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Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux
- pzmarzly 2mo ago> Personally, I think putting an interoperability protocol implementation behind a copyleft license is a little unfortunate! Huh, haven't thought of it. Just relicensed ancs4linux to MIT.
- kees99 2mo agoIsn't this[0] the use-case that is supposedly covered by LGPL? [0] copyleft-licensed library that could be legally linked into non-copyleft code base.
- LinuxIsntVeryGo 2mo ago[flagged]
- b40d-48b2-979e 2mo agoThose poor multi-trillion dollar companies that can't use copyleft projects, whatever will they do?
- voakbasda 2mo agoI love HN. Read an article that raises a reasonable point about a project’s license, and that project’s author shows up to announce they were convinced and changed the license accordingly. Repo was updated 5 minutes ago. It’s things like this that give me hope for the world.
- stackghost 2mo agoNot to be Debbie Downer but software licensing has no effect on what matters to billions of people. We are facing very real global and societal issues that people on this site are actively exacerbating, like disinformation and climate change. If a dude changing an inconsequential text file on GitHub gives you hope for the world, then please broaden your perspective.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- kaonwarb 2mo agoMaking one small corner of the world a little bit better is a good thing. There's not much use in complaining that it's not as big of an impact as could hypothetically be achieved on some larger issues.
- stackghost 2mo agoIt's things like this that rob my of my hope for the world.
- chermi 2mo agoLol. Someone liking this change is stupid for letting it lift their outlook, right? How stupid is it then to let this comment rob your hope.
- Barbing 2mo ago:) Alternative reply to lighten mood in odd thread: Not to be Debbie Downer but making one small corner of the world a little bit better has no effect on what matters to billions of people. We are facing very real global and societal issues that people are actively exacerbating. If a dude explaining that there’s not much use in complaining robs you of hope for the world, then please broaden your perspective.
- LeFantome 2mo agoThank you!
- Luker88 2mo agoYou might want to check again for something that has patent protection. apache2+llvm exception, or just the mozilla public license... EUPL is also basically GPL without being viral, too.
- zackb 2mo agoThank you for all the hard work and inspiration.
- nvr219 2mo agoHero
- huimang 2mo agoPlease consider using the LGPL instead.
- 2Gkashmiri 2mo agoI don't know. What's a feature not in KDE connect that the writer wanted and it didn't have? They could always submit a pr. Beeper exists you know.... I have a question. It's fine to build for your own self but is it okay to release something in public when the environment is a moving target and you are just a one-man team keeping it afloat? Wouldn't it be better to go behind established FOSS products and not reinvent the wheel when you don't have to? I understand no one can tell you how to or why to do certain things but there comes a time, when youw want to help, not build the next temple os and instead help manjaro or whatever is cool these days?
- utopiah 2mo agoGlad you brought that up, I was actually going to suggest not to replace KDE Connect but rather to become interoperable with it because AFAIR (but didn't touch an iPhone for few years now) there is no iOS client for it.
- voakbasda 2mo agoMega-kudos to the author for chipping away at the wall around Apple’s garden. I have had a iPhone for 15 years, and I have only ever been able to back it up with iTunes on windows (as I will never buy a Mac). Apple’s refusal to provide interoperability borders on criminal. I wish there was a better option.
- abcd_f 2mo agoHave a look at https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice and iOS backup projects that are based on it.
- voakbasda 2mo agoOver the years, I have tried to make that solution work, but it never ever went smoothly. Maybe it’s time to try it again, but it’s an arms race from what I remember. Apple just keeps changing things; if you’re on the latest iOS version, it was unlikely to work. Has that changed?
- dadoum 2mo agoOr idevice [0] (the one I prefer), or go-ios [1], or pymobiledevice3 [2] [0]: https://github.com/jkcoxson/idevice https://github.com/jkcoxson/idevice [1]: https://github.com/danielpaulus/go-ios https://github.com/danielpaulus/go-ios [2]: https://github.com/doronz88/pymobiledevice3 https://github.com/doronz88/pymobiledevice3
- LinuxIsntVeryGo 2mo ago[flagged]
- cassianoleal 2mo agoThey don't have to add support. All they need is APIs and documentation.
