18 ms·

AirMessage – Android app to interface with iMessage on a Mac

189 points by admp 6y ago

dgfitz 6y ago
I set up a VM and had this whole stack working about a year ago. While it was fun to get up and running, it proved to me enough of a nuisance that a few months later I bought my first iPhone. Happy to answer questions about my experience. I applaud the author for the work and found it to be a really neat hack.
- sickcodebruh 6y ago
  I was just looking at this because I’d really like the option of switching to Android. In what ways was operating AirMessage a nuisance?
  - huffmsa 6y ago
    It's not fully compatible. It's okay. Better than being the odd sms user out for group chats, but not excellent.
  - dgfitz 6y ago
    Getting the VM up and running was a bit of work. Without getting into it much, the VM needed to be convinced it was a real machine with a real serial number, etc. took a it but I got that sorted out. I needed that working so I could create an real iCloud account that would allow me to use iMessage first on the VM and then again on the android app. Before Apple let’s you use iMessage you need to convince them you bought Apple hardware. The VM constantly wanted to restart for updates, which I was scared to do because of the tenuous nature of the VM I had set up. I ended up having to re-do the Vm 3-4 times because I would inadvertently break something with a small tweak. Th VM wanted to be rather directly exposed to the outside world. Of course there were ways to try and make things more secure, but I didn’t really try. I would have to sync messages from the VM to my phone if for some reason the VM went down because of a restart or power outage. The VM was running on a Windows 10 box, and windows likes to update and restart whenever it feels like it. I had to use the AirMessage app, which of course makes sense, but the texts didn’t integrate with a native android message platform. Again this makes sense, it was just a little annoying sometimes. People had to know to iMessage me with the email address I had connected to iCloud. I couldn’t connect my phone number. So everyone who wanted to iMessage me needed to both know and use the email address instead of my number. I’ve had this number for about 20 years, and trying to sort that out with everyone seemed like more trouble than it was worth. There iMessage features that I remember not working, all the “likes” and whatnot on a message. Sending pictures was pretty slow and painful, and didn’t always work. There are probably a few more things I’m forgetting. I really want to convey again, I applaud the author for what they’ve accomplished and I think it’s really neat. Perhaps some/all of these pain points are resolved. I tried to give feedback in the private reddit when that was a thing because I really wanted this to be my way to iMessage on an android.
    - Waterfall 6y ago
      The serial, how did you get it working? I tried generating a few of them and they never worked. I got one from my MacBook to put on another computer, it worked for a while but one day clover (osx bootloader for non Mac hardware) updated and it stopped working. I am not sure if the serial had an issue or something, did you have a similar issue? I ran it on bare metal and my use was different (just to have my messages and iPhone synced) so it worked ok for me until i updated it and stopped using osx.
      - dgfitz 6y ago
        There was quite a bit I had to do with generating the right set of serial number + I think two other numbers that escape me, using I believe clover. I also had to do a good bit of hand modification of the vmx file leveraging the generated numbers. It took a good bit of googling. I wish I remembered the details better.
    - lostlogin 6y ago
      > I ended up having to re-do the Vm 3-4 times because I would inadvertently break something with a small tweak. What virtualisation software were you using? Snapshots should have had you covered against breaking changes. Thanks for the review.
      - dgfitz 6y ago
        I ended up leveraging snapshots after a few flubs. A lot of the tinkering was with the vmx file and I remember at least once doing something incorrect and bricking the VM, because I didn’t remember what had changed. I was using VMware.
tantalor 6y ago
Requires a Mac to relay messages: AirMessage leverages the power of your Mac computer in order to route messages to and from Apple's iMessage servers. The server is to be installed on a computer at home, and will pass messages to and from your smartphone to allow the usage of iMessage and other installed services. https://airmessage.org/help/ https://airmessage.org/help/
- jedberg 6y ago
  Haha! That’s a bit of a caveat isn’t it?
- snazz 6y ago
  This is a significant trade-off, of course, but it is also the only secure way to use iMessage on Android as I understand it. Otherwise, you would have to trust a third party with your Apple ID credentials and iMessage signing key. Plus, you can always run a Hackintosh or use macOS in a VM, although that can be a lot of work depending on your computer hardware.
  - arkadiyt 6y ago
    > it is also the only secure way to use iMessage on Android as I understand it I'm not very familiar with the workings of iMessage but why can't an Android device copy the protocol and make the relevant API calls directly?
