Live data from Hacker News

Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

trychert.com

61–70 of 216 posts

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#61
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have that too for $195/line for 6+ lines. We also have a full API you can find it here :) https://docs.blooio.com RCS fallbacks, Emoji reactions, typing indicators, even changing chat background

do you support iMessage app payloads?

Depends on the app payload. Reach out to our team and we will work w/ you! enterprise@blooio.com

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#63
post #22

It's good YC is funding you because it acts as a later of protection from legal threats by apple. Hopefully if/when Apple litigate this I hope you will fight and set precedent for commercialisation of adversarial interoperability (A digital human right). I suggest you implement Baileys also to your service so it can also be done with WhatsApp so we can accelerate the inevitable litigation.

We are def thinking a lot about interoperability and what it should look like in practice... >:)

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#65
post #20

How does this work? Do you have an agreement with Apple to connect to their iMessage service? If you do then kudos thats a real differentiator. However if you're hosting your own mac mini farm and running bluebubbles or other such things that are not approved by Apple what is your plan to handle the case where you're sending enough traffic through Apple's services that they disable / ban / block you? If its the forme…

Apple wouldn't ban us since we're not doing anything that would qualify as spam or abuse. Even if that hypothetical event does happen, we have SMS/RCS fallback systems in place so no conversations get stopped or lost

As someone who has been in the messaging industry for more than a decade, it sounds naive to think that the litmus test for whether Apple will ban you is whether your traffic qualifies as spam. There is a long history of people trying to get around A2P spam filters / fees / traffic limits / onboarding / KYB requirements by running business messaging on P2P pipes, like you are doing. Some of it has been successful (see Twilio in the early days) but the industry has gotten a lot more sophisticated around this stuff and is not going to be receptive to your approach, which to me resembles the SIM farms that are a scourge when it comes to consumer fraud and abuse.

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#66

how is it possible to build this whole thing and not know there is a very rich first party api that does the same thing and more in iMessage https://www.apple.com/ios/business-chat/

iMessage for business has a very long and restrictive registration process, gray bubbles instead of blue bubbles, and is inbound only. We're democratizing iMessage for businesses that have good intentions on helping their customers more but can't afford to go through the long approval process.

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#68
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is iMessage "more conversational" than RCS? and "more human"?? I don't get the distinction you're making. I'm not an expert in mobile messaging so maybe I am missing something obvious. And what about WhatsApp?

iMessage is more conversational because it's what most people are used to using and seeing. People generally associate green bubble messages with spam/transactional messaging and blue bubble with trust. Additionally, iMessage also has additional features such as typing indicators and reactions (likes and loves) that makes the interface feel more conversational. WhatsApp could also be very conversational, but most peo…

Reading your responses it seems like your angle is to fake looking like a human by using the blue bubble. Are you worried your users will ruin the trust of the blue bubble thus killing your product with your product?

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#69
post #20

How does this work? Do you have an agreement with Apple to connect to their iMessage service? If you do then kudos thats a real differentiator. However if you're hosting your own mac mini farm and running bluebubbles or other such things that are not approved by Apple what is your plan to handle the case where you're sending enough traffic through Apple's services that they disable / ban / block you? If its the forme…

Apple wouldn't ban us since we're not doing anything that would qualify as spam or abuse. Even if that hypothetical event does happen, we have SMS/RCS fallback systems in place so no conversations get stopped or lost

> Apple wouldn't ban us...

To me this screams you haven't talked to Apple. Given how macabre they were towards Beeper Mini, I almost expect the same treatment for Chert.

Nonetheless, best of luck if you can pull it off.

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#70
post #35

> the blue bubble interface, typing indicators, and reactions made agentic conversations feel more human than ones on SMS/RCS Would you mind detailing your reasoning why agents should feel humans, when they very obviously aren’t? Why should we want AI to impersonate humans?

we don't think AI should by any means to pretend to be human, and we are not trying to hide that an agent is involved.

What we mean is that conversation should feel natural and low-friction for the person receiving it. These interactions: blue bubble interface, typing indicators, and reactions will make it less like an automated SMS message and more like a normal messaging flow.

We are trying to make agentic communication clear, useful, and native to channels people already use!

Post reply on HN