However, after a long spell of brainstorming, he has finally posted his ongoing project on GitHub to ask for help from other developers who might have alternate ideas or share similar ambitions.
Advertisement
Eric Chee has created an app called PieMessage that lets an Android device communicate with iOS devices using iMessage. Users should also be able to use their own Macs as servers for the app when it launches which would prove to be very pleasing. With a little more work, this could easily be the best of a bad situation: iMessage for any Android user who has a spare Mac sitting around. The project uses a custom API, it’s possible other developers could build clients for the web, Windows or other platforms in addition to Android, raising possibilities of shifting iMessage cross platform. This would allow cross-platform communication and definitely attract more iOS users over to Android. When the Mac detects an incoming message, it will pass it back to the Android. You’ll need to download a Mac server, and set up a Java Web Server.
There are a couple limitations: you can receive group messages but not send them, and images don’t display – though the author claims that won’t be hard to add. Also, right now the app identifies different conversations by phone numbers or email address instead of names. “I have an old 2007 MacBook that is just always on connected at home that serves as its client”, Chee wrote. In the past, apps that have been released used a third-party server to route messages, raising security concerns among users and likely for Apple as well.
So how did Chee do this? “This script is what sends an iMessage message”. You need a computer running OS X to act as a server, intercepting each message and then passing it along.
Advertisement
PieMessage is a work in progress, however, so you will run into some issues – especially when sending messages to a group chat. But fear not, we’ve got a solution for you.