    - paulryanrogers 6y ago
      Might be a violation of ToS
    - no_wizard 6y ago
      IIRC, it’s more than just an API, Apple has implemented device specific signing that isn’t possible to replicate in this way, as far as I can recall. I don’t know the full details but I know this is part of the reason nobody has really even attempted to fly under the radar this way. It’s part of what’s downloaded on fresh installs of the operating system (hence why it sometimes works in a VM, though I’ve heard with each release iMessage is harder to get working in a VM)
chromedev 6y ago
I've switched everyone I know to Telegram, which works on all devices and isn't anti-competitive like Apple.
- hh3k0 6y ago
  Why not Signal?
  - chromedev 6y ago
    Because Signal isn't user-friendly, and does not work well between multiple devices.
    - Krasnol 6y ago
      It's just as user-friendly as the most popular messenger we have in the western world: WhatsApp. So it can't be that bad. Why doesn't it work well between multiple devices?
      - solarkraft 6y ago
        > So it can't be that bad It is. I currently can't use WhatsApp because my phone is broken, meanwhile I can happily chat away via Telegram. Same thing when my phone is off. Back when they didn't have WhatsApp Web you couldn't even use it on another device at all, but as slick as the UI it's still not really a proper solution. Meanwhile Telegram has real FOSS clients for any platform you can imagine (there's a CLI version).
        Krasnol 6y ago
        > It is. I currently can't use WhatsApp because my phone is broken, meanwhile I can happily chat away via Telegram. You should try Signal than because there it's possible. > Meanwhile Telegram has real FOSS clients for any platform you can imagine (there's a CLI version). Just FYI: I'm not arguing for Whatsapp. Just against the usability argument against Signal.
Reason077 6y ago
I'm surprised that Apple hasn't made an official iMessage app for Android. After all, there is Apple Music for Android and iCloud for Windows.
- dewey 6y ago
  Not really surprising. iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not. The latter two services can make more service revenue if available on more platforms while iMessage is not adding to that.
  - Reason077 6y ago
    > "iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not." Does it really, though? I'm an iPhone user but have friends and family who have moved to Android without too much drama. Our chats just moved to other messaging apps with barely a second thought. If we lived in a world where WhatsApp and other cross-platform messaging apps didn't exist, then there would be a strong lock-in effect. But as it stands the iMessage lock-in is weak, at best.
    - alxlu 6y ago
      It’s managed to lock me in. I’ve been trying to completely move off of the Apple ecosystem for the last year or so. I think for a lot of people (including myself) there’s going to be a few holdouts that only use iMessage and don’t want to switch and I’m not going to stop communicating with people I enjoy interacting with over technology preferences.
      - valuearb 6y ago
        SMS works on all phones
        alxlu 6y ago
        It doesn't work when people have email based iMessage accounts. It also doesn't work well for sending larger images/videos, not to mention the other random niceties that come with other modern messaging apps (e.g. read messages, text effects, being seamlessly synced across all devices, etc.)
prtkgpt 6y ago
Sounds like a middle man security breach waiting to happen. I am not sure how Apple feels about this. I am not using this until security is guaranteed.
- damnyou 6y ago
  I would care more about how Apple feels about this after it releases an Android app on its own. Being available to more people is more valuable than being secure.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Security of never guaranteed.
- snazz 6y ago
  The smart part is that this doesn't require a middle man since it uses your own Mac to receive messages.
hsnewman 6y ago
"Please note that a Mac computer is required to use this app."
mmcdole 6y ago
I wish they had a linux version available. It is the one thing I truly miss from my switch to running Linux as my primary operating system on my work laptop.
cworsley4 6y ago
Try porterhouse.app
- jdalgetty 6y ago
  can this also receive messages?
  - mh- 6y ago
    No, it's just for spam.
  - cworsley4 6y ago
    No, just for sending. https://porterhouse.app/use-cases https://porterhouse.app/use-cases Some use cases of existing users.
cworsley4 6y ago
Try https://porterhouse.app https://porterhouse.app for mass iMessage messaging
- valuearb 6y ago
  You should disclose your ownership of this site when posting about it.
  - cworsley4 6y ago
    Lol. Cry more.
seanparsons 6y ago
Surely helping prop up iMessage is a terrible idea? Especially if it still has that "feature" where if you switch from an iPhone to an Android phone the messages aren't sent to your phone for a while?
- jdxcode 6y ago
  I think characterizing this as having any effect of “propping up” iMessage is laughable. To call it a “terrible idea” is unfair to the project creators. They’re solving a problem people have, they’re not the cause of it.
