Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

Re:Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage by frumplestlatz on Monday May 25, 2026 @12:20PM (#48268601)

I genuinely can’t tell if this is naivety or willful ignorance, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

This is in direct violation of the terms of service, and Apple invests a lot of money in keeping iMessage clean of this kind of misuse.

They control the servers, the client, certificate provisioning, hardware identification, and user identification. They can trivially trace a registered account to the point of sale and the card and PII used to buy the hardware on which the account was registered.

You will fly under the radar for just as long as it takes to annoy enough of their customers that Apple brings down a massive ban hammer.

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Re:Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage by trollbridge on Monday May 25, 2026 @01:46PM (#48269597)

I also can’t tell why these use cases can’t just use RCS.

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Re:Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage by garygao on Monday May 25, 2026 @02:02PM (#48269779)

SMS/RCS is better for some use cases (e.g. transactional messaging, promotions, or order updates) while iMessage is better for others (e.g. customer service). iMessage is better for these use cases because it feels more natural to the users texting the number

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Re:Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage by trollbridge on Monday May 25, 2026 @02:05PM (#48269807)

The only reason it feels more “natural” is because Apple prevents non-humans from being blue.

iMessage fully supports RCS.

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Re:Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage by antiframe on Monday May 25, 2026 @02:07PM (#48269836)

Elsewhere in the great they said they can't support the customer in the right way on RCS. I can't think of any technical reason for right vs wrong support, but I can think of deception as a reason (gaining trust through using a closed platform).

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