As many are aware, one big selling point of the iPhone is iMessage,
which unlike multi-platform messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal,
Line, or WeChat, is only available for Apple operating systems. iMessage
is a big selling point for iPhones in the U.S., though not so much in
countries where cross-platform, data-only, messaging apps are more
widely used.

Without AirMessage <https://airmessage.org/>, when an iMessage is sent
to the phone number for an Android device it is converted to an SMS.
This works okay for non-group messages, but it is a big issue for
iMessage group chats. Also, if you have Wi-Fi but no cellular connection
then you can't send or receive an SMS (such as using Wi-Fi on an
airplane or at a remote hotel, or with a data-only foreign SIM card). It
would be wonderful if everyone just used WhatsApp, but in the U.S.
that's unlikely to happen (and in China WhatsApp is banned, but iMessage
is not).

This morning I installed the AirMessage server
<https://github.com/airmessage/airmessage-server/releases/download/v4.1.4/AirMessage-4.1.4.zip>
on a Mac Mini and installed the AirMessage Android App
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.tagavari.airmessage>
on one (so far) of my Android devices. Very easy to do, just took a few
minutes. For Windows you can use the web interface at
<https://web.airmessage.org/> to send and receive iMessages.

The AirMessage server app needs to be installed on a Mac that is always
on and connected to the internet, but no keyboard or mouse or monitor
needs to be connected once it's all set up. You can use any Mac that is
running macOS 10.10 Yosemite or newer, though for laptops you need to
also install an app that prevents the laptop from sleeping when the lid
is closed. You also want to enable the "Open at login" option for the
AirMessage server, you want to disable the need for a password upon
power-up, and you want to enable "Start up automatically after a power
failure."

This is what the AirMessage server looks like in the corner of the
screen when running <https://i.imgur.com/u9fuKN7.jpeg>.

I had no suitable Mac for this endeavor so I obtained a used Mac Mini
from someone on craigslist for $100. It's a mint condition 2012 2.5GHz
Core i5 that the previous owner upgraded to 8GB of RAM and he also added
an SSD (but left the HDD in there for storage). There's a lot of Mac
Minis on craigslist in my area for $100-$125. You don't need a high-end
Mac for this. You could also use a Hackintosh but that's almost
certainly going to cost a lot more than a used Mac Mini or Macbook Air.

There's also a way to have multiple AppleIDs using one Mac running
AirMessage but I have not tried that yet
<https://airmessage.org/help/guide/multiple-users>.

If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users, and dealing with the
problem of group chats on iMessage, this is a relatively inexpensive way
of sticking with Android, with all of its advantages, while still being
able to use iMessage.

Cue the trolls!

sms <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
> As many are aware, one big selling point of the iPhone is iMessage,
> which unlike multi-platform messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal,
> Line, or WeChat, is only available for Apple operating systems. iMessage
> is a big selling point for iPhones in the U.S., though not so much in
> countries where cross-platform, data-only, messaging apps are more
> widely used.
>
> Without AirMessage <https://airmessage.org/>, when an iMessage is sent
> to the phone number for an Android device it is converted to an SMS.
> This works okay for non-group messages, but it is a big issue for
> iMessage group chats. Also, if you have Wi-Fi but no cellular connection
> then you can't send or receive an SMS (such as using Wi-Fi on an
> airplane or at a remote hotel, or with a data-only foreign SIM card). It
> would be wonderful if everyone just used WhatsApp, but in the U.S.
> that's unlikely to happen (and in China WhatsApp is banned, but iMessage
> is not).
>
> This morning I installed the AirMessage server
> <https://github.com/airmessage/airmessage-server/releases/download/v4.1.4/AirMessage-4.1.4.zip>
>
> on a Mac Mini and installed the AirMessage Android App
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.tagavari.airmessage>
> on one (so far) of my Android devices. Very easy to do, just took a few
> minutes. For Windows you can use the web interface at
> <https://web.airmessage.org/> to send and receive iMessages.
>
> The AirMessage server app needs to be installed on a Mac that is always
> on and connected to the internet, but no keyboard or mouse or monitor
> needs to be connected once it's all set up. You can use any Mac that is
> running macOS 10.10 Yosemite or newer, though for laptops you need to
> also install an app that prevents the laptop from sleeping when the lid
> is closed. You also want to enable the "Open at login" option for the
> AirMessage server, you want to disable the need for a password upon
> power-up, and you want to enable "Start up automatically after a power
> failure."
>
> This is what the AirMessage server looks like in the corner of the
> screen when running <https://i.imgur.com/u9fuKN7.jpeg>.
>
> I had no suitable Mac for this endeavor so I obtained a used Mac Mini
> from someone on craigslist for $100. It's a mint condition 2012 2.5GHz
> Core i5 that the previous owner upgraded to 8GB of RAM and he also added
> an SSD (but left the HDD in there for storage). There's a lot of Mac
> Minis on craigslist in my area for $100-$125. You don't need a high-end
> Mac for this. You could also use a Hackintosh but that's almost
> certainly going to cost a lot more than a used Mac Mini or Macbook Air.
>
> There's also a way to have multiple AppleIDs using one Mac running
> AirMessage but I have not tried that yet
> <https://airmessage.org/help/guide/multiple-users>.
>
> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users, and dealing with the
> problem of group chats on iMessage, this is a relatively inexpensive way
> of sticking with Android, with all of its advantages, while still being
> able to use iMessage.
>
> Cue the trolls!
>