  - seanparsons 6y ago
    But the problem stems from their use of iMessage and Apple not doing an Android app.
- untog 6y ago
  > if you switch from an iPhone to an Android phone the messages aren't sent to your phone for a while? Apple set up a page years ago that lets you manually disable iMessage to avoid this issue. And yeah, I personally dislike iMessage as a concept. But I use it a lot every day and it’s simply better than SMS. So I don’t blame the creators for doing what they’re doing.
  - seanparsons 6y ago
    > Apple set up a page years ago that lets you manually disable iMessage to avoid this issue. Exactly, why is a page needed in the first place? I'd bet more than 99% of users don't even have a clue that exists or even know about the underlying problem.
    - untog 6y ago
      The page is needed because Apple has no way of knowing whether you have turned your iPhone off for a couple of days or whether you’ve switched away permanently. It isn’t necessary if you do a factory reset of the phone, which also covers a lot of bases.
ajharrison 6y ago
It’s literally 1000% easier to just buy an iPhone/iPod/iPad.
- adenta 6y ago
  In my use case, I wanted a smaller phone, that’s harder to get sucked in to using (http://palm.com/ http://palm.com/).
pkz 6y ago
I really wish there was an iMessage application for Windows. iPhone <-> Windows 10 interoperability is not really there.
- toxik 6y ago
  Entirely intentional on Apple’s part, of course.
- wdr1 6y ago
  Same, but I have to believe the lack of it is intentional.
ewired 6y ago
Apple's iMessage lock-in and the effect it has on teens in the USA is disgusting. I think it's worse and deserves more attention than all of Apple's other atrocities combined; sadly, it won't get it, because it doesn't cause x rich people to lose money. Nobody loses money on iMessage except the parents (likely low-income) which are forced to buy an iPhone because their teens were left out of groups with friends and essentially excluded from socialization in school. This even comes down to bullying and exclusion over something as simple as a "green bubble" or a "blue bubble" just like bullying for having a more affordable brand of shoes. The effects are especially clear in rural places where standard SMS is far less reliable than Wi-Fi-based messaging. Nearly every peer I've asked has stated they know for a fact they would be plum left out of groups if they were to buy a phone without built-in iMessage. Props to Apple for developing the iMessage technology and making it accessible in the ways they already have, but very shameful and evil of them to pit iPhone users against non-iPhone users with something vital to humans like communication just so they can sell more iPhones. They've found a fantastically profitable way to abuse psychology in teens, as if it wasn't already bad enough that they're considered a designer brand. I'm honestly shocked that no one seems to care about this, and I haven't heard much protest other than from the many parents who were forced into buying an iPhone. Just buy an iPhone, problem solved. Just stay in debt to a major mobile carrier. Just keep upgrading. Just stay locked in. I would say the forced iMessage segregation alone is responsible for much of Apple's growth in the USA, and it's disturbing that it's allowed to continue without much protest from anyone.
- cptskippy 6y ago
  This does need more attention, I have teenagers and can confirm this is what happens. The Blue vs Green bubble is a huge stigma. Another thing I've noticed is that delivery of SMS to iPhones is very unreliable. I'm not sure why that is but I'll send SMS messages to our family group chat from my Android Device and my partner's phone will ding almost immediately but it can be up to 24 hours before my teen gets the message on an iPhone X.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 6y ago
    Talk to your carrier about that delay. I bet they don't have any problems receiving 2FA messages etc.
coffeeboy27 6y ago
If anyone here is interested in texting from an Android using a Mac app without propping up iMesssage I strongly recommend you look into Google Messages. It works out of the box and is better than most stock messaging apps. I switched over from MightyText a couple years ago and never looked back. https://messages.google.com/ https://messages.google.com/
- hundchenkatze 6y ago
  That's not what this is. This runs on an always-on Mac and relays iMessages to and from your Android phone.
codemac 6y ago
Got my entire immediate family on signal - the big feature is the multi device support for a lot of folks on iMessage, using the Signal desktop app seems to be good enough.
brentis 6y ago
I dare say every move Apple makes is to surreptitiously lock in users and create a protected lock-in. They have mastered the approach, perhaps accidentally, by slowly rolling the features over time across their device portfolio to the extent the the masses don't see what's happening. Google isn't much different. Gmail, YouTube, and Chrome 10yrs ago were obvious venues to extend their advertising channels. Chrome is their nuclear option in case hardware or other legal issues prevent their current ad insertion techniques.

