BlueFerry

BlueFerry brings SMS and iMessage from a paired iPhone to your Linux desktop. You can read and reply to messages, start a conversation, search synced contacts, and optionally mirror other iPhone notifications. There is no Mac relay, Apple login, cloud service, or subscription.

This is still experimental software. Most development has used an iPhone 16 Pro Max on iOS 26.5, with additional successful testing on an iPhone 17 Pro Max running an iOS 27 beta. Apple can change the Bluetooth behavior BlueFerry relies on, so don't make it your only way to receive an important message yet.

What works:

• Receive and send SMS and iMessage through the iPhone.
• Sync