Hacker News Reader

Comment by sp0ck | Hacker News Reader

iMessage and iCloud integration is still missing. I can’t image to reach for a phone every time I’m getting text when working on a computer. I’m surprised that such synergy is still not covered by community. [edit] My killer app is iTerm. There isn’t anything even close to it on Linux. (features _and_ documentation)

View on HN

There are alternatives for those of us not obsessed with the Apple universe. Android supports Android Messages which can be read/responded to from the browser/an app. iCloud may be substituted with any number of offerings, some will keep files on the cloud and sync as needed to preserve space. If you are invested in the Apple ecosystem, you're out of luck.

Android Messages is not a true competitor here, since iMessage naturally scales up to E2E encryption. (Not a concern for everyone, of course.)

I don't know if KDE connect is available on iOS, but that provides phone integration without effort. Copy/paste across devices, file access/browsing/sharing across devices, remote input, media player control, notification synchronisation and text messaging is all available through KDE connect. If you run Gnome instead of KDE, GSConnect also works very well.

iMessage integration won't happen because Apple has closed down their API. There have been reverse engineering efforts but such a system is never reliable enough for comfortable desktop integration imo.

I've never come across iMessage lock-in as everyone I know either uses WhatsApp, Telegram or plain old SMS so I don't know what limitations you might run into in your setup.

Come to think of it, KDE connect on iOS won't happen (GPL conflict with app store, restrictions to apps, limitations on background execution). I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything else from the Apple ecosystem.

That is annoying although it is completely at the discretion of Apple. Luckily most of my contacts use WhatsApp or Telegram anyway.

Something really amazing for Android is scrcpy. Mirror your phone right onto your Desktop at speeds fast enough to play games.

Android has a web app you can use on your PC btw. It's alright and does the job for me.

What integration are you imagining? I can send and recieve sms on my mbp with native imessage.

Perhaps I misunderstand your issue, but you may want to investigate this more: I don't remember what I did to set it up, but I text with Messages from my Mac without issue, and the system keeps Mac Messages and the iPhone messaging app in sync (I can see all conversations on both).

I can also make and receive calls from my Mac, provided the Mac and iPhone are on the same network.

GP loves the Messages integration in macOS and misses it on Linux.

Ah, yes, a fourth read makes that clear. I read "iMessage and iCloud integration is still missing" as "I haven't been able to get iMessage to integrate with iCloud" instead of as "there is nothing comparable on Linux", which, given context, makes much more sense.

Thanks for the clarification.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com