iMessage was introduced by Apple in late 2011, it’s a proprietary message platform only available on Apple devices. It was originally created for iOS device only, later made available on the Mac. Unfortunately Apple has no intention to bring this message system to a wider audience. It is still not officially available on Windows. However, thanks to developers at Remote Messages you can now send and receive iMessages on a Windows machine or even Linux for that matter. It leverages web browser as an alternate client interface to send and receive iMessages. Hence, you can use iMessages on Windows inside a browser.
Before we begin, there are few prerequisite for this to work. You must have the following requirements:
- an iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch) running iOS 7 or iOS 8 jailbroken
- iOS device must be on the same network as Windows machine, a local accessible wireless network
If you don’t meet the above requirement, this method will not work for you. It is important to have a jailbroken iOS device. Proceed if you have the above requirements.
First, go to Cydia > looking for “Remote Message” this is a paid package cost $3.99 available through the BigBoss repo. Once you have this installed, you are almost there. Now go to Settings (app) > (scroll down) Remote Messages this is where you can find out the local IP address to connect in your browser.
I’ve turned off “Use Authentication” as this is my local private network. Keep in mind when you enter the IP address in the URL be sure to include the port number as well. By default, Remote Message require access to port 333.
Once you load up the app, you will see all your “Message” app’s contact and text messages including iMessages showing up here.
This is pretty cool right? Just be hold, there are lots of more hidden gems in this application. Head over to the settings menu on the button of the default layout. From there you can have additional configuration of how you’d like this Remote Message app to behave. All settings are stored on your phone, meaning regardless which IP you are trying to connect to Remote Message the settings you have previously configured will persist.
There you can configure things such as “Enter to send” etc.
Head over to the Appearance tab, this is where you can turn it into literary an iMessage client. You can change the theme to “Seven” this will apply the iMessage iOS 7/8 theme to the web client. All chats are now looked exactly like what you see on the iOS devices.
There are even awesome Notifications setting that allow you to receive a new notification from the Browser.
Remote Message also is extremely responsive. There are different UI layouts depends on your browser viewing width.
This is an example of viewing Photos send via iMessages. You can also send pictures from the browser as an iMessage.
In iOS 8, there are two new addition type of messages you can send. One is voice message, the other is location sharing. You can receive both type of messages, but with limited functions when it comes to viewing shared location via Remote Messages. Listen to voice messages will require you to download the audio clip and playback in a different application that handles those format. Unfortunately you cannot listen to those messages inside a browser.
Over all, Remote Message is an excellent addition to your jailbroken iOS device if you are constantly texting relying iMessage. It opened up doors to Windows users to have the ability to send and receive iMessages right from their computer.