Hey guys, just wondering if any skilled devs could think about this
What is iMessage?: iMessage is a great product that Apple uses to bring to and keep people on the iOS platform. But what if we could bridge it to android?
Situation: Many people have old iPhones (or can buy cheap on Swappa) I have a jailbroken iPhone 5. I also have an LG Nexus 5X. What if we could bridge the two and bring iMessage to Android?
Is it possible?: A while ago, some "enterprising developer" found a way to let android users communicate with iMessage. But all of the traffic was being pushed through a server in China. It was shady as shady gets. An APK teardown revealed some unwanted code abilities. But the point is that someone did it and that it is possible. Here at XDA, we can open source the code. We can create a clean, safe version for daily use. Just a little more DIY action.
The Idea: Use an iPhone/iOS Device as the host for iMessage. (The Android will handle SMS, but the iPhone will have no SIM and only send/receive iMessage messages) (P.S: Keep phone number attached to iMessage) The iOS device will most likely need jailbreak to execute the actions as it is far more locked down than Android. So the iOS device will likely sit on a charger, connected to wifi 24/7, acting as the messenger between your device and iMessage. Think of it as a translator.
You will also have an Android device with the appropriate software to connect to the iOS device over the web and send/receive your iMessage texts over the internet. The android app will either be the primary messaging app or a background app. Maybe it will even need root. I don't know. But if it's the main messaging app, it would be a fork of the default messaging app in Android and have the mods needed to connect to the iOS device running iDroidChat. If it's a background app, it will work with any messenger app and will simply act as another source of messages. Like a second SMS server/SIM. It may need root for this functionality.
The Bridge - A connection made over the internet between the iOS device and the Android device. The 2 apps will be encrypted with manual username and password entries. Both of which are entered into each app. The iOS device will host the connection (secured, of course) and the Android device will connect to it using the app. Once the iOS server is running, it will display it's IP, Username, and Password. Just enter these 3 strings on the android app to connect to the iOS server.
Future Plans:
1) An HTML implementation where you can type the iOS device IP into a web browser and it will have a UI for iMessage.
2) Pushbullet integration for mixed SMS and iMessage.
Execution: I'm going to say it up front. I don't know much about coding. That's why I am actively learning Java. But for this project to be possible, I need the XDA community. I will not accept any cash or profits whatsoever from this. I simply want to support the community.
My Role: I will keep the project in shape and help out devs as much as I can. Let's do this. Project Manager. yay.
Check out amphora Messenger on Twitter. So far it seems possible however developer is extremely busy currently. Pie message is also a working solution however needs a dedicated Mac computer, I phones are not possible
Related
After jealously observing the Facebook app on my wife's Blackberry Pearl, I am shocked that neither ShoZu, Snap2Face/Skybook nor FriendMobilizer have come close to matching the simple elegance of Facebook for Blackberry. Each of the aforementioned Windows Mobile apps, I believe, will fail to become very popular among users because they are trying to do fundamentally different things than the official Blackberry and iPhone apps.
So I'm going to attempt to specify the basic features that would make for the best "Facebook for Windows Mobile" application. The developer who carries these out will, I predict, quickly dominate the rest.
What we already have
A couple of mobile-friendly versions of the FB user interface. Whether you use http://m.facebook.com in PIE, or http://iphone.facebook.com in Opera Mobile/IrisBrowser, or indeed desktop-level Facebook in Skyfire/Opera Mini/etc., we already have great ways to passively view most of Facebook. FB apps for WM appear to have devoted most efforts to remaking their own, sometimes uglier interfaces for viewing the same information. While this introduces the possibility of offline synchronization, this is nowhere near a key functional benefit offered on Blackberry and iPhone. The trend is toward more users having data plans and ubiquitous data connections.
A way to access Facebook Chat. 3rd-party multiprotocol chat applications offer this for Windows Mobile already.
Several ways to update your status. You can do this through Facebook Mobile, SMS, etc.
A crappy way to upload mobile photos. You can send an MMS to [email protected] - not ideal and lacks the ability to place photos in specific albums, tag, etc. But it is a start.
