Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#161

Post by Rohansi » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:06 AM UTC

Barbing wrote: post #156

drnick1 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the problem with green bubbles? I don't get it. Doesn't it just mean the other person is not using an Apple device? If you really want blue bubbles, use Signal, the default color is blue.

For years it meant fewer features and frustrating experiences in group chats. Kids liked renaming group chats and liking/reacting to individual messages, and sending higher-res photos, and one "green bubble" participant nerfed the whole chat for everyone. In spite of Apple knowing kids got bullied over this, meh, money. Thankfully this has now been just about fixed (depending on which Android version/carrier someone…

RCS messages still show as green bubbles. I'm sure kids will still be bullied for it even if group chats didn't degrade.

All of these problems could be avoided if iMessage was cross-platform or if people just used something else. Nobody is being forced to use iMessage

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#162

Post by SirMaster » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:09 AM UTC

Barbing wrote: post #156

drnick1 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the problem with green bubbles? I don't get it. Doesn't it just mean the other person is not using an Apple device? If you really want blue bubbles, use Signal, the default color is blue.

For years it meant fewer features and frustrating experiences in group chats. Kids liked renaming group chats and liking/reacting to individual messages, and sending higher-res photos, and one "green bubble" participant nerfed the whole chat for everyone. In spite of Apple knowing kids got bullied over this, meh, money. Thankfully this has now been just about fixed (depending on which Android version/carrier someone…

How has it been fixed? It's still just Apple parsing the messages that came through like so and so reacted with some emoji to some message, and then attaching it to that message. But then this doesn't work with reacting to attachments like photos as it doesn't know which photo was reacted to.

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#163

Post by erikwb » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:12 AM UTC

d3Xt3r wrote: post #158

Any 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…

Calls are possible over obex, yeah - see prior art at https://github.com/gabrielmeir53/iphonebridge .

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#164

Post by J-Kuhn » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:13 AM UTC

xur17 wrote: post #87

blinkingled wrote: post #71

As 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…

Does KDE connect work with other, non KDE window managers?

It even works on Windows.

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#165

Post by erikwb » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:15 AM UTC

dalyons wrote: post #116

amluto wrote: post #113

What’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?

Cars probably. My car reads and sends iMessages via Bluetooth.

100%. You have to advertise that you're a car, basically, before the iphone opens the door to messages.

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#166

Post by inventor7777 » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:19 AM UTC

voakbasda wrote: post #6

Mega-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.

Since you are dead-set against getting a Mac, why don't you move to Android? It seems like a better fit as Apple's whole thing is about continuity between their own devices, which obviously will not work for you.

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#167

Post by huimang » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:29 AM UTC

pzmarzly wrote: post #2

> 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.

Please consider using the LGPL instead.

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#168

Post by Rohansi » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:40 AM UTC

ihjbtvjkdidie wrote: post #121

Rohansi wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Green bubbles, WhatsApp, Signal, etc. are not an option for a lot of people. I don't get it either.

What is there to get? Some people just don’t want to use other services. Period. Not sure why people having their own subjective views and preferences is such a hard concept to grasp.

That's not what's hard to understand. It's choosing to exclusively use iMessage knowing that not everyone can use it. And then shifting your social circle based on one company's decision to not support it on other platforms.

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#169

Post by callc » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:48 AM UTC

inventor7777 wrote: post #166

voakbasda wrote: post #6

Mega-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.

Since you are dead-set against getting a Mac, why don't you move to Android? It seems like a better fit as Apple's whole thing is about continuity between their own devices, which obviously will not work for you.

> their own devices

Sure! Apple can do whatever they want with their devices. But when they sell them to people, it’s no longer theirs.

People are (IMHO rightfully) not happy with a general computing device not being open.

Societies are pushing back against this practice through legal means, which is good!

The best part is if people want to stay inside whatever ecosystem, they can! It can be opt-in to enable developer mode to do what you can already do on any desktop PC.

If you want to lock down gran and gramps iphone (or PC for that matter), you can! Make an admin account and have them use an account with less privileges.

We can have the best of all worlds. An integrated ecosystem. Security. User computing rights.

Re: Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

#170

Post by inigyou » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:51 AM UTC

rpdillon wrote: post #143

inigyou wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DeltaChat was much more useful when it worked with any email server and didn't need its own special kind of server. We have plenty of messengers that use their own servers, like matrix, XMPP, and simplex.

I appreciate the simplicity of hosting ChatMail versus a regular mail server. It's simpler, lighter weight, and better suited for the chat use case. It's basically the ideal messaging platform for my needs.

It defeats the selling point of DeltaChat. You may as well use XMPP or Matrix.