This is just yet another one of your convoluted methods of trying to get
around something. If if works for you, great. However 99/100 Android people
would never do this.

On 2/1/2023 2:11 PM, sms wrote:
> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users,

Everyone in the USA is messaging daily with a "sea" of both users since
about half the people in the USA are messaging on one of the two types.

> and dealing with the
> problem of group chats on iMessage,

What terrible things am I supposed to be seeing on my Android messenger
that I do not see at all when I SMS/MMS back and forth to groups of people?

--
best regards,

Neil

On 01-02-2023 21:50 badgolferman <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com> wrote:

> This is just yet another one of your convoluted methods of trying to get
> around something. If if works for you, great. However 99/100 Android people
> would never do this.

What is the op trying to get around that we're supposed to be seeing?

When I message people with either SMS or MMS, I have many choices of
default messenger apps on Android, some of which are quite sophisticated.

My default text messenger app, for example, will automatically save images
to locations that I set, automatically shrink them to sizes that I set,
send messages later at a scheduled time, automatically send long SMS
messages as MMS at points that I set, automatically back up my messages to
my removable flash card storage if I want to, connect by video call using
Duo if I want to, blacklist numbers in a list that I set, set the color of
the message as per what I want it to be, mute certain conversations in the
notifications if I want them muted, hide content for conversations set as
private if I need privacy, clean up old messages on a schedule or at any
point in time that I set, save into conversation folders, pin conversations
to the top which are marked as important, automatically find the source of
any url and post the opening images or video thumbnail and first few lines,
text from any device, set delivery reports, customize notifications, set a
private conversation passcode, customizable smart replies, configure
automatic replies, put favorite contacts in the notification panel, set how
to receive messages from non contacts, confirm delivery reports (without
using RCS), strip unicode characters if I want them stripped, provide my
choice of emojis if that's what I want, change the keyboard and available
keys if I want to, customize swipe actions, and I didn't even go down the
full list of customizable choices in its settings that are all my choices.

An Apple app will never have those choices as it's against what Apple does.

Why would I want to lose all that (as the op seems to be suggesting I do)
for whatever it is the op is trying to get around in *his* Android group
messaging with other users, but which the op hasn't even said what that is?