A crappy way to receive notifications. The FB notifications feed is actually available via RSS, and several free RSS clients exist for Windows Mobile.
A really crappy way to new FB message alerts and everything else. Suppose you registered a new Gmail account devoted solely to receiving Facebook notification emails. You could register that address with your Facebook settings, set it as the address to receive email notifications and then turn on notifications for everything that happens on Facebook. After setting up this email account on your Windows Mobile device, you could receive regular alerts from Facebook on your mobile device. (Heck, with System SEVEN beta or some other service that utilizes the IMAP IDLE feature, you could essentially have "push" FB alerts).
What we don't have (but Blackberry does)
Based on the features listed at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/features/social/facebook.jsp , you can see that the man feature that WM users don't have is "push"-style homescreen notifications. On the Blackberry homescreen, the number of new Facebook notifications and messages sits beside a little FB icon. It is updated immediately as new messages and notifications are received.
Thus I would propose the following specifications for a WM Facebook app (or suite of mini-apps). The Facebook Developers API should be used, not some unreliable html-parsing library.
1. New/unread FB messages and notifications on a "push" or rapid-refresh basis. This either means (a) a Today screen plugin that lists the unread message counts and points Pocket IE to the appropriate http://m.facebook.com link when tapped, (b) WM popup notifications of the same, or (c) a MAPI interface library that allows the FB Inbox and/or FB Notifications feed to be added as regular mail accounts in Pocket Outlook - letting WM take care of popups if the user so desires.
2. A photo upload and tagging tool. The user must be able to select a photo (or take one) and then choose to either add it to any existing album or create a new one, followed by the option to tag that photo.
3. Dedicated Facebook chat. If it is easy, of course.
Everything else on Facebook - contacts search, Phonebook, etc - is just as easy to access on the existing Facebook Mobile site. My instinct is that developers inevitably waste our memory with bloated software when they make "native" interfaces that just rehash the content at http://m.facebook.com/
Or am I missing something? Maybe others have thoughts. I'm no developer and I don't mean to sound demanding - I'm just trying to give developers some ideas here.
would be fine if someone would fix the iphone.facebook.com java problems
libpurple already incorporates facebook im but i dont think there is a client for windows mobile that uses it. As for uploading, you can upload pictures but not videos directly from a touch series phone (videos are uploaded to youtube). If the protection can be stripped from an ipa and the can be decrypted then I dont understand why we cant port the facebook.app. I have an iPhone 3G and an iPod Touch, both jailbroken. I'll SSH into them and grab the files for the facebook app but the rest needs to be done by someone else. Just give me sometime to find them.
1. New/unread FB messages and notifications on a "push" or rapid-refresh basis. This either means (a) a Today screen plugin that lists the unread message counts and points Pocket IE to the appropriate http://m.facebook.com link when tapped, (b) WM popup notifications of the same, or (c) a MAPI interface library that allows the FB Inbox and/or FB Notifications feed to be added as regular mail accounts in Pocket Outlook - letting WM take care of popups if the user so desires.
2. A photo upload and tagging tool. The user must be able to select a photo (or take one) and then choose to either add it to any existing album or create a new one, followed by the option to tag that photo.
3. Dedicated Facebook chat. If it is easy, of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wFacebook will have ALL of these things that you mentioned. A little patience is all that is needed. I started developing this only 2 weeks ago Thanks for the breakdown though, it gives me something to work towards. I hope to have facebook chat up and running in the next release. Push style notifications will come as soon as I can figure out an "always signed on" connection to facebook. Photos and tagging are very easy to do, I just haven't gotten around to implementing it.
What you have to realize is that the blackberry apps and iPhone apps are both designed by facebook. They access facebook's data directly. Facebook does not allow this in its API so we have to find workarounds. Blackberry has nothing to do with it's facebook application (as far as I know). Facebook developed and maintains it.
Also, thanks for the tip on the rss feed. I did not know this and this may help with notifications!
Give computerjunkie some time....
And all the requested features will be hopefully implemented.
Btw since you have a BB and have positive feelings regarding it's user experience and user interface it would be great if you could dedicate some time to write down some detailed specs !
