iMessage is an instant messaging service launched by Apple over a decade back, and everyone is aware about how it works exclusively within Apple’s ecosystem of products. Apple is stubborn with its refusal to implement RCS support in iMessage, and when an Android user with RCS enabled sends a message to an iPhone user, the message will be downgraded to SMS or MMS. This results in a loss of features, such as high-quality chat, read receipts, and typing indicators.
Fear not, as there appears to be a solution on the horizon. Sunbird, an Android app currently in its Alpha development stage, allows iMessage to work on an Android phone. All you need is an Apple ID that is active on a Mac, iPad or iPhone. You don’t need any Apple device after the sign-up procedure, and the company says that all the messages are end-to-end encrypted, so it can’t read your messages.
How to use Sunbird?
- Once you open the Sunbird app, create a Sunbird account with your email and a password
- Once you sign in, you will be asked to allow permission to access your phone contacts. This is to match the names with iMessage, so you just don’t see just the numbers.
- Next, you need to go to the action bar on the top right → go to settings →Connected message types → Connect iMessage and enter your Apple ID and password
- You can now send an iMessage, including photos and video, to any Apple device users from your Android phone
- Since it needs to connect to Apple’s servers, it takes time to send your message, and it takes a bit longer for sending media files
We tried the Sunbird app in Alpha on a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is running Android. Once the setup procedure was complete, we were able to send multiple messages on iMessage including text, photos, videos, audio messages and emoticons. For an app which is in its early stages, this is very impressive.
In the above screenshots, you can see how the app works when sending messages on an Android phone and receiving messages on an iPhone.
iMessage is not the only focus for Sunbird as the developers plan to add support for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, RCS, Signal, Line, Slack, Discord, Instagram DMs, and more platforms in the future. The idea is for Sunbird to the one-stop shop for messaging, letting users send and receive messages from all of their messaging apps in one place.
Sunbird says that it doesn’t collect any user data, IP addresses, or
any other data such as contacts or messages that could be used to identify users. It also doesn’t have any ads, says the company.
Currently there is a waitlist for getting access to Sunbird. You can sign up for for getting early access at this link – Sunbird Signup