Am 01.02.23 um 22:11 schrieb sms:
> As many are aware, one big selling point of the iPhone is iMessage,
> which unlike multi-platform messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal,
> Line, or WeChat, is only available for Apple operating systems. iMessage
> is a big selling point for iPhones in the U.S., though not so much in
> countries where cross-platform, data-only, messaging apps are more
> widely used.
>
> Without AirMessage <https://airmessage.org/>, when an iMessage is sent
> to the phone number for an Android device it is converted to an SMS.
> This works okay for non-group messages, but it is a big issue for
> iMessage group chats. Also, if you have Wi-Fi but no cellular connection
> then you can't send or receive an SMS (such as using Wi-Fi on an
> airplane or at a remote hotel, or with a data-only foreign SIM card). It
> would be wonderful if everyone just used WhatsApp, but in the U.S.
> that's unlikely to happen (and in China WhatsApp is banned, but iMessage
> is not).
>
> This morning I installed the AirMessage server
> <https://github.com/airmessage/airmessage-server/releases/download/v4.1.4/AirMessage-4.1.4.zip>
> on a Mac Mini and installed the AirMessage Android App
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.tagavari.airmessage>
> on one (so far) of my Android devices. Very easy to do, just took a few
> minutes. For Windows you can use the web interface at
> <https://web.airmessage.org/> to send and receive iMessages.
>
> The AirMessage server app needs to be installed on a Mac that is always
> on and connected to the internet, but no keyboard or mouse or monitor
> needs to be connected once it's all set up. You can use any Mac that is
> running macOS 10.10 Yosemite or newer, though for laptops you need to
> also install an app that prevents the laptop from sleeping when the lid
> is closed. You also want to enable the "Open at login" option for the
> AirMessage server, you want to disable the need for a password upon
> power-up, and you want to enable "Start up automatically after a power
> failure."
>
> This is what the AirMessage server looks like in the corner of the
> screen when running <https://i.imgur.com/u9fuKN7.jpeg>.
>
> I had no suitable Mac for this endeavor so I obtained a used Mac Mini
> from someone on craigslist for $100. It's a mint condition 2012 2.5GHz
> Core i5 that the previous owner upgraded to 8GB of RAM and he also added
> an SSD (but left the HDD in there for storage). There's a lot of Mac
> Minis on craigslist in my area for $100-$125. You don't need a high-end
> Mac for this. You could also use a Hackintosh but that's almost
> certainly going to cost a lot more than a used Mac Mini or Macbook Air.
>
> There's also a way to have multiple AppleIDs using one Mac running
> AirMessage but I have not tried that yet
> <https://airmessage.org/help/guide/multiple-users>.
>
> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users, and dealing with the
> problem of group chats on iMessage, this is a relatively inexpensive way
> of sticking with Android, with all of its advantages, while still being
> able to use iMessage.
>
> Cue the trolls!

You must be really bored and in desperate search for a meaningful life.
(Full quote fully intentional).

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

mike wrote:

>On 01-02-2023 21:50 badgolferman <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>This is just yet another one of your convoluted methods of trying
>>to get around something. If if works for you, great. However 99/100
>>Android people would never do this.
>
>What is the op trying to get around that we're supposed to be seeing?
>
>When I message people with either SMS or MMS, I have many choices of
>default messenger apps on Android, some of which are quite
>sophisticated.
>
>My default text messenger app, for example, will automatically save
>images to locations that I set, automatically shrink them to sizes
>that I set, send messages later at a scheduled time, automatically
>send long SMS messages as MMS at points that I set, automatically
>back up my messages to my removable flash card storage if I want to,
>connect by video call using Duo if I want to, blacklist numbers in a
>list that I set, set the color of the message as per what I want it
>to be, mute certain conversations in the notifications if I want them
>muted, hide content for conversations set as private if I need
>privacy, clean up old messages on a schedule or at any point in time
>that I set, save into conversation folders, pin conversations to the
>top which are marked as important, automatically find the source of
>any url and post the opening images or video thumbnail and first few
>lines, text from any device, set delivery reports, customize
>notifications, set a private conversation passcode, customizable
>smart replies, configure automatic replies, put favorite contacts in
>the notification panel, set how to receive messages from non
>contacts, confirm delivery reports (without using RCS), strip unicode
>characters if I want them stripped, provide my choice of emojis if
>that's what I want, change the keyboard and available keys if I want
>to, customize swipe actions, and I didn't even go down the full list
>of customizable choices in its settings that are all my choices.
>
>An Apple app will never have those choices as it's against what Apple
>does.
>
>Why would I want to lose all that (as the op seems to be suggesting I
>do) for whatever it is the op is trying to get around in his Android
>group messaging with other users, but which the op hasn't even said
>what that is?

He wants the blue bubble.

On Wed, 1 Feb 2023 16:57:45 -0500, Neil <neil@myplaceofwork.com>
wrote:

>On 2/1/2023 2:11 PM, sms wrote:
>> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users,
>
>Everyone in the USA is messaging daily with a "sea" of both users since
>about half the people in the USA are messaging on one of the two types.