Ciao
Marco
The BB app doesn't really have a "push" notification system. All apps that use notifications, like Facebook and MySpace, are simple emails. When the same email account is registered under the BB profile, and Facebook profile, it recognizes the FB notification email as the app specific notification, and gives the notification instead of the email.
But, on the app, I really don't like it much, so I don't suggest it as your "template". All it really does is give you the notifications, allow you to update your status and view your friends list. You can't view profiles or photos through the app, it opens the browser, and you have to login! Further more, the news feed only shows the notifications, like birthdays and comments.
Try something like the BB MySpace app, I love that one! You can flow through pictures and view everything in the app.
wFacebook will be like the BB myspace app. You won't have to log in to the website to see info. It will be fetched from the application itself. Also, it will have push style notifications (maybe not ALL notifications but most: Wall, Inbox, photo comment, etc.). I am looking into an always on (or as close to always on) so when the notification occurs, wFacebook automatically fetches the info THEN notifies the user so all the user has to do is start up wFacebook and check the item. Also with the semi-always on connection, wFacebook users won't have to keep logging in to facebook which right now is taking about 1.5 minutes with wFacebook because of data speeds on mobile machines.
Problem with the xda app is it requires .NET 3.5
iphone.facebok.com in Skyfire is the best solution for me.
though I think a windows mobile facebook app is much needed I have to agree the very Bloated net cf is def not the way to go. I do appreciate all you are doing as this app has potential to be very useful . thanks again for all your hard work. pleasyo code in "C"
I'm quite sure many of you would have used this either on Firefox or Symbian, or something along the line.
This would be a great app to port over to Android to make use of the gmail accounts space for whatever you can think of.
currently to access that on my Android phone i've have to do it the long way via sending email to myself
but on a PC or any other platform with plugins that can directly access the Gspace, i can simply drag and drop files into the Gspace file manager.
I personally not that great at programing, i can script just fine, but programing a full app is a bit beyond me.
So, It'll be great if some Developer have spare time to make this great app, i'll donate / buy it off Android Market if it ever becomes available.
yes i'm aware there's dropbox, but using one's own gmail account offers way more space than dropbox
personally i feel it's better when everything is integrated into 1 account (reason why i like Android OS/phones)
it'll be even better if it can pickup the account username (email)/password from Android OS system settings > Accounts & Sync
Nice idea. Well, dropbox can have more space, but it's true that an all integrated solution would be cool. personally I would probably use both dropbox and this, even more online free storage
Sounds like a good idea.
Hello (please excuse my English),
I am a vb.net developer with an android phone. I like to write a windows application that will manage the phone's contacts with no sync (the application will read and write the contacts directly on the phone via usb).
I like to make this because I really need a convenient way to manage my >480 contacts with groups, links between them, photos etc.
But I don't know what is the best method to connect to the phone. I have download various open-source projects that use abd.exe but I can not figure it out there is not documentation about this.
Anyway are there any suggestions on this or maybe any how to?
Thank You
No help from me, but lots of encouragement though ... I hate my messy contact list, especially because of multiple gmail accounts... Searched like hell, spend quite some time on failing apps... So good luck with programming!
Thank you for your encouragement. I finally ended that the best solution is to write an android client application that will offer contact records to the pc application. I installed all the android development tools and I am ready to go. This is gona take some time because it will be my first android application so stay tuned...
Ok I have done some progress on the device side, but I really need some help. These are my questions:
1. In the Android Emulator there is no contacts groups. Any idea why or how can I add them?
2. I need some android code guidelines on how to communicate via wi-fi and usb. I am trying to implement some kind of tcp/ip protocol for communicate with the pc application and I need this to be available with the usb cable also (if that is possible)
Thank you all...
MyPhoneExplorer you will love it
I love it allready I am using MyPhoneExplorer since my first SE phone. But it does not supports contacts groups which is very critical for me. This was one of the reasons that I decided to create my own contact manager for android...
Ok, some status update:
I finished my research about tcp connectivity on android and I downloaded all the neading sources and documentation. So I am ready to go with the device side development.
But I really need the contacts groups on the emulator. I 'm stuck here!!!
Come on guys don't leave me alone...
