# Chert iMessage API

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Chert iMessage API and 34 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Lets businesses and agents message customers over iMessage, with SMS/RCS fallback. Critics say it violates Apple's terms and could be shut down overnight.

## Why people recommend it

- Lets agents reach iMessage users (3 comments): "giving agents the ability to interact with iMessage users, which is something that fundamentally can't be done on the current interface" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48271076)) "allowing agents to interact with humans on iMessage, which is something that the current iMessage interface cannot do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48271099)) "Our goal behind this is to make it easier for people to conversationally interact with agents" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48269859))
- Scale, stability and SMS/RCS fallback (2 comments): "we're more focused on 2-way conversational business use cases such as customer service that require scale and stability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48268459)) "we have SMS/RCS fallback systems in place so no conversations get stopped or lost" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48268360))

## What people warn about

- Makes bots look like people (3 comments): "This impersonates a person on a platform which has generally prevented that... so people will be more likely to have a conversation, as they don't expect it to be a bot." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48273870)) "So the business is to trick people into thinking they’re speaking with a real person" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48269699)) "yet another attempt at blurring the distinction between bots and human interactions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48268756))
- SIM farm and spam concerns (3 comments): "which to me resembles the SIM farms that are a scourge when it comes to consumer fraud and abuse" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48269122)) "I get enough text and call spam I can't prevent even with reporting every single one of them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48274211)) "these guys are running a massive e-sim farm that sits on top of a rest api" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48282952))
- Risks harming iMessage trust (3 comments): "Exploiting the trust users have in iMessage by injecting unsupported business messages into it degrades the value of the channel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48284891)) "Are you worried your users will ruin the trust of the blue bubble thus killing your product" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48269184)) "The absolute last thing I need or want is for the same thing to happen to iMessage." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48268308))
- Could be shut down by Apple (2 comments): "Apple will close you down just like they did with every other service that bypassed their walled gardens." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48271703)) "they need to grow into a more robust business than just being an API that can get shut down overnight" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48273006))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Twilio API](https://hackerapproved.com/p/twilio.md): 15 recommend
- [Telegram Bot API](https://hackerapproved.com/p/telegram-bot-api.md): 11 recommend
- [Kapso](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kapso.md): 10 recommend
- [Telnyx API](https://hackerapproved.com/p/telnyx.md): 6 recommend
- [WhatsApp Business API](https://hackerapproved.com/p/whatsapp-business-api.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Chert iMessage API", https://hackerapproved.com/p/chert/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).