Everyone in the USA? Daily? Not me. Not even close to daily.

In all the years I've owned a smart phone, I might have sent as many
as ten messages. I hate to do it, in large part because it's very hard
for me to type accurately on such a tiny keyboard.

On 2023-02-01 17:38, Ken Blake wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2023 16:57:45 -0500, Neil <neil@myplaceofwork.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2/1/2023 2:11 PM, sms wrote:
>>> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users,
>>
>> Everyone in the USA is messaging daily with a "sea" of both users since
>> about half the people in the USA are messaging on one of the two types.
>
>
> Everyone in the USA? Daily? Not me. Not even close to daily.
>
> In all the years I've owned a smart phone, I might have sent as many
> as ten messages. I hate to do it, in large part because it's very hard
> for me to type accurately on such a tiny keyboard.

90% of messages I send, whether to Apple Message or SMS/MMS are from the
keyboard of my Macs.

Out of those I send from my phone, I often dictate the message - heck I
can do that from my car or Apple Watch too.

I send/receive 100+ messages per day, the bulk of which are business
related. Saves _____ oodles _____ of time otherwise wasted trying to
call someone and cuts e-mail cruft down immensely - plus I have a record
of info from the message to refer to.

But even the Apple Watch "keyboard" is quite good once you get used to
it. (let little errors go - they usually get corrected).

--
“Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present
danger to American democracy.”
- J Michael Luttig - 2022-06-16
- Former US appellate court judge (R) testifying to the January 6
committee

In article <p8qlth50lu715bgpe9fakvnl209eujuon7@4ax.com>, Ken Blake
<Ken@invalid.news.com> wrote:

> >
> >Everyone in the USA is messaging daily with a "sea" of both users since
> >about half the people in the USA are messaging on one of the two types.
>
>
> Everyone in the USA? Daily? Not me. Not even close to daily.

it's a colloquial expression, and teenagers make up for those who don't
text often.

> In all the years I've owned a smart phone, I might have sent as many
> as ten messages. I hate to do it, in large part because it's very hard
> for me to type accurately on such a tiny keyboard.

speech to text solves that problem.

On 2023-02-01, Alan Browne <bitbucket@blackhole.com> wrote:
> 90% of messages I send, whether to Apple Message or SMS/MMS are from the
> keyboard of my Macs.

Like Alan Browne does, I also send most of my text messages on my pc using
its keyboard, hdmi display, wireless mouse & clipboard (the software I use
works with windows, linux & macos so it's maybe the same software he has).

Like Ken Blake, I don't send hundreds of texts and images and videos a day,
but unlike Ken Blake I send anywhere between five and about ten or maybe
sometimes up to around twenty messages at most a day (single & group).

A lot are to family around the world where all my family groups are
definitely both android and iphone users and I don't have any problems.

What kind of issues am I supposed to be running into anyway?

On 01-02-2023 22:32 badgolferman <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com> wrote:

>>Why would I want to lose all that (as the op seems to be suggesting I
>>do) for whatever it is the op is trying to get around in his Android
>>group messaging with other users, but which the op hasn't even said
>>what that is?
>
> He wants the blue bubble.

Are you being straight with me? Or are you pulling my leg?

Any text messenger should be able to set the color of a contact to whatever
color you want it to be. Certainly my text messenger has that color option.

What I do is set only the most important contacts to a different standout
color but I could set them all to blue if that's the one pretty color that
I wanted any set of contacts to show up as.

Looking in the google play store there are many sms/mms apps that do that.
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=text%20message%20color&c=apps

On 2023-02-01 19:22, mike wrote:
> On 01-02-2023 22:32 badgolferman <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> Why would I want to lose all that (as the op seems to be suggesting I
>>> do) for whatever it is the op is trying to get around in his Android
>>> group messaging with other users, but which the op hasn't even said
>>> what that is?
>>
>> He wants the blue bubble.
>
> Are you being straight with me? Or are you pulling my leg?
>
> Any text messenger should be able to set the color of a contact to whatever
> color you want it to be. Certainly my text messenger has that color option.

He's referring to the fixed colour of message bubbles on Apple Messages:

- blue bubble = Apple Message (via whatever connection needed - WiFi,
Ethernet, Cell). Such messages flow via Apple's servers.