Thank you all
Trying to solve it myself...
First I thought that Contacts application in my phone (Samsung Galaxy 3) was a samsung application, so I downloaded the phones source-code but no Contacts application in there.
Now I found in source.android.com the contacts application for eclair and I downloaded it. It seems (from the source code) that it is the same application which is in my device's firmware.
I create a project in eclipse from this source and right now I am downloading Google APIs to make it run on the emulator. If it runs on the emulator I will start development for the device...
chrishohl said:
I love it allready I am using MyPhoneExplorer since my first SE phone. But it does not supports contacts groups which is very critical for me. This was one of the reasons that I decided to create my own contact manager for android...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
omg i realy thought, it was posible, whit MyPhoneExplorer, my mistake.
great to hear about your little progress
what's up Chris ?
Some news ?
Status Update:
I finaly managed to get contacts groups in the emulator (via 3rd party app) but I still can not export contacts with group information from my device. Anyway this is not very important.
The important thing is that I started developing in android and the results are pretty well.
Right now the device application which I call "MyUnit Android Server" is a multi threaded tcp socket application that communicates with the pc via the usb cable.
I have managed to get through the basic problems with tcp, threads and sockets in android (and java) and it works very stable.
So now it is time to implement some kind of a protocoll for the communication between the device and the computer (any ideas about that are welcome). I have allready implement two functions. One retrieves the group count and the other the groups list. I think that this is very huge progress because this is my first app in java (and android of course).
Maybe in some days (about 10 - 15 because my son's birthday 4yo are in monday so the whole weekend goes to him ) I will be ready to release an alpha test version...
Thats great news, congrat whit your son, I know whats that like.
I would love to beta test, and help out
Hey guys
I'm an entrepreneur from Brisbane, Australia. I'm looking into introducing a new product and am wondering if you guys would be able to help me clarify a few questions. I have to add I have no idea what so ever about programming languages or whats possible or not. I just going to post my vision of the application I will need and hope some of you guys can tell me what of that will be possible, what not and how much effort / money it would take to realise.
Firstly of all and most importantly I need the the Phone application to work with several other systems which would be at the moment : - Iphone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry Android, a Website interface, Windows Vista / 7 and Mac OS. I need this to work in two ways. One for the user to sync their data on different apps and secondly for the admin to receive and send data from the main system (that would be working on Windows or Mac)
On first interface the user would have to log in with a username and password, high security would be welcome, after the log in the general interface should be offering the user a booking request form with the ability to use a saved lists of items which have been previously use / prepared but also a interface for add one or editing
It also should offer a open bookings lists and the ability to edit this lists. This should also be able to be synced to the other systems. A third interface showing a history and updates should be also available.
If possible it should offer different accounts and groups where admins can edit the bookings of other users. If this is possible it also should offer a control for the admins which shows bookings and history of other group users.
I would like this obviously to be a professional looking app which offers a good service and is secure and bug free. If anyone has an idea if this is realisable or what parts of it would be difficult or have to be changed please do me the favour and comment.
Thank you for your help in advance.
JPM
Hello,
If you're looking for developers for your project, please contact [email protected]
Example of similar (ok, a bit different but technical approach is the same) web app and mobile clients for several smartphone platforms is in my signature.
Hi guys,
There are plenty of proprietary messaging applications available for Android but I've been sitting on the idea for the last couple of days on creating an open protocol similar to IRC for smartphones.
What would separate it from existing clients like AndIRC is the ability to switch your phone off/close the client and go back to the rooms at a later stage and see the last 20 or so messages posted.
The big issue with the above is that it will be yet another chat network and it will be suffering from the chicken and egg problem where nobody would use it as nobody else is using it.
So I'm wondering if any rom developers would be interested in bundling such an application with their rom (for instance creating a chat room with other users that use the same rom). You'd obviously have a large say in how it should be developed and perhaps some branding opportunities.
Overall my main goal is to create an open and decentralized network that anybody can write clients and servers for - ultimately getting rid of this proprietary locked in mess that smartphones currently have. A big emphasis is on group chat instead of private messaging like Gtalk/SMS.
Any android/iPhone developers are more than welcome to join in.