- LinuxIsntVeryGo 2mo ago
- select1 2mo ago[dead]
- SoftTalker 2mo agoWasn't there another iMessage clone for Linux/Android a few years back and they got a C&D from Apple? Or maybe Apple just blocked their service?
- aaronax 2mo agoBeeper?
- SoftTalker 2mo agoYes that sounds right.
- ghostly_s 2mo agoYes, I don't see why the author expects anything different to happen this time. I guess there's a new king on the throne.
- jnovek 2mo agoThere’s bluebubbles which runs a server on a Mac and syncs your messages that way.
- cromka 2mo agoIts derivative OpenBubbles doesn't, though
- trollbridge 2mo agoAs a general rule, Apple will shut down an operator of such service once it gets used to pump out spam. Of course, every spammer dreams of their spam texts coming through as a blue bubble.
- inigyou 2mo agoWhat if there is no operator?
- 2mo ago
- porridgeraisin 2mo agoI use whatsapp primarily, so no tethering needed, but SMS of course for one-time passwords and the like. I didn't want to open my phone for that. So I had a coding agent write an android background app for me that listens for SMS and forwards it to a discord server, and side loaded it. So now I get a discord notif on my laptop with the OTP.
- internet_points 2mo agothere is also kde connect (or valent for the gnome UI)
- dwedge 2mo agoWhatsApp has started hiding otps sent to linked devices
- Marsymars 2mo agoGoogle Messages also does that, though it seems to be some opt-in setting for the sender, probably related to RCS?
- porridgeraisin 2mo agoYep, but I mostly get SMS OTPs. Whatsapp is all the other messages
- kvemkon 2mo agoIs there an easy way to share iOS clipboard to Linux directly using local WiFi without going through any cloud? Edit: clarification in my reply later in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49492003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49492003
- cpuguy83 2mo ago"Easy" is subjective, but tether seems like it would do this? There is also kdeconnect (don't let the "KDE" fool you).
- kvemkon 2mo agoThat's what I thought at first but then discovered: > universal clipboard is synchronized over internet, it is not done trough cable connection. it uses apple continuity service, what you put into UC is uploaded into apple cloud,.. https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice/issues/1143 https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice/issues/... That's why I'm a bit confused now. > don't let the "KDE" fool you Being GNOME2-then-MATE user, it really would.
- inigyou 2mo agoIt's a project by KDE, but it doesn't require you to use the KDE desktop environment. I'm sure it integrates with that but it doesn't require it.
- cassianoleal 2mo agoLiterally OP does this. It doesn't share it automatically like iOS-to-macOS integration but you open the app, click a button - job done.
- bestnameever 2mo agoYou can use the app that is the subject of this thread: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tether-linux-companion/id6762097135 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tether-linux-companion/id67620...
- jonathanwallace 2mo agoThis is incredibly timely as I moved my first choice personal computer to full time linux this week (and am a long time iPhone user who loves the autofill as well). I'll be happily contributing when I find an itch that needs to be scratched.
- teo_zero 2mo agoThis is for iPhones only. Do I assume correctly that the issue is solved for Android, instead?
- phrotoma 2mo agoAlso curious. I keep messages.google.com in a pinned tab but the number of times I have to go find my phone and re-authenticate is too damned high.
- bigyabai 2mo agoOn Android, you can use KDE Connect on KDE and GSConnect on GNOME. It has a Messaging app that syncs with your phone's SMS.
- inigyou 2mo agoI don't know the specific ones, but there are android apps that replace Google Messages (dark pattern warning: enabling this makes your previous messages inaccessible as Google Messages won't let you read them unless it's your default SMS app) as well as apps that can send and receive in parallel to Google Messages. I'm not sure if there are also apps that can read your message history out of Google Messages.
- Marsymars 2mo agoI've been using SMS Backup & Restore (from SyncTech) for years - it reads full history out of Google Messages any time I've used it.
- dreamcompiler 2mo agoMightytext does some of this for Android phones: It lets you read and send SMS on your phone from your computer. It also shows notifications from your phone when they happen. It's an app on your phone and a website on your computer. No affiliation; just a satisfied user. I don't use Mightytext a lot any more except for 2FA since I mostly use Signal for messaging. And of course Signal has an Electron app for desktop that works for both text and voice. For file and photo sharing I just use Dropbox. I have Dropbox on my phone set to upload photos as soon as I take them, which means they also show up immediately in a folder on my desktop (on MacOS. I assume this works in Dropbox for Linux but haven't tested it.) Caveat: Dropbox still doesn't support ARM Linux. It's Intel only. WTF Dropbox??
