
AirMessage – Android app to interface with iMessage on a Mac - admp
https://airmessage.org/
======
ewired
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.

~~~
old-gregg
Let's see... you're proposing that a company should just hand out their
competitive advantage just because some parents are unable to curb their
consumerism / keeping up with the Jonesses an dealing with "psychology in
teens"?

Nobody forces you to use iMessage. Use Snap, Whatsapp, Telegram, FB messenger,
whatever. You don't need to be upgrading with every cycle (or even every other
cycle) either. I am on my 4th smartphone since 2008, replacing a battery is
cheaper that replacing phones. And if your teen insists on the latest&greatest
instead, that should be your problem, not Apple's.

Without their walled garden Apple is nothing but a commodity hardware maker
and those do not survive for long on this side of the Pacific.

~~~
Synaesthesia
Why should we pander to the needs of Apple, a corporation making a few people
wealthy beyond all imagination, but not much else?

~~~
valuearb
Apple paid $35B to developers last year.

It pays around $12B a year to shareholders, which today comprise a large
percentage of the US population.

It has 137,000 employees making an average comp north of $200,000 a year.

It’s the world leader in consumer computer products and leads its markets in
customer satisfaction measures.

What is this not much else you speak of?

~~~
justapassenger
> Apple paid $35B to developers last year.

Paid is very strange term to use to describe it. They sold 3rd party software
to users, while taking 30% cut.

~~~
valuearb
They hosted, vetted, distributed public, provided support and developer
services including a single easy to use and safe purchase system that built
that market over a decade. They have been so successful that iOS developers
make nine times as Android developers per device solid.

~~~
justapassenger
Walmart build, vetted, distributed and provided support to Procter & Gamble
products over many decades. But saying that Walmart is paying to Procter &
Gamble would be also gross mischaracterization.

Appstore model is as old as civilization - middle man reselling stuff. Some
middle mans are more effective than others, and true, Apple is one of them.
But that doesn't change characterization of the relationship. They don't pay
developers for their service, they resell their stuff, while keeping hefty
profit margins.

~~~
valuearb
Grocery stores were an enormous business before Walmart, it just made them
more efficient. And it opened doors for lots of smaller products to reach far
more customers.

The entire mobile app market was not even one hundredth the size of the App
Store before it was created.

The walled garden Apple created made safest and easiest app purchase
environment ever, which is why it attracts the highest spending by app
customers and highest spending app customers.

If Apple had taken the Google play route that $35B a year would be closer to
$4B a year.

------
dgfitz
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
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?

~~~
dgfitz
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
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
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.

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

~~~
toxik
Entirely intentional on Apple’s part, of course.

------
tantalor
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/)

~~~
beervirus
For all those billions of people with a Mac computer and an android phone...

~~~
cercatrova
I have a Mac and Android. I dislike iOS because of the locked-down nature,
something that (arguably) macOS and Android don't have.

~~~
quenix
iOS has certainly opened up over the years. Perhaps apart from the lack of
side loading capability, what kind of freedom do you seek?

~~~
mrastro
Side loading, ability to access the underlying file system, have their
applications like iMessage work across platforms, have better support for
cross-OS applications are a few that come to mind.

~~~
sbuk
What part of the "underlying file system" do you want/need to access?

What do you mean by "have better support for cross-OS applications"?

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

------
seanparsons
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
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
But the problem stems from their use of iMessage and Apple not doing an
Android app.

------
codemac
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
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.

------
Reason077
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.

~~~
ggoo
They would never. iMessage incompatibility is a feature which drives user to
buy iPhones.

~~~
xyst
This was never the original intention. Back in 2010 WWDC, Jobs presented
FaceTime/iMessage as a messaging platform for all phones. Unfortunately,
patent trolls killed this idea and iMessage became a closed wall for iPhones.

[https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114)

If you want to get mad, get angry at our outdated and abused patent system.

EDIT: 2010 WWDC keynote (1:37:01) where Jobs mentions open sourcing FT as open
source protocol - [https://youtu.be/UjUd0VSM2RA](https://youtu.be/UjUd0VSM2RA)

~~~
dingaling
I don't think the highest market-cap company on Earth would have much
difficulty in buying-out the patent owner.

~~~
valuearb
For what price? Why reward a patent troll?

~~~
anoncake
So the patent troll stops trolling.

~~~
valuearb
Why would a troll stop if they got a massive payout? It just creates a hundred
more.

~~~
anoncake
I'm talking about trolling Apple, the only entity Apple cares about.

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

~~~
canada_dry
Don't get why you're being downvoted... telegram was the first thing that came
to mind as an alternative/better solution. Cross platform, dead-simple to
setup and it just works.

~~~
untog
I suspect the downvotes are because everyone knows there are alternatives to
iMessage out there. It isn’t relevant to this particular topic.

“All you have to do is convert everyone you’ve ever known to use a different
app” is... not the proposition some people think it is. Kudos to anyone that’s
pulled it off, but I won’t.

~~~
hu3
That's just gatekeeping nonsense.

Discussing alternatives are always relevant and popular on HN.

Like talking about macbooks on Thinkpad topics. Everyone knows macbooks
exists, it's still fine to talk about them in non-macbook topics.

~~~
untog
That’s the beauty of the voting system. No one is banning the discussion,
they’re just expressing their own disinterest in it.

------
mmcdole
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.

------
prtkgpt
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.

~~~
snazz
The smart part is that this _doesn 't_ require a middle man since it uses your
own Mac to receive messages.

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

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

------
coffeeboy27
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
That's not what this is. This runs on an always-on Mac and relays iMessages to
and from your Android phone.

