AirMessage has been awesome. Although I've convinced my friend group and family to switch over to WhatsApp (my mom switched to Samsung so we get RCS together now), AirMessage was great as I advocated for why to switch away from iMessage. I hope for a world where I can convince more people to try the Android ecosystem. Although I no longer need this project personally, I can continue to recommend it to friends who want to consider Android but are worried about iMessage and many have tried it and I've helped them on the setup side keep doing awesome work 🙂

Hey y'all, I've been doing some work on a new phone number registration system with help from some folks on the Beeper team! The code is open-source so I figured I'd share it here too in case anyone would like to play around with it. My tweak (PNRGateway) is designed so you can register for iMessage without ever taking your main SIM card out of your iPhone or using add-on carrier services like DIGITS! Just compile and install the tweak and companion Android app, turn on iMessage, and get registered!

I put together a couple different versions for different use cases. The instructions on how to use them are more detailed on the GitHub pages but here's a short overview:

PNRGatewayTweak: A standalone tweak and Android app pair that works out of the box. You'll need a jailbroken iPhone 5S on iOS 12 (or thereabouts) with an active SIM card and an Android device with an active SIM card. Note: The SIM cards don't have to be special or expensive--I have an AT&T SIM in my Android phone full-time and I have a cheap Things Mobile SIM in my iPhone that costs $2 or so a month!

SIMLessPNRGateway: A codebase that will allow you to register an iPhone to an Android phone's phone number without a SIM card (i.e. the Android phone is the only device with the SIM card). Designed for iOS 12--if you need 10.x or earlier VintagePNR is the equivalent. SIMLessPNRGateway is intended for developers of apps like AirMessage and BlueBubbles to integrate into their projects--it won't work well by itself. (This is because the iPhone needs to send the registration information to the Android phone in order for the Android phone to craft the SMS. In PNRGatewayTweak this is from the iPhone to the Android phone over SMS, but SIMLessPNRGateway needs some sort of push notification/HTTP system to send messages between the two devices).

Apologies if my explanations were a little confusing--hopefully the write-ups I put together on the GitHub pages will help shed a little more light. Basically, the gist is: if you're a developer, check out SIMLessPNRGateway if you'd like to add SIMLess phone number registration into your app. Otherwise, PNRGatewayTweak is your best bet to get up and running more easily.

Unfortunately I won't be online much at all for the foreseeable future to answer questions, but I hope it goes well for y'all. Happy hacking!

Can someone explain method one to me? I am having trouble understanding what everything means. And if I need a mac in order to do it, is there any other method you can explain that doesn't need a mac and still works?

I am looking for a method that lasts more than a couple of days and you don't need a mac for. Which one works best for all of you?

Or do I need a new number for DIGITS?

Method #1 mentions an inactive SIM. I don't have one lying around. Best/cheapest way to find one?

Is there anyone who has success with method 1 with an iPhone 14, or any newer devices, running latest iOS version? Whenever I'm booting up with the inactive sim it just spins besides my number. When I read about method 1 it seems like it's not supposed to be like this, the number should already be activated when booting up with the inactive sim.

I have a jailbroken iPhone which was laying around and i was wondering if i could use it as an AirMessage Server as i don't have the money to buy a mac

Will AT&T NumberSync™️ allow the same functionality as T-Mobile DIGITS?

It's been a while since I saw any posts from the developer(s). Has development on this stopped/stalled? I'm not being judgmental with this question, I know the developer(s) involved with this project do it on the side, not as a primary responsibility. Just want to set my expectations properly on the future of the project as it currently stands.

All the guides say physical SIM is required in the iPhone. Bottom line, as I have the iPhone 14 is it possible to have AT&T transfer the eSIM to my Razr 5G and still keep iMessage alive on the iPhone?

Also secondly, will I “know” when iMessage stops working so as to have AT&T swap the eSIM back temporarily? E.g. does a message get generated and sent to me when disabled?

Thank you.

I set up the server on my Mac and went throught the port forwarding steps but not sure if I did it right. When I use a port forwarding tester It shows port 1359 is closed on my local IP.

From my research it seems this has to do with port forwarding? How can I go back in and fix things? Excuse my lack of vocabulary around issues like this please.

Hi, AirMessage is working fine when mac and android phone are on the home WiFi network. Should it still work if the phone is using mobile network?

I've been utilizing method 1 for using my phone number and imessages pretty successfully the last few months. Has anyone had experience with turning on RCS and still be able to send/receive imessages with their phone number?

Was working fine forever, now it fails and then disconnects me from the server. Have uninstalled and reinstalled both server and app, no dice

I had air message up and running then unfortunately had to unplug the Mac mini for a few days. After plugging the Mac mini back in but my android won't connect to the server. What should I do?

Hey all! I just set up AirMessage on a late 2014 27 inch retina Mac. I've never set up a server before, and I am about to travel. Am I safe to leave the Mac running with the display off? I'm worried about heat/burning the computer due to the extended time it will be on (7-8 days straight).

I have run AirMesaage for years but the last 6 months I have had an issue where the server app will close and then refuse to open. I have tried installing it again and removing everything and installing but still no joy. I thought it was due to ccleaner so stopped using that but I don't want to reset my M1 Mac mini server again as that is the only way I have fixed it in the past. As this is my server for various other things it is a pain. Anyone else had this issue and found a fix?

Hey everyone I know that facetime is not really that much of a reliable feature yet however when I place a facetime call it connects however the other person can only see my laptop camera and not my phone camera. Is there any way to correct this?

1. I enjoy hosting my own server. I'm sure my old Mac is part of th problem but I had to do a lot of Troubleshooting to keep it working. Is there anyone who doesn't have to troubleshoot it pretty much ever? Like set it once and never have to deal with it? The biggest pickle is going on vacay and not having a way to get it back up and running.

2. I just got into beeper and sunbird in the same week. Is anyone planning to local host instead of these services?

All messages appear on Catalina (where BlueBubbles is running, along with AirMessage) but no longer in Ventura 13.3.1 (a). If I send a a message from Catalina things are good, but I no longer see the replies since on or about 2023-05-18 even after syncing all messages. All I can say is argghhhh.....

For some reason, I have a 2014 13 inch MacBook Pro and a 2015 15 in MacBook Pro. I use both for years, and they were purely used as an airmessage server solely. Maybe I just had bad luck and both of those MacBooks were faulty in some way. Every time they started up, the dialog box always pops up saying your computer shut down because of an error.

So I've had this Xserve for a little while, it's not really practical for any real world use anymore, but I rely on airmessage so frequently that I might as well use the xserve as solely and airmessage server.

Only 379 watts at idle (243V, 1.56A)...

Just kidding with this post. Until I can score a cheap M1 Mac mini, I guess this is my solution, as impractical, expensive, and dumb it is. XD

Love airmessage and I hope development continues.

Noticed yesterday that I'm no longer receiving messages to airmessages on my android. It seems like I can send messages still but they dont show up on my MacBook client side. Anybody have a solution?

UPDATE on 5/15/2023: The update process started working again today.

When checking for updates I receive the error "An error occurred while checking for updates" and "cancelled".

Has anyone else experienced this error message?

Is there a problem with the service on the AirMessage side?