So don’t get too excited just yet – the PieMessage project for Android is far from being plug-and-play (or install-and-use, if you like). But what it is, is that it works – after a fashion. Once you get the elements working, you can totally receive and reply to iMessages on your Android phone. We hope the project takes off, because the concept totally rocks, even if it’s a hack.
This hack was uploaded to GitHub by a developer who goes by the handle “bboyairwreck”. The whole concept involves a few elements of getting your iMessages from an iOS system to your Android smartphone. First, it needs an AppleScript to capture iMessages whenever they pop up on your Mac. Then it needs a Java app installed on your Mac to collect those messages from the script. Then you need to run a Java server to get messages from the Java app and to the internet. Then finally, you need a custom Android messaging app to get the messages from the cloud and display it on your Android smartphone, with a feature to reply to those iMessages.
Seems pretty complicated, and it is. You also need a dedicated Mac unit with a static IP address for this to run correctly, or else you’ll have to recompile your Android app APK everytime the IP changes. But after ALL of that, the hack totally works. There are some caveats, like being able to receive group messages but not send them, and images don’t display. The app also identifies conversations by phone numbers or email address instead of names, but that’s small thing to suffer.
The developer needs help to get all elements running smoothly, and we do hope people will come in and help the guy out. What a project this could be. In the real world, though, Apple could just release iMessage for Android and render this whole project pointless. That could work, too.
SOURCE: GitHub