- green bubble = "the other guy" is SMS/MMS and so via Cell only. So if
I see a green bubble on my Mac, I know the message actually came via
cell to my iphone thence iphone to my Mac (over Wifi, possibly
bluetooth). And if I reply from my Mac, then it will go from my Mac to
my phone and via cell SMS/MMS to the other person.

--
“Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present
danger to American democracy.”
- J Michael Luttig - 2022-06-16
- Former US appellate court judge (R) testifying to the January 6
committee

On 2/1/2023 6:09 PM, nospam wrote:
>>>Everyone in the USA is messaging daily with a "sea" of both users since
>>>about half the people in the USA are messaging on one of the two types.
>>
>> Everyone in the USA? Daily? Not me. Not even close to daily.
>
> it's a colloquial expression, and teenagers make up for those who don't
> text often.

My children are in middle school and in high school and they seem to be
non-stop sending hundreds of text messages a month to their friends.

The younger twins are on the iPhone because that's what they wanted while
the older boys use the Android phones and they text each other just fine.
>> In all the years I've owned a smart phone, I might have sent as many
>> as ten messages. I hate to do it, in large part because it's very hard
>> for me to type accurately on such a tiny keyboard.
>
> speech to text solves that problem.

My wife and I use the speech to text all the time but I don't think I've
ever heard the children using it. They use their two thumbs amazingly well.
--
best regards,

Neil

On 2/1/2023 1:50 PM, badgolferman wrote:

<snip>

> This is just yet another one of your convoluted methods of trying to get
> around something. If if works for you, great. However 99/100 Android people
> would never do this.

Perhaps, but it's had over 100K downloads on the Play Store. There's a
huge wait list for "Beeper" which achieves the same thing and which is
not free, but Beeper does a lot more than just bring iMessage to
Android, combining Whatsap, Facebook, Twitter, iMessage, Android SMS,
Telegram, Signal, Beeper, Slack, Google Chat, Instagram, IRC
(Libera.chat), Matrix, Discord, and LinkedIn. <https://www.beeper.com/>.

On 2/1/2023 4:22 PM, mike wrote:
> On 01-02-2023 22:32 badgolferman <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

>> He wants the blue bubble.
>
> Are you being straight with me? Or are you pulling my leg?

LOL, no I don't care about the blue bubble!

The big issue has been the way Group Chats work between Android users
via SMS and MMS communicating with iMessage users.

There's a good site that explains all this:
<https://www.android.com/get-the-message/>. The premise of "These
problems exist because Apple refuses to adopt modern texting standards
when people with iPhones and Android phones text each other" misses the
point, which is the whole reason that Apple won't adopt "modern
standards" is that it's better for them to stick with their own
proprietary standard, at least for now, since it's a major selling point
for iPhone, at least in the U.S..

On 01-02-2023 18:30 sms <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> LOL, no I don't care about the blue bubble!

Good because it would be silly to care about the color of a conversation.

> The big issue has been the way Group Chats work between Android users
> via SMS and MMS communicating with iMessage users.

The only way I'd know which phone other people are using is if it's with my
own family. Otherwise I don't know (nor do I care) what phone others use.

Why do you care?

> There's a good site that explains all this:
> <https://www.android.com/get-the-message/>. The premise of "These
> problems exist because Apple refuses to adopt modern texting standards
> when people with iPhones and Android phones text each other" misses the
> point, which is the whole reason that Apple won't adopt "modern
> standards" is that it's better for them to stick with their own
> proprietary standard, at least for now, since it's a major selling point
> for iPhone, at least in the U.S..

If "These problems exist because" is so big, why don't I have any issues
texting with people when most of the time I don't even know what kind of
phone they're using (whether I'm in a group or individual messenger convo)?

In article <trf2r0$iujc$1@dont-email.me>, sms
<scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> > This is just yet another one of your convoluted methods of trying to get
> > around something. If if works for you, great. However 99/100 Android people
> > would never do this.
>
> Perhaps, but it's had over 100K downloads on the Play Store.

out of 2 billion devices, that's not a whole lot, and what matters are
active users who continue to use the app, not downloads, many of whom
try it and then delete it.