- desireco42 2mo agoI have Google Fi, we always had messages.google.com to even get calls, which I never did. Convenient especially because I write longer messages. Never felt superiour over others for it.
- lxe 2mo agoOh, fantastic, thank you. If this allows me to drop files onto an iPhone without me having to open an app, that would solve a lot of my issues. I use localsend right now and although I really love it, it still requires me to always keep the app open on the phone.
- ThinkBeat 2mo agoThis is all made possible by broker app on the iPhone / (or other device) to send data back and forward. When I first read the headline I thought it would integrate directly into the Apple ecosystem without needing middlemen which would have been crazy impressive since I believe it is or very near entirely impossible.
- hollow-moe 2mo agoVery nice, I'll say Continuity can absolutely be implemented fully on Linux though ! I think the thing we'd need very first is an actual communication "backbone" that would span bluetooth,wifi-direct and even mesh networks like Tailscale or smth. Continuity is partly based on AWDL, Apple proprietary implementation of Wifi-Direct to allow high speed local inter device communication and allow things like Sidecar with an iPad. Then we could implement protocols over that backbone to implement actual useful applications.
- BatchJob 2mo agoYou cant really complain about the ecosystem if you insist on using an iPhone. What you think is interop is viewed by Apple as hostile and if they could find a way to sue you for it they would.
- binkHN 2mo agoFair, but the only other major player here, Google, has not done much better; RCS is still locked up with no API in sight.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- blinkingled 2mo agoAs a KDE Connect user for a few years I know it doesn't always work without reconnecting especially with sleep cycles on the phone and the laptop but it does everything on Android at least - clipboard sync, notifications, sms, calls, remote control and media playback control. Must be iOS restrictions that made the author go through the admirable effort. IOW Linux ecosystem has better vertical integration without any direct ties with Android :)
- xur17 2mo agoDoes KDE connect work with other, non KDE window managers?
- bygosh 2mo agoyes, there's even a GNOME shell extension[0] that implements the KDE Connect protocol without needing the official KDE version. [0]: https://github.com/GSConnect/gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect https://github.com/GSConnect/gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect
- zackb 2mo agoYes, and it's great. But you can't iMessage / SMS or get Notifications with iPhone.
- hparadiz 2mo agoMy absolute favorite feature in KDE Connection is full audio device output / input control remotely so I can silence notifications without getting up or start playing music through the speakers.
- J-Kuhn 2mo agoIt even works on Windows.
- dadoum 2mo agoOh, so it requires an app, which isn't even available on older iOS versions… that's such a shame, I wanted to try it out on my iOS 17.0 iPhone. (and I thought it was just using the official Apple ways used for macs, so that's a small disappointment)
- harryposner 2mo agoThe linked blueferry doc is excellent. Back in 2020, inspired by a comment on HN, I looked into writing a proxy to send and receive iMessages on Linux through an iPhone connected with Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP). I was able to send and receive messages, but I ran into the problem mentioned in the doc in the "Group metadata side channel" section: the bMessages in the inbox included the message originator, but didn't include the recipients, even though the MAP standard says that it "shall" be included (see page 22). I didn't know about ANCS, so it didn't occur to me to use that channel, and without any way to tell what context a message was sent in, I couldn't do threading, so I decided it wasn't worth pursuing. The group messages were the biggest problem, and that's what made me give up, but there were some other issues: - Shared links showed up as "Website: Short description (example.com)" and didn't include the URL - Images weren't shown at all I might take a look and see how blueferry handled those limitations. [blueferry doc] https://github.com/erikwb/blueferry/blob/main/PROTOCOL.md https://github.com/erikwb/blueferry/blob/main/PROTOCOL.md [inspiration] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23411520#23413394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23411520#23413394 [Bluetooth MAP standard] https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/message-access-profile-1-4-2/ https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/message-acces...
- erikwb 2mo agoHey! I made blueferry - the bluetooth connection works great on certain adapters, but ANCS is the wild west. I love that Tether is helping to figure out all the quirks there - I had lots of time a month ago and almost none now.
