{"slug": "openbubbles", "name": "OpenBubbles", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.68, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2025-12-29", "latest": "2026-09-22", "why": "within 30 minutes I was able to have it up and running on my daily driver. Win 11 is now much more enjoyable", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "within 30 minutes I was able to have it up and running on my daily driver. Win 11 is now much more enjoyable", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "openbubbles.app", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://openbubbles.app", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["OpenBubbles"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 796845473, "item_id": 49802842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802842", "by": "_ks3e", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there's also https://openbubbles.app/ for something that runs solely on an Android phone", "excerpt": "There are a few projects that let you access iMessage on non-Apple devices. I've been using https://github.com/lrhodin/corten-matrix to relay iMessage to Matrix, and there's also https://openbubbles.app/ for something that runs solely on an Android phone.", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 792009264, "item_id": 49500579, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500579", "by": "eyepea2007", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "within 30 minutes I was able to have it up and running on my daily driver. Win 11 is now much more enjoyable", "excerpt": "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.", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage on desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux"}, {"id": 777570801, "item_id": 48598175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48598175", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iOS users can continue to use iMessage with OpenBubbles", "excerpt": "GrapheneOS has released their Android 17 update. Grapheneos has stated that they won't be adding any identity verification or scanning, ever. It's highly usable and has very similar UX to Pixels. I switched from iOS and have found the UI to be better although it's largely the same on stock Pixel. There's over 99% app compatibility and the only failing apps are additional restrictions added by a small subset (less tha", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage access on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "From Australia to Europe, countries move to curb children's social media access"}, {"id": 767004192, "item_id": 47937762, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47937762", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It gets iMessage on Android devices and works fine.", "excerpt": "If you don't want to invest in getting your contacts on Signal, you can try OpenBubbles. It gets iMessage on Android devices and works fine. I highly recommend switching to GOS, it is wayyy better than iOS UX-wise and obviously better privsec and freedom. One thing that I had to do when I first got GOS, to get a better experience, was find all the Open Source apps that I needed. Otherwise, it looks rather bland and t", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Phone is about to stop being yours"}, {"id": 742882256, "item_id": 46430141, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46430141", "by": "dadoum", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Even better, why not use OpenBubbles?", "excerpt": "> Why not BlueBubbles? Even better, why not use OpenBubbles?[0] It's even better as it does not require the Mac to act like a server. You just need to collect its hardware identifiers once and you should be ready to go. (still, IUseLinux looks like a cool project, the amount of work needed to reverse everything iMessage require is immense and I would not have expected anyone to have done this work if it didn't exist)", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage access from Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "IUseLinux: Access iMessage from your Linux (or windows) computer"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["imessage on android", "imessage on desktop", "imessage access on android", "imessage access from linux"], "compared": [{"slug": "grapheneos", "name": "GrapheneOS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ios", "name": "iOS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801939", "title": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49415386", "title": "Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48597668", "title": "From Australia to Europe, countries move to curb children's social media access", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47935853", "title": "Phone is about to stop being yours", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46424475", "title": "IUseLinux: Access iMessage from your Linux (or windows) computer", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 796845473, "item_id": 49802842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802842", "by": "_ks3e", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there's also https://openbubbles.app/ for something that runs solely on an Android phone", "excerpt": "There are a few projects that let you access iMessage on non-Apple devices. I've been using https://github.com/lrhodin/corten-matrix to relay iMessage to Matrix, and there's also https://openbubbles.app/ for something that runs solely on an Android phone.", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 792009264, "item_id": 49500579, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500579", "by": "eyepea2007", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "within 30 minutes I was able to have it up and running on my daily driver. Win 11 is now much more enjoyable", "excerpt": "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.", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage on desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux"}, {"id": 777570801, "item_id": 48598175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48598175", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iOS users can continue to use iMessage with OpenBubbles", "excerpt": "GrapheneOS has released their Android 17 update. Grapheneos has stated that they won't be adding any identity verification or scanning, ever. It's highly usable and has very similar UX to Pixels. I switched from iOS and have found the UI to be better although it's largely the same on stock Pixel. There's over 99% app compatibility and the only failing apps are additional restrictions added by a small subset (less tha", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage access on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "From Australia to Europe, countries move to curb children's social media access"}, {"id": 767004192, "item_id": 47937762, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47937762", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It gets iMessage on Android devices and works fine.", "excerpt": "If you don't want to invest in getting your contacts on Signal, you can try OpenBubbles. It gets iMessage on Android devices and works fine. I highly recommend switching to GOS, it is wayyy better than iOS UX-wise and obviously better privsec and freedom. One thing that I had to do when I first got GOS, to get a better experience, was find all the Open Source apps that I needed. Otherwise, it looks rather bland and t", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Phone is about to stop being yours"}, {"id": 742882256, "item_id": 46430141, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46430141", "by": "dadoum", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Even better, why not use OpenBubbles?", "excerpt": "> Why not BlueBubbles? Even better, why not use OpenBubbles?[0] It's even better as it does not require the Mac to act like a server. You just need to collect its hardware identifiers once and you should be ready to go. (still, IUseLinux looks like a cool project, the amount of work needed to reverse everything iMessage require is immense and I would not have expected anyone to have done this work if it didn't exist)", "context": "", "use_case": "iMessage access from Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "IUseLinux: Access iMessage from your Linux (or windows) computer"}]}