189 points by admp 6y ago

I set up a VM and had this whole stack working about a year ago. While it was fun to get up and running, it proved to me enough of a nuisance that a few months later I bought my first iPhone. Happy to answer questions about my experience. I applaud the author for the work and found it to be a really neat hack.

sickcodebruh 6y ago
I was just looking at this because I’d really like the option of switching to Android. In what ways was operating AirMessage a nuisance?
- huffmsa 6y ago
  It's not fully compatible. It's okay. Better than being the odd sms user out for group chats, but not excellent.
- dgfitz 6y ago
  Getting the VM up and running was a bit of work. Without getting into it much, the VM needed to be convinced it was a real machine with a real serial number, etc. took a it but I got that sorted out. I needed that working so I could create an real iCloud account that would allow me to use iMessage first on the VM and then again on the android app. Before Apple let’s you use iMessage you need to convince them you bought Apple hardware. The VM constantly wanted to restart for updates, which I was scared to do because of the tenuous nature of the VM I had set up. I ended up having to re-do the Vm 3-4 times because I would inadvertently break something with a small tweak. Th VM wanted to be rather directly exposed to the outside world. Of course there were ways to try and make things more secure, but I didn’t really try. I would have to sync messages from the VM to my phone if for some reason the VM went down because of a restart or power outage. The VM was running on a Windows 10 box, and windows likes to update and restart whenever it feels like it. I had to use the AirMessage app, which of course makes sense, but the texts didn’t integrate with a native android message platform. Again this makes sense, it was just a little annoying sometimes. People had to know to iMessage me with the email address I had connected to iCloud. I couldn’t connect my phone number. So everyone who wanted to iMessage me needed to both know and use the email address instead of my number. I’ve had this number for about 20 years, and trying to sort that out with everyone seemed like more trouble than it was worth. There iMessage features that I remember not working, all the “likes” and whatnot on a message. Sending pictures was pretty slow and painful, and didn’t always work. There are probably a few more things I’m forgetting. I really want to convey again, I applaud the author for what they’ve accomplished and I think it’s really neat. Perhaps some/all of these pain points are resolved. I tried to give feedback in the private reddit when that was a thing because I really wanted this to be my way to iMessage on an android.
  - Waterfall 6y ago
    The serial, how did you get it working? I tried generating a few of them and they never worked. I got one from my MacBook to put on another computer, it worked for a while but one day clover (osx bootloader for non Mac hardware) updated and it stopped working. I am not sure if the serial had an issue or something, did you have a similar issue? I ran it on bare metal and my use was different (just to have my messages and iPhone synced) so it worked ok for me until i updated it and stopped using osx.
    - dgfitz 6y ago
      There was quite a bit I had to do with generating the right set of serial number + I think two other numbers that escape me, using I believe clover. I also had to do a good bit of hand modification of the vmx file leveraging the generated numbers. It took a good bit of googling. I wish I remembered the details better.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    > I ended up having to re-do the Vm 3-4 times because I would inadvertently break something with a small tweak. What virtualisation software were you using? Snapshots should have had you covered against breaking changes. Thanks for the review.
    - dgfitz 6y ago
      I ended up leveraging snapshots after a few flubs. A lot of the tinkering was with the vmx file and I remember at least once doing something incorrect and bricking the VM, because I didn’t remember what had changed. I was using VMware.

tantalor 6y ago

Requires a Mac to relay messages: AirMessage leverages the power of your Mac computer in order to route messages to and from Apple's iMessage servers. The server is to be installed on a computer at home, and will pass messages to and from your smartphone to allow the usage of iMessage and other installed services. https://airmessage.org/help/ https://airmessage.org/help/

jedberg 6y ago
Haha! That’s a bit of a caveat isn’t it?
snazz 6y ago
This is a significant trade-off, of course, but it is also the only secure way to use iMessage on Android as I understand it. Otherwise, you would have to trust a third party with your Apple ID credentials and iMessage signing key. Plus, you can always run a Hackintosh or use macOS in a VM, although that can be a lot of work depending on your computer hardware.
- arkadiyt 6y ago
  > it is also the only secure way to use iMessage on Android as I understand it I'm not very familiar with the workings of iMessage but why can't an Android device copy the protocol and make the relevant API calls directly?
  - paulryanrogers 6y ago
    Might be a violation of ToS
  - no_wizard 6y ago
    IIRC, it’s more than just an API, Apple has implemented device specific signing that isn’t possible to replicate in this way, as far as I can recall. I don’t know the full details but I know this is part of the reason nobody has really even attempted to fly under the radar this way. It’s part of what’s downloaded on fresh installs of the operating system (hence why it sometimes works in a VM, though I’ve heard with each release iMessage is harder to get working in a VM)

chromedev 6y ago

I've switched everyone I know to Telegram, which works on all devices and isn't anti-competitive like Apple.

