Yes, you did read that headline correctly, you can use Apple’s iMessage service on Android with an app called iMessage Chat by first-time developer Daniel Zweigart now available on Google Play.
The app works, but before you rush to install it, you should read the rest of this article.
It’s not an official app (like Apple would ever publish anything official on Android), and it has a few pretty major bugs that seem likely to cause problems for users, potentially even resulting in a factory reset for the uneducated user. The app does a few unexpected things with message sorting too.
The UI is similar to Apple’s own messaging app rather than an Android Holo design, and the app imports contacts from the addresses on your device.
A teardown of the APK by Adam Bell has shown that it’s actually posing as a Mac Mini when communicating with Apple’s iMessage services. It’s unknown how long this will last before it’s blocked by Apple.
So it looks like that iMessage on Android hack is super sketch and is spoofing iMessage requests as a mac mini: pic.twitter.com/TYT6Djumdv
— Adam Bell (@b3ll) September 24, 2013
If you’ve got a lot of friends on the Apple platform who refuse to install any other free cross-platform messaging systems (like Viber, Whatsapp or Google Hangouts to name a few) then you’d be understandably tempted to at least try iMessage Chat.
Caveat Emptor
Around 30 minutes after installing the app on my Nexus 7, I started to receive emails from Apple telling me that I had requested a password reset, which I certainly had not.
Additionally, mentions on Twitter indicate that the app contains code designed to download APKs in the background, which is specifically outlawed by Google’s Play rules.
iMessage for Android app has code to download APKs in the background? TOTALLY SAFE. Not rootkit-ing your phone or anything? 😀
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) September 24, 2013
I’d advise approaching iMessage Chat with caution. Try it out with a device you can wipe without losing any data, and perhaps use a dummy or throwaway Apple ID – not your ID that has your credit card or any balance attached to it.
Update According to this post by Jay Freeman, the app receives directions on how to communicate with Apple’s iMessage systems from a server in China, which may be caching authentication information. He does, however, confirm that the app does what it says it’ll do.
ausdroid – why are you posting about malware?
It’s informing people about the issues surrounding the App. Did you read the warnings included inside the article and explanations?
Dan, I think the real question the guest was asking was:
Why is Ausdroid providing a link to the malware?
It’s actually a working app. It does what it says, we’ve provided all the due warnings about what it’s actually going to do when you install it and leaving it to readers to make an informed decision.
What is more worrying is that this has been up on Google play since at least September 12th.
Why this would even be posted as anything more then *DO NOT DOWNLOAD* I dont know. Is like Ausdroid is inviting numpties to use this…seriously…
This would have been sweet about 3 years ago when all my friends had iPhones instead of Android phones …
Not interested in crap that belong in fruit bowls or devices that a preliminary used as door stops!
Queue impending disaster and/or Play Store removal.
For the app dev, both, with his Google account being nuked, just for good measure.
http://ausdroid.net/2013/09/25/google-pulls-questionable-imessage-chat-app-from-play-store/
More interested in getting the iFruit app for GTA V thanks.
I don’t want any iCrap on my phone to be honest …
I keep getting apple password reset emails and haven’t used my apple account in years! I did reset it to something secure ages ago. But they still keep coming.