- erohead 2mo agoToo bad it requires Bluetooth classic or else we could port this to Pebble!
- jhatax 2mo agoGreat minds. I posted `tether` to the RePebble forum to see if folks who know more than I do could determine feasibility for Pebble on iOS. If what you're saying is true, sigh! Even my Honda Accord from 2016 can send pre-programmed replies to messages over Bluetooth; that I can only read messages as notifications on my "modern" Pebble Time 2 is a shame. Both devices connect to an iPhone.
- aeon_ai 2mo agoDoesn't Tether lack end-to-end encryption, making it less secure for private communications?
- zackb 2mo agoNo, Tether is end-to-end encrypted on all fronts. mTLS on WiFi and Bluetooth encryption on that side.
- VladVladikoff 2mo agoWhoa this is so much better than having to send it via a BlueBubbles bridge, if this actually works I’m donating! Awesome project!
- starik36 2mo agoI am not sure that it is. From what I understand, Tether requires a companion app running on your iPhone. And as such, is subject to being shut down by the OS for various reasons (inactivity, etc...). So sometimes you would have to restart the app. I use LocalSend and every now and then the connection does not work and I have to restart it on the phone.
- rafram 2mo agoDoes clipboard sync work when the iOS app is in the background? Pretty cool stuff either way!
- zackb 2mo agoNo, unfortunately. This is one Apple limitation I haven't found a way around yet. I am close though.
- mcswell 2mo agoDependencies: ...wayland-client... Nuts, I'm on xfce, and don't intend to switch over until it's necessary. Why is Wayland necessary for this?
- pkulak 2mo agoI mean... if you wanna keep using xorg, more power to you. But you can't expect developers to keep supporting it. Isn't XFCE moving to Wayland soon anyway?
- inigyou 2mo agoWe really need a WaylandX, don't we? It shouldn't be that hard to make, since Wayland is a very limited protocol... I can't think of an ideological reason that apps shouldn't require Wayland that wouldn't apply to anything else. Isn't it just as bad for an app to require X11 or to require Linux or to require Windows or to require Android? You are free to port it to X11 or any other platform.
- cpressland 2mo agoFor me this is the last piece of the puzzle keeping me on macOS. I’ll give it a proper test later and if it works as described I’ll be ordering a Framework 13 Pro.
- pkulak 2mo agoSorry if this is obvious, but does it use the same thing OpenBubbles does? What's nice about that is that it just hooks directly into Apple's servers, so doesn't require a connection to your phone or anything.
- zackb 2mo agoThis is a good question. No, OpenBubbles impersonates a Mac and talks to Apple's servers. Tether connects to the phone via Bluetooth and asks the iphone to send/receive messages. OpenBubbles's technique is not supported by Apple, while their Bluetooth version is. Besides messaging it doesn't do any of the other stuff Tether does (author, im biased).
- pkulak 2mo agoThank you! Yeah, this is a lot more features than openbubbles could ever do. Going to check it out for sure. Thanks for making it!
- eyepea2007 2mo agoThank you for putting OpenBubbles on my radar. I had never heard of it, and within 30 minutes I was able to have it up and running on my daily driver. Win 11 is now much more enjoyable without having to look at my phone constantly. I can do group chats, facetime, etc, and my phone doesn't need to be anywhere near me. Donated some money via their site. Truly awesome.
- amluto 2mo agoWhat’s the security story behind the iMessage integration? Why is iOS willing to send iMessage data over Bluetooth to a device that hasn’t convinced Apple that it’s a validly authenticated device signed in as the same user?
- forestry 2mo agoI don’t know the full history but before CarPlay it was used to read and respond to messages using entertainment systems.
- dalyons 2mo agoCars probably. My car reads and sends iMessages via Bluetooth.
- erikwb 2mo ago100%. You have to advertise that you're a car, basically, before the iphone opens the door to messages.
- andrew4336 2mo ago[flagged]
- d3Xt3r 2mo agoAny possibility of handling phone calls too? Like making and receiving calls. Also, any plans of making Tether itself mobile-UI/UX friendly? My plan is to get a Linux phone (or convert an Android phone to Linux) and use it as a daily driver, but keep an old iPhone around for regular calls and texts, and for compatibility with some apps like banking apps. Tether seems like it could be useful to bridge that gap, so all I'd need to do is just keep the iPhone in my vicinity and never actually have to operate it, unless it's for using some proprietary app/service.