On Wed, 1 Feb 2023 13:11:43 -0800, sms wrote:

> As many are aware, one big selling point of the iPhone is iMessage,
> which unlike multi-platform messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal,
> Line, or WeChat, is only available for Apple operating systems.

How is being "only available for Apple" the imessage selling point?
Anyway my message app already works for non-group and message group chats.

> iMessage
> is a big selling point for iPhones in the U.S., though not so much in
> countries where cross-platform, data-only, messaging apps are more
> widely used.

The USA is big on sms/mms texting because it's usually unlimited & free.
Not so much the rest of the world.

> Without AirMessage <https://airmessage.org/>, when an iMessage is sent
> to the phone number for an Android device it is converted to an SMS.

So what? It was *sent* as an sms (or mms) in the first place, wasn't it?

> This works okay for non-group messages, but it is a big issue for
> iMessage group chats.

And what kind of data does this "air message" message app collect anyway?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=me.tagavari.airmessage

> Also, if you have Wi-Fi but no cellular connection
> then you can't send or receive an SMS (such as using Wi-Fi on an
> airplane or at a remote hotel, or with a data-only foreign SIM card). It
> would be wonderful if everyone just used WhatsApp, but in the U.S.
> that's unlikely to happen (and in China WhatsApp is banned, but iMessage
> is not).

Both iMessage and WhatsApp require an account on an Internet server.

Why do I need this air message app which first thing tells me I have to set
up a server on a Mac computer and then log into an account I don't want?

> This morning I installed the AirMessage server
> <https://github.com/airmessage/airmessage-server/releases/download/v4.1.4/AirMessage-4.1.4.zip>
> on a Mac Mini and installed the AirMessage Android App
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.tagavari.airmessage>
> on one (so far) of my Android devices. Very easy to do, just took a few
> minutes. For Windows you can use the web interface at
> <https://web.airmessage.org/> to send and receive iMessages.

That web page still says a "A server installed on a Mac computer is
required to route your messages for you." Is that information wrong?

> The AirMessage server app needs to be installed on a Mac that is always
> on and connected to the internet, but no keyboard or mouse or monitor
> needs to be connected once it's all set up. You can use any Mac that is
> running macOS 10.10 Yosemite or newer, though for laptops you need to
> also install an app that prevents the laptop from sleeping when the lid
> is closed. You also want to enable the "Open at login" option for the
> AirMessage server, you want to disable the need for a password upon
> power-up, and you want to enable "Start up automatically after a power
> failure."

Why did that web page above ask for a Google login if it's on the Mac?

> This is what the AirMessage server looks like in the corner of the
> screen when running <https://i.imgur.com/u9fuKN7.jpeg>.
>
> I had no suitable Mac for this endeavor so I obtained a used Mac Mini
> from someone on craigslist for $100. It's a mint condition 2012 2.5GHz
> Core i5 that the previous owner upgraded to 8GB of RAM and he also added
> an SSD (but left the HDD in there for storage). There's a lot of Mac
> Minis on craigslist in my area for $100-$125. You don't need a high-end
> Mac for this. You could also use a Hackintosh but that's almost
> certainly going to cost a lot more than a used Mac Mini or Macbook Air.

Why do you need a Mac when you already have a Windows 10 computer?

> There's also a way to have multiple AppleIDs using one Mac running
> AirMessage but I have not tried that yet
> <https://airmessage.org/help/guide/multiple-users>.

Why do you need any server id just to send an sms/mms message to friends?

> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users, and dealing with the
> problem of group chats on iMessage, this is a relatively inexpensive way
> of sticking with Android, with all of its advantages, while still being
> able to use iMessage.

Why would I spend money to set up a computer that I don't even want and
then set up a server id to an account that I shouldn't need just to
communicate via sms/mms with people that I'm not having any problems
communicating with without doing all that expense and effort and accounts?
--
[I filter out all Goggle Groups posts]

Am 02.02.23 um 01:12 schrieb Incubus:
> A lot are to family around the world where all my family groups are
> definitely both android and iphone users and I don't have any problems.

Nobody else except the OP has. He is always spending his day to
fabricate issues around iPhones/Androids that nobody has in the field.

> What kind of issues am I supposed to be running into anyway?

That there could be some small minorities that are unwilling or
incapable to use a second messenger besides there most loved one.

