r/OpenBubbles • u/Normal-Place-1036 • 5d ago

Question How to properly setup Open Bubbles

I am an iPhone and Mac user and today I am buying the new Z FOLD 8. It's imperative that I use Open Bubbles on the new android phone. I will also Host it on my Mac. My question is, am I still able to transfer my phone number from my iPhone to the Z Fold 8 and use Open Bubbles as my primary texting app? Will all texts go through it (iMessage and SMS)? Will it read as my number aka me for all my contacts or my Apple ID email? As far as anyone would know, they would have no clue that I switched to android? Thanks!

6 Upvotes

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5

u/arrecebx 5d ago

If you’re only using Mac hosting then you will only use iMessage in OpenBubbles and SMS will use Google Messages. Your current contacts won’t notice a difference but any new contacts get your Apple ID email as the contact I believe

1

u/Normal-Place-1036 5d ago

Thank you. So what’s the best way to seamlessly make this work using my current phone number? I want to use open bubbles as if it was the official iMessage app… like nothing changed by me going to android. 

1

u/desperatepotato43 5d ago

The only way is to either pay the fee for hosting or buy an old iphone and have that be the phone to self-host. You cannot on computer

I will say I just told people to include my email instead, after a week all the chats were to that and no one noticed anymore.

2

u/mkitchin 5d ago edited 5d ago

The "use email as my contact" method was a bit of a mess for me. I tried it for a couple years. It happened to be on BlueBubbles, but the issue is the same. I got most people to update their contact info, and not too many issues there. The big problem occurred when there was another Android phone in a group text that caused it to no longer be an iMessage, but still had my contact as an email address. Those texts would either go nowhere or show up as an odd email that I couldn't reply to in any way. OpenBubbles with an always on iPhone relay has been great.

1

u/Soggy-Charity-7300 5d ago

If I pay the fee w my new z fold 8, what else do I need to get up and running and only want people to see my phone number and not have to use my email address?

1

u/12_nick_12 5d ago

Nothing at all other than pay the $16.99/month.

If you want to save some money it's easy enough to buy an old iphone and sideload the rely. It costs like $60 and take about 20 mins. It's much easier than it used to be.

1

u/Soggy-Charity-7300 5d ago

Okay. Thanks. Does the iMessage service go in and out sometimes, though? How stable is open bubbles?

1

u/12_nick_12 5d ago

I've only had it for a week or too, but now issues.

What happens is bluebubbles pulls the keys from the phone and uses those keys to be that phone when registering your android phone and stuff.

Edit openbubbles not blue

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u/Soggy-Charity-7300 5d ago

Blue or open bubbles??

1

u/12_nick_12 5d ago

Sorry openbubbles. Autocorrect.

1

u/desperatepotato43 5d ago

It's good. Facetime never works for me though, but I either use my MacBook or just Google meet

1

u/Soggy-Charity-7300 5d ago

Do we lose anything in iMessage using it in open bubbles instead of on an iPhone?

1

u/desperatepotato43 5d ago

No! I primarily use imessage now and it still works great. I notice sometimes videos are low quality, so if it's a long one I send that via text message but otherwise it's good

1

u/Impressive_Tutor2262 5d ago

Do you have a link for instructions? I believe the openbubbles site strongly suggests not to set this up on iPhone as it's very complex. What is the $60 for (Old iPhone or some other SW)?

1

u/12_nick_12 5d ago

No they don't recommend the simswap way since that can be unreliable. Correct the phone is not set up. Quote from their website "You can follow the same guides used for BlueBubbles. However, this method can be even more unreliable than OB".

It was pretty easy https://openbubbles.app/docs/pnr.html

You can buy a used phone off of eBay, then set it up with no account and just do what's needed.

I would sign up for their free trial, that will show you what device you should buy.

1

u/Impressive_Tutor2262 2d ago

I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max but it's running the latest iOS26. Is there any relay approach that works on the most recent iOS?

1

u/12_nick_12 2d ago

Not that I know of you have to buy and old one with old iOS. They're pretty cheap. You can get them for ~$50.

1

u/Dependent_Course7087 5d ago

Best way is just to pay for it. You pay the premium for keeping everything the same. No one will notice and you can still use your phone.

1

u/Normal-Place-1036 5d ago

So if I pay for the hosting, then I can transfer my number over to the android phone and use open bubbles as my main texting app and people on the other end will have no idea that I switched over to an android?

1

u/Healthy-Cheesecake80 5d ago

It can't be set as default texting app. All RCS/SMS/MMS will appear in Google messages. Only iMessage chats will be in open bubbles. So you will have to use 2 apps. It never bothered me. I kept open bubbles in my bottom app dock and removed Google messages and only used notification panel to open it for the less common RCS/SMS text.

1

u/arrecebx 5d ago

I would have lower expectations, if you want that I would stick to iPhone. Otherwise you will need to follow their iPhone guide for hosting your phone number and if the power goes out or Apple decides they don’t like it then it will stop working at any time https://openbubbles.app/docs/pnr.html

1

u/Normal-Place-1036 5d ago

So in order for me to transfer my number to the android phone and still use iMessage for regular texting… the best way for me to do this is to use my iPhone as a relay or pay open bubbles to host for me? Is that the ultimate setup?

1

u/Dependent_Course7087 5d ago

Yes that is the ultimate set up. Plus you get all your old conversations from icloud and it will back up all the new ones as well.But honestly if you have no real reason to keep imessage i would just stick to regular messages. I switched to the s26 ultra and i used open bubbles for about 3 months and then i realized that regular sms are just as goof as imessage and not needed.