- erikwb 2mo agoCalls are possible over obex, yeah - see prior art at https://github.com/gabrielmeir53/iphonebridge https://github.com/gabrielmeir53/iphonebridge .
- nightsd01 2mo ago> Since then I've done Opus and then Fable bug / security sweeps regularly. This part surprises me a bit. Fable always falls back to opus for me the instant 'security' is involved (thanks for that, Anthropic)
- lisp2240 2mo agoSo it’s the Linux equivalent of Phone Link/Link to Windows?
- djfergus 2mo agoI installed this and spent a reasonable amount of time trying to get it to work. It didn't. * GTK interface is buggy on hyprland (could only click buttons when app was on its own screen and not set to fullscreen) * docs are vibe slop and incorrect: ~ tether pair [2026-08-30 11:33:26.084] [ERR] Unknown action. Run tether --help for options ~ tether --pair [2026-08-30 11:33:29.949] [ERR] Pairing requires a TCP+TLS connection. Use --host to specify a target. * installation requires sudo escalation to configure bluetooth settings with a vague warning but no real explanation of what the risks are. * couldn't get it to reliably connect - the feedback from linux and ios apps were vague and didn't help with what was broken or what was required to fix it. Promising project, I'd love a solution like this but not worth my time for now.
- nacs 2mo agoI ran into similar issues on a mostly stock Ubuntu 24. When I start the gtk app, it has a scan devices button but it never finds my phone even though I've paired via bluetooth and its on same LAN. The iOS app just has a spinning icon that goes forever even though it sees my computer name in the 'discovered devices' list. I tried pairing from CLI and GTK app and no go on Wifi or Bluetooth.
- nacs 2mo agoI gave it another go with the hint above about the tetherd log: tail -f ~/.local/state/tether/tetherd.log I killed that persistent process (sudo killall), rm /run/user/1000/tether/tetherd.* (to clear the lock file), restarted tetherd after pairing to phone via Linux bluetooth settings. I was then able to see and pair over wifi and bluetooth. Everything is enabled except Notifications (even though both address book sync + notifications are enabled in iOS bluetooth settings). Clipboard sync working now as well as send/receive files. The tether app still has occasional issues re-connecting to tether though when I move in and out of the app.
- zackb 2mo agoHeh, I wrote all of the docs, hence the typos :) * This is troubling as I've tested it extensively in Hyprland on different machines. * You are right that the root installation requirements need more clarification. I was so focused on making it as easy as possible for the user that I buried important details. * The failures to connect are an endless battle given the crazy inconsistencies in bt controllers. ~/.local/state/tether/tetherd.log should have the details I need to debug it, if you are inclined to open an issue.
- LooseMarmoset 2mo agoThis guy did a nice thing for people, let's keep it positive. Thank you very much for this! KDEConnect is great, but it's a little awkward to use with iOS (because of Apple, not the great developers), so this is a nice project to see. I don't see references to contributions, do you have a patreon or something?
- nisiddharth 2mo agoThe website is so hard to read for me. The font weight should be more :(
- atmosx 2mo agoHm. I wonder how much effort it would be to add this to BSDs.
- rmnclmnt 2mo agoIsn’t iphonebridge[0] doing the same but without browser extensions? (Haven’t used neither but been looking for such solution in the past) [0]: https://github.com/gabrielmeir53/iphonebridge https://github.com/gabrielmeir53/iphonebridge
- butokai 2mo agoThere’s also the old work on owlink and opendrop https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop, which reimplement apple’s version of WiFi direct and use it to have a Linux implementation of AirDrop. I guess Continuity’s functionality are based on this as well.
- butokai 2mo agoOf course kudos to the author. But I am pretty sure that the availability of iMessage and notifications over Bluetooth starting from iOS 26.5 is a direct result of the EU’s policies for smartwatch interoperability, so… kudos to the EU as well!
- LtWorf 2mo ago> kudos to the EU as well! I never expected to read such a statement on this website.
- delis-thumbs-7e 2mo ago> No AirPlay kinda sucked There’s shairport-sync, which works pretty well: https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync
- ErneX 2mo agoExactly, I have a raspberry dedicated as music player with piCore and AirPlay works perfectly.