iMessage is a major feature of iOS devices, letting users send texts, pictures, and videos over Wi-Fi and also offering features like an indicator when the other party is typing and support for messaging from a Mac. Unfortunately, iMessage isn’t available on Android, but one person is working to change that.
Eric Chee has created an app called PieMessage that lets an Android device communicate with iOS devices using iMessage. The app works by using a Mac OS X device as a server, enabling you to both send and receive iMessages using an Android phone.
As the project stands today, Chee says that it’s still a “super alpha prototype,” and so he’s released it to GitHub in the hopes that others will help pick up where he had to leave off so that he could focus on other projects. He says that it’s possible to receive group messages as well as handle picture and video messages, but that he couldn’t figure out how to send messages to multiple people in a single thread for a group chat.
It’d be nice to have iMessage on Android so that Android users could use iMessage to communicate with iOS users instead of SMS, and those that switch from iOS to Android would have a familiar messaging experience waiting for them when they switched. Since Chee’s effort isn’t an official Apple project, though, there’s always a chance that Apple could break this Android iMessage solution. And right now, it doesn’t look like it’s quite ready for prime time. If you’re an Android user that longs to use iMessage with your iOS friends, though, this project may be worth keeping an eye on.