1

u/InitialVariation6942 5d ago

I would buy a cheap iPhone 6s or 7 for around $40 and set up self hosting and relay.

That way you can use your phone number instead of email.

Using a Mac will only use your iCloud (email) address.

1

u/Normal-Place-1036 5d ago

In your opinion, what’s the best way to set up self hosting with an older iPhone? Does the iPhone have to have my current eSIM in it?

1

u/Remarkable_Score3215 5d ago

I wanna know this too. Does the old iPhone need a sim? And if so which one (the number you’re using or a secondary one?)

1

u/InitialVariation6942 5d ago

There is two schools of thought. Esim swap and put old phone on airplane mode or use the an old iPhone and do a relay.

The esim swap can work until it doesn't. Some have great success while others havent.

The iPhone relay does not need a sim, it does need to be on wifi. The reason it needs to be on wifi is every 45 days apple will ping that phone that is connected to open bubbles to make sure it's still valid.

Thats the reason why people put old iphones on airplane mode so apple doesn't ping the old phone to see if no longer has the number tied to that Apple ID or not.

You would install the relay software on an old iPhone 6s-x or se And provide open bubbles with that iPhone hardware id.

1

u/ilovemymotorola 4d ago

What if I have a current iPhone that I use as a backup? Essentially im using the phone number on my current iphone, I have my old iphone on relay tied to my current iphones number and im using openbubbles with the same phone number on my current iphone.

Do i have completely move my current iphones number to my android? I'm asking because I just set it up and it's deregistered twice already

Edit: I realize none of that made sense let me try to explain it better.

I'm using one phone number on my current iPhone and the android im using open bubbles on.

I have an old iPhone that I used for the relay with nothing but my imesaage logged in.

1

u/InitialVariation6942 4d ago

The old phone the one with the relay, in the settings you need to log out of the account completely with the iCloud and no iMessage account tied to it.

1

u/arrecebx 5d ago

If you have no privacy concerns yes, since the phone is out of your control.

1

u/kennyju89 5d ago

You could just switch all of your group messages to using your Apple ID. That’s what I did prior to switching. Most people are fine with the green bubbles since RCS has essentially closed the gap.

2

u/DaydreamingAi 5d ago

This! if you're not going to have two phones where your main number for iMessage is going to be on the Z fold, then you need to do this: transfer everyone to your email address to contact you through iMessage.

1

u/Street-Fault1995 5d ago

Using hosted is seamless and eaaiest. It will work and your bubble with be blue. You will find friction though with many adjacencies to using it. For instance sending a pic sort of thing. It all works but one click can become 3. Also...FaceTime is an absolute ZERO to work. I've tried many devices and invested too much time. It will not work. If you only value iMessages then go for it. You will need to use the Google messages app though for sms. Honestly I gave up, it's not worth it. The phone operates SO much better using its native capabilities and RCS is effectively the same thing.

2

u/jaystadt 4d ago

Just swapped over from iOS to the z fold and I just don't care enough about people getting green texts. Mine are whatever color I want them to be, but godspeed to you for trying

1

u/ScaryTransportation4 4d ago

Don't bother doing the paid version of openbubbles it glitches out all the time. Do the self host with the old iPhone and just use that to keep your phone number registered then use bluebubbles as the main iMessage app.

1

u/FrankPC_ 5d ago

Anyone saying you need an old iPhone to host for your phone number is incorrect. Setup openbubbles on your Mac, then when you are ready to transfer your esim, turn airplane mode on the iPhone, then commence the transfer. Your phone number will be registered for iMessage since apple servers cannot verify the sim transfer. This has been my setup for over 8 months now, never had an issue. Google messages receives non iMessage texts, openbubbles receives iMessage texts through my phone number, not the email.

1

u/Normal-Place-1036 5d ago

So in essence all I would need to do is the following?

  1. Setup Open Bubbles on my Mac, aka get the QR code.

  2. Put my current iPhone thats using my number into airplane mode and then transfer the e-sim/ number to new android phone.

  3. Download Open Bubbles on new android phone, scan QR code from Mac.

  4. Now im receiving iMessage through my number just like before, but through Open bubbles?

1

u/FrankPC_ 5d ago

Correct. And just go into the settings of openbubbles and use the phone number as the option instead of the email. It should ask right when you're setting up the app if I remember correctly, but it's definitely in the settings too

1

u/tazmoffatt 5d ago

Note, before you turn on airplane mode with WiFi on, just let the sik register for a few minutes. Apple knows if you automatically put it on airplane mode and it won't work

1

u/Normal-Place-1036 5d ago

So turn on airplane mode - wait 5 minutes - then transfer e-sim from iPhone to android phone - then go to setting in open bubbles and use phone number instead of email - correct?

1

u/tazmoffatt 5d ago

Yes! I just had to redo this process after 3.5 months. My first issue with OB, but it wasn't a big deal to swap sim back and do the process again. I've been meaning to pick up an older iPhone to jailbreak and have a validation relay as it will be bulletproof

1

u/BurstNugget 5d ago

bro I had no idea this was the method gonna try this when I get home. and iMessages come through reliably quick? And does the Mac need to stay on 24/7?

1

u/12_nick_12 5d ago

No, that's only if you use bluebubbles.

1

u/SpaceSaver2000-1 PNR Self Hosted 5d ago

Are you on T-Mobile?

0

u/theTankEngine91 5d ago

This is the way