# Tether (iMessage and SMS on Linux)

22 Hacker News commenters recommended Tether (iMessage and SMS on Linux) and 34 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Brings iMessage and SMS to Linux with more features than alternatives like BlueBubbles, and people find it works well. Critics say it sometimes fails to connect to phones.

## Why people recommend it

- Richer features than BlueBubbles or OpenBubbles (2 comments): "this is so much better than having to send it via a BlueBubbles bridge" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49492975)) "this is a lot more features than openbubbles could ever do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49493792))
- Works well once connected (2 comments): "it worked better than I expected, I wanted everyone to have it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49493773)) "It's working really well for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47199729))
- Read-only, works without opening app (2 comments): "a lot (most, really) of Tether's functionality works without having to open the app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499749)) "The nice thing about Tether is that it's read only" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49498232))

## What people warn about

- Connection problems on Linux and iOS (4 comments): "The tether app still has occasional issues re-connecting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49498840)) "I ran into similar issues on a mostly stock Ubuntu 24. When I start the gtk app, it has a scan devices button but it never finds my phone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49495482)) "couldn't get it to reliably connect - the feedback from linux and ios apps were vague and didn't help with what was broken" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49495466))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [WhatsApp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/whatsapp.md): 300 recommend
- [iMessage](https://hackerapproved.com/p/imessage.md): 100 recommend
- [Conversations XMPP client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/conversations.md): 31 recommend
- [Google Messages](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-messages.md): 12 recommend
- [OpenBubbles](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openbubbles.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Tether (iMessage and SMS on Linux)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tether/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).