Those who want to communicate with their loved ones around the globe can
do that easily irrespective of the used OS or hardware.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

Am 01.02.23 um 23:38 schrieb Ken Blake:
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2023 16:57:45 -0500, Neil <neil@myplaceofwork.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2/1/2023 2:11 PM, sms wrote:
>>> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users,
>>
>> Everyone in the USA is messaging daily with a "sea" of both users since
>> about half the people in the USA are messaging on one of the two types.
>
>
> Everyone in the USA? Daily? Not me. Not even close to daily.
>
> In all the years I've owned a smart phone, I might have sent as many
> as ten messages. I hate to do it, in large part because it's very hard
> for me to type accurately on such a tiny keyboard.

Then you are the extreme exception from the rule. You can/could easily
use the desktop versions of all the existing messengers. I have them on
Linux and Mac. Then you do your messaging from your desktop/laptop.

Most users reach easily 2000-4000 messenger messages per year.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

Am 02.02.23 um 04:51 schrieb Michael:
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2023 13:11:43 -0800, sms wrote:
>
>> As many are aware, one big selling point of the iPhone is iMessage,
>> which unlike multi-platform messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal,
>> Line, or WeChat, is only available for Apple operating systems.
>
> How is being "only available for Apple" the imessage selling point?
> Anyway my message app already works for non-group and message group chats.
>
>> iMessage
>> is a big selling point for iPhones in the U.S., though not so much in
>> countries where cross-platform, data-only, messaging apps are more
>> widely used.
>
> The USA is big on sms/mms texting because it's usually unlimited & free.
> Not so much the rest of the world.

Bullshit. Why do you claim things you are not knowing or understanding.
SMS/MMS is dead in the rest of the world. "The world" is ahead of the
USA ten years. In my country the providers have already closed down
their MMS-services.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

On 2/1/23 21:11, sms wrote:
> As many are aware, one big selling point of the iPhone is iMessage,
> which unlike multi-platform messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal,
> Line, or WeChat, is only available for Apple operating systems. iMessage
> is a big selling point for iPhones in the U.S., though not so much in
> countries where cross-platform, data-only, messaging apps are more
> widely used.
>
> Without AirMessage <https://airmessage.org/>, when an iMessage is sent
> to the phone number for an Android device it is converted to an SMS.
> This works okay for non-group messages, but it is a big issue for
> iMessage group chats. Also, if you have Wi-Fi but no cellular connection
> then you can't send or receive an SMS (such as using Wi-Fi on an
> airplane or at a remote hotel, or with a data-only foreign SIM card). It
> would be wonderful if everyone just used WhatsApp, but in the U.S.
> that's unlikely to happen (and in China WhatsApp is banned, but iMessage
> is not).
>
> This morning I installed the AirMessage server
> <https://github.com/airmessage/airmessage-server/releases/download/v4.1.4/AirMessage-4.1.4.zip> on a Mac Mini and installed the AirMessage Android App <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.tagavari.airmessage> on one (so far) of my Android devices. Very easy to do, just took a few minutes. For Windows you can use the web interface at <https://web.airmessage.org/> to send and receive iMessages.
>
> The AirMessage server app needs to be installed on a Mac that is always
> on and connected to the internet, but no keyboard or mouse or monitor
> needs to be connected once it's all set up. You can use any Mac that is
> running macOS 10.10 Yosemite or newer, though for laptops you need to
> also install an app that prevents the laptop from sleeping when the lid
> is closed. You also want to enable the "Open at login" option for the
> AirMessage server, you want to disable the need for a password upon
> power-up, and you want to enable "Start up automatically after a power
> failure."
>
> This is what the AirMessage server looks like in the corner of the
> screen when running <https://i.imgur.com/u9fuKN7.jpeg>.
>
> I had no suitable Mac for this endeavor so I obtained a used Mac Mini
> from someone on craigslist for $100. It's a mint condition 2012 2.5GHz
> Core i5 that the previous owner upgraded to 8GB of RAM and he also added
> an SSD (but left the HDD in there for storage). There's a lot of Mac
> Minis on craigslist in my area for $100-$125. You don't need a high-end
> Mac for this. You could also use a Hackintosh but that's almost
> certainly going to cost a lot more than a used Mac Mini or Macbook Air.
>
> There's also a way to have multiple AppleIDs using one Mac running
> AirMessage but I have not tried that yet
> <https://airmessage.org/help/guide/multiple-users>.
>
> If you're an Android user in a sea of iPhone users, and dealing with the
> problem of group chats on iMessage, this is a relatively inexpensive way
> of sticking with Android, with all of its advantages, while still being
> able to use iMessage.
>
> Cue the trolls!