hh3k0 6y ago
Why not Signal?
- chromedev 6y ago
  Because Signal isn't user-friendly, and does not work well between multiple devices.
  - Krasnol 6y ago
    It's just as user-friendly as the most popular messenger we have in the western world: WhatsApp. So it can't be that bad. Why doesn't it work well between multiple devices?
    - solarkraft 6y ago
      > So it can't be that bad It is. I currently can't use WhatsApp because my phone is broken, meanwhile I can happily chat away via Telegram. Same thing when my phone is off. Back when they didn't have WhatsApp Web you couldn't even use it on another device at all, but as slick as the UI it's still not really a proper solution. Meanwhile Telegram has real FOSS clients for any platform you can imagine (there's a CLI version).
      - Krasnol 6y ago
        > It is. I currently can't use WhatsApp because my phone is broken, meanwhile I can happily chat away via Telegram. You should try Signal than because there it's possible. > Meanwhile Telegram has real FOSS clients for any platform you can imagine (there's a CLI version). Just FYI: I'm not arguing for Whatsapp. Just against the usability argument against Signal.

Reason077 6y ago

I'm surprised that Apple hasn't made an official iMessage app for Android. After all, there is Apple Music for Android and iCloud for Windows.

dewey 6y ago
Not really surprising. iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not. The latter two services can make more service revenue if available on more platforms while iMessage is not adding to that.
- Reason077 6y ago
  > "iMessage has a very strong lock-in effect while iCloud and Apple Music do not." Does it really, though? I'm an iPhone user but have friends and family who have moved to Android without too much drama. Our chats just moved to other messaging apps with barely a second thought. If we lived in a world where WhatsApp and other cross-platform messaging apps didn't exist, then there would be a strong lock-in effect. But as it stands the iMessage lock-in is weak, at best.
  - alxlu 6y ago
    It’s managed to lock me in. I’ve been trying to completely move off of the Apple ecosystem for the last year or so. I think for a lot of people (including myself) there’s going to be a few holdouts that only use iMessage and don’t want to switch and I’m not going to stop communicating with people I enjoy interacting with over technology preferences.
    - valuearb 6y ago
      SMS works on all phones
      - alxlu 6y ago
        It doesn't work when people have email based iMessage accounts. It also doesn't work well for sending larger images/videos, not to mention the other random niceties that come with other modern messaging apps (e.g. read messages, text effects, being seamlessly synced across all devices, etc.)

prtkgpt 6y ago

Sounds like a middle man security breach waiting to happen. I am not sure how Apple feels about this. I am not using this until security is guaranteed.

damnyou 6y ago
I would care more about how Apple feels about this after it releases an Android app on its own. Being available to more people is more valuable than being secure.
saagarjha 6y ago
Security of never guaranteed.
snazz 6y ago
The smart part is that this doesn't require a middle man since it uses your own Mac to receive messages.

hsnewman 6y ago

"Please note that a Mac computer is required to use this app."

mmcdole 6y ago

I wish they had a linux version available. It is the one thing I truly miss from my switch to running Linux as my primary operating system on my work laptop.

cworsley4 6y ago

Try porterhouse.app

jdalgetty 6y ago
can this also receive messages?
- mh- 6y ago
  No, it's just for spam.
- cworsley4 6y ago
  No, just for sending. https://porterhouse.app/use-cases https://porterhouse.app/use-cases Some use cases of existing users.

cworsley4 6y ago

Try https://porterhouse.app https://porterhouse.app for mass iMessage messaging

valuearb 6y ago
You should disclose your ownership of this site when posting about it.
- cworsley4 6y ago
  Lol. Cry more.

seanparsons 6y ago

Surely helping prop up iMessage is a terrible idea? Especially if it still has that "feature" where if you switch from an iPhone to an Android phone the messages aren't sent to your phone for a while?

