mac, for example You had me really excited until this part. I'm moving away from a Macbook soon and my most missed feature will be desktop texting.

roland-s 7y ago
If you're willing to ditch iOS, Android has Messages for Web (an official service by Google) which lets you view/send SMS from any browser and supports file attachments etc. It's pretty great.
- pragmatic 7y ago
  It's great. I use it all day, for just the reasons outlined above.
- ptman 7y ago
  Now this just needs a matrix bridge
mikenew 7y ago
Yeah sorry :/ There isn't an iMessage API to talk to, so the only way that anyone has found to bridge with iMessage is to have an instance of macOS running, logged in as you, and to send messages through the iMessage app via AppleScripts and to watch the filesystem for incoming messages. It would be great if there were some API you could use to send messages through, but Apple has worked hard to keep iMessage locked down to Apple devices. Having said that, I bought an old Mac Mini off of ebay for about $100, and it's been working pretty well for the past year or so. It's not an easy solution, but as far as I know it's the only solution for using iMessage on an Android or non-macOS desktop.
- tbrock 7y ago
  I’ve been wanting to do this since I run a Linux desktop and laptop. What software did you use to make it work?
  - Arathorn 7y ago
    https://github.com/matrix-hacks/matrix-puppet-imessage https://github.com/matrix-hacks/matrix-puppet-imessage is the main one; i've used it at points and it worked pretty well :)
- apsdsm 7y ago
  Yikes that’s a lot of work to keep messages synced, but kudos to you for engineering around Apple!
- e12e 7y ago
  There's (still) no sanctioned way to run os x in a VM (on non apple hw)?
jacobush 7y ago
If you are willing to wade in gray, you can make a virtual machine Mac for this.
- martindale 7y ago
  As someone actively blocked by Apple's restrictions on development, care to share a link to an up-to-date, working guide on how to do this?
  - voltagex_ 7y ago
    https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM
- Arathorn 7y ago
  given iMessage's DRM looks superficially to stretch down to the silicon, I'm wondering if a hackintosh or VM actually solves the problem here...
  - mkj 7y ago
    At the moment there are still supported Macs without hardware security, a Macbook Pro 2013 for example. It should work OK for the time being.
sametmax 7y ago
Pulse sms does that with android, don't know if it exists in iphone.
nichos 7y ago
You can switch to a protocol like signal. It had a desktop client.
amelius 7y ago
The best solution here is to convince your friends to move to Matrix too.
xtat 7y ago
imessage: not even once

> iMessage requires a dedicated Mac, for example You had me really excited until this part. I'm moving away from a Macbook soon and my most missed feature will be desktop texting.

roland-s 7y ago

If you're willing to ditch iOS, Android has Messages for Web (an official service by Google) which lets you view/send SMS from any browser and supports file attachments etc. It's pretty great.

pragmatic 7y ago
It's great. I use it all day, for just the reasons outlined above.
ptman 7y ago
Now this just needs a matrix bridge

mikenew 7y ago

Yeah sorry :/ There isn't an iMessage API to talk to, so the only way that anyone has found to bridge with iMessage is to have an instance of macOS running, logged in as you, and to send messages through the iMessage app via AppleScripts and to watch the filesystem for incoming messages. It would be great if there were some API you could use to send messages through, but Apple has worked hard to keep iMessage locked down to Apple devices. Having said that, I bought an old Mac Mini off of ebay for about $100, and it's been working pretty well for the past year or so. It's not an easy solution, but as far as I know it's the only solution for using iMessage on an Android or non-macOS desktop.

tbrock 7y ago
I’ve been wanting to do this since I run a Linux desktop and laptop. What software did you use to make it work?
- Arathorn 7y ago
  https://github.com/matrix-hacks/matrix-puppet-imessage https://github.com/matrix-hacks/matrix-puppet-imessage is the main one; i've used it at points and it worked pretty well :)
apsdsm 7y ago
Yikes that’s a lot of work to keep messages synced, but kudos to you for engineering around Apple!
e12e 7y ago
There's (still) no sanctioned way to run os x in a VM (on non apple hw)?

jacobush 7y ago

If you are willing to wade in gray, you can make a virtual machine Mac for this.

martindale 7y ago
As someone actively blocked by Apple's restrictions on development, care to share a link to an up-to-date, working guide on how to do this?
- voltagex_ 7y ago
  https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM
Arathorn 7y ago
given iMessage's DRM looks superficially to stretch down to the silicon, I'm wondering if a hackintosh or VM actually solves the problem here...
- mkj 7y ago
  At the moment there are still supported Macs without hardware security, a Macbook Pro 2013 for example. It should work OK for the time being.

sametmax 7y ago

Pulse sms does that with android, don't know if it exists in iphone.

nichos 7y ago

You can switch to a protocol like signal. It had a desktop client.

amelius 7y ago

The best solution here is to convince your friends to move to Matrix too.

xtat 7y ago

imessage: not even once