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  • Hacker News
  • Wasn'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?
    by SoftTalker
  • As 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.

    by trollbridge
  • Beeper?
    by aaronax
  • There’s bluebubbles which runs a server on a Mac and syncs your messages that way.
    by jnovek
  • This is very different from Beeper or BlueBubbles.

    Tether is "merely" talking to your iPhone over bluetooth and the local network. It does nothing if you don't already have an iPhone. Apple should have no more reason to come after this than it does a Garmin watch that can show your iMessages via bluetooth.

    by teach
  • Very 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.
    by hollow-moe
  • For 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.
    by cpressland
  • This 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?

    by LooseMarmoset
  • Sorry 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.
    by pkulak
  • Thank 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.
    by eyepea2007
  • This 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).

    by zackb
  • 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 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.

    by d3Xt3r
  • Calls are possible over obex, yeah - see prior art at https://github.com/gabrielmeir53/iphonebridge .
    by erikwb
  • 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 direct ties with Android :)

    by blinkingled
  • Does KDE connect work with other, non KDE window managers?
    by xur17
  • This 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.
    by ThinkBeat
  • Every device requires a random product key issued by apple and they’re not supposed to be reused.

    No good way to get around that except buying an Apple device and taking its key.

    by randyrand
  • not impossible, pypush did it 3 years ago
    by mmoustafa
  • The 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

    [inspiration] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23411520#23413394

    [Bluetooth MAP standard] https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/message-acces...

    by harryposner
  • Hey! 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.
    by erikwb
  • Of 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!
    by butokai
  • > kudos to the EU as well!

    I never expected to read such a statement on this website.

    by LtWorf
  • 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.

    by voakbasda
  • Doesn’t interoperability work two(Windows)-three(Linux) ways?
    by Danox
  • You could stop using iMessage and iCloud.
    by sneak
  • You mean the same Apple, who supports RCS, and historically supported open protocols?

    As to iMessage, think carefully about the architecture, and maybe you can imagine why it is Apple only.

    by slashdave
  • 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.
    by inventor7777
  • Pixel is nice, in my opinion better than iOS, and more open for now
    by timcobb
  • I'm shouting into the wind here a fair amount, but I just discovered DeltaChat and ArcaneChat. ArcaneChat is available only on Android, but DeltaChat is available on iOS and uses chatmail relays. My family has found it to be super useful and effective. I don't think it's viable to convert everybody in my social circle, but I've been very happy with the apps and attachments, notifications, and general performance.

    https://chatmail.at/

    I'm considering running my own chatmail relay, although I haven't tried that yet.

    by rpdillon
  • Have a look at https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice and iOS backup projects that are based on it.
    by abcd_f