jdxcode 6y ago
I think characterizing this as having any effect of “propping up” iMessage is laughable. To call it a “terrible idea” is unfair to the project creators. They’re solving a problem people have, they’re not the cause of it.
- seanparsons 6y ago
  But the problem stems from their use of iMessage and Apple not doing an Android app.
untog 6y ago
> if you switch from an iPhone to an Android phone the messages aren't sent to your phone for a while? Apple set up a page years ago that lets you manually disable iMessage to avoid this issue. And yeah, I personally dislike iMessage as a concept. But I use it a lot every day and it’s simply better than SMS. So I don’t blame the creators for doing what they’re doing.
- seanparsons 6y ago
  > Apple set up a page years ago that lets you manually disable iMessage to avoid this issue. Exactly, why is a page needed in the first place? I'd bet more than 99% of users don't even have a clue that exists or even know about the underlying problem.
  - untog 6y ago
    The page is needed because Apple has no way of knowing whether you have turned your iPhone off for a couple of days or whether you’ve switched away permanently. It isn’t necessary if you do a factory reset of the phone, which also covers a lot of bases.

ajharrison 6y ago

It’s literally 1000% easier to just buy an iPhone/iPod/iPad.

adenta 6y ago
In my use case, I wanted a smaller phone, that’s harder to get sucked in to using (http://palm.com/ http://palm.com/).

pkz 6y ago

I really wish there was an iMessage application for Windows. iPhone <-> Windows 10 interoperability is not really there.

toxik 6y ago
Entirely intentional on Apple’s part, of course.
wdr1 6y ago
Same, but I have to believe the lack of it is intentional.

ewired 6y ago

Apple's iMessage lock-in and the effect it has on teens in the USA is disgusting. I think it's worse and deserves more attention than all of Apple's other atrocities combined; sadly, it won't get it, because it doesn't cause x rich people to lose money. Nobody loses money on iMessage except the parents (likely low-income) which are forced to buy an iPhone because their teens were left out of groups with friends and essentially excluded from socialization in school. This even comes down to bullying and exclusion over something as simple as a "green bubble" or a "blue bubble" just like bullying for having a more affordable brand of shoes. The effects are especially clear in rural places where standard SMS is far less reliable than Wi-Fi-based messaging. Nearly every peer I've asked has stated they know for a fact they would be plum left out of groups if they were to buy a phone without built-in iMessage. Props to Apple for developing the iMessage technology and making it accessible in the ways they already have, but very shameful and evil of them to pit iPhone users against non-iPhone users with something vital to humans like communication just so they can sell more iPhones. They've found a fantastically profitable way to abuse psychology in teens, as if it wasn't already bad enough that they're considered a designer brand. I'm honestly shocked that no one seems to care about this, and I haven't heard much protest other than from the many parents who were forced into buying an iPhone. Just buy an iPhone, problem solved. Just stay in debt to a major mobile carrier. Just keep upgrading. Just stay locked in. I would say the forced iMessage segregation alone is responsible for much of Apple's growth in the USA, and it's disturbing that it's allowed to continue without much protest from anyone.

cptskippy 6y ago
This does need more attention, I have teenagers and can confirm this is what happens. The Blue vs Green bubble is a huge stigma. Another thing I've noticed is that delivery of SMS to iPhones is very unreliable. I'm not sure why that is but I'll send SMS messages to our family group chat from my Android Device and my partner's phone will ding almost immediately but it can be up to 24 hours before my teen gets the message on an iPhone X.
- ThePowerOfFuet 6y ago
  Talk to your carrier about that delay. I bet they don't have any problems receiving 2FA messages etc.

coffeeboy27 6y ago

If anyone here is interested in texting from an Android using a Mac app without propping up iMesssage I strongly recommend you look into Google Messages. It works out of the box and is better than most stock messaging apps. I switched over from MightyText a couple years ago and never looked back. https://messages.google.com/ https://messages.google.com/

hundchenkatze 6y ago
That's not what this is. This runs on an always-on Mac and relays iMessages to and from your Android phone.

codemac 6y ago

Got my entire immediate family on signal - the big feature is the multi device support for a lot of folks on iMessage, using the Signal desktop app seems to be good enough.

brentis 6y ago

I dare say every move Apple makes is to surreptitiously lock in users and create a protected lock-in. They have mastered the approach, perhaps accidentally, by slowly rolling the features over time across their device portfolio to the extent the the masses don't see what's happening. Google isn't much different. Gmail, YouTube, and Chrome 10yrs ago were obvious venues to extend their advertising channels. Chrome is their nuclear option in case hardware or other legal issues prevent their current ad insertion techniques.