I can see a limited, US only use case for the lone Android user in a sea
of iPhones. However, Google themselves might render AirMessage
obsolete. The are already playing cat and mouse with Apple,
accommodating Apple's proprietary message content to give Android (well
at least Pixel) users a better experience.

Anyway, IP based messaging solutions (even Metastatic's awful Facebook
Messenger) are vastly better than SMS.

On 2/1/2023 7:51 PM, Michael wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2023 13:11:43 -0800, sms wrote:
>
>> As many are aware, one big selling point of the iPhone is iMessage,
>> which unlike multi-platform messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal,
>> Line, or WeChat, is only available for Apple operating systems.
>
> How is being "only available for Apple" the imessage selling point?
> Anyway my message app already works for non-group and message group chats.

No, it's not an iMessage selling point, it's an iPhone selling point, at
least in the U.S. where platform-independent messaging apps are not that
popular.

We've all read about "green bubble versus blue bubble," as in the
article "iPhone or Android? Your phone choice could be hampering your
love life"
<https://www.cnet.com/culture/iphone-or-android-your-phone-choice-could-be-impacting-your-love-life/>,where
OKCupid found that 31% of its users would not message someone that was
not using an iPhone and 27% said that green bubbles are worse than
mansplaining.

That article also talked about how the iMessage issue has even come up
in lawsuits: "There's been a question of whether iMessage's sheer
awkwardness in getting along with Android amounts to stifling the
competition." This is rather ridiculous, Google is just upset that its
own messaging app, Google Chat, has not become widely used.

On 2/2/2023 7:27 AM, Jason H wrote:

<snip>

> Anyway, IP based messaging solutions (even Metastatic's awful Facebook
> Messenger) are vastly better than SMS.

Google is also upset that Apple refuses to implement RCS on the iPhone,
but obviously Apple doesn't want a standard, cross-platform, messaging
app that is built into every device. Nor does Meta/WhatsApp or the other
proprietary platforms want this.

Tim Cook's answer when someone asked about RCS (because his mom has an
Android) was "buy your mom an iPhone"
<https://9to5mac.com/2022/09/07/tim-cook-explains-why-apple-refuses-to-adopt-rcs-buy-your-mom-an-iphone>,
which also stated "Apple has no incentive to adopt RCS and instead
continues to make upgrades to its own iMessage platform. The company has
made minor improvements to the SMS experience between iPhone and Android
devices, including better support for Tapbacks in iOS 16. Other than
that, it’s clear Apple has no intention of spending time on the RCS
technology."

In any case, the good news is that Android users that do want iMessage
capability there are now multiple options. AirMessage is one, Beeper is
another.

In article <trglqi$ul8p$2@dont-email.me>, sms
<scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> Google is also upset that Apple refuses to implement RCS on the iPhone,
> but obviously Apple doesn't want a standard, cross-platform, messaging
> app that is built into every device.

rcs is very much *not* that.

<https://www.androidauthority.com/rcs-google-3090142/>
In a word, RCS is like SMS, but better. Except that it isn¹t. Not
every operator has enabled it yet. Not all phones support it. Not
every implementation is the same ‹ especially in terms of encryption
since that bit is optional. And even if you download Google Messages
and use the now-supposedly worldwide ŒChat features¹ there, you¹re
still at the mercy of Google¹s servers which can go down or become
buggy any time. Which they have done rather frequently.

RCS is also completely reliant on your phone number being active
when you send or receive messages. This makes it intricately linked
to your carrier bill (h/t Ron Amadeo for bringing this into the
discussion). If you happen to miss a payment or have an issue with
your carrier, or if you live in a country where number portability is
difficult or inexistent, your line goes down and so does your ability
to use SMS and RCS. This is unlike IP-based chat services where you
can connect back at any point in the future, get all of your pending
messages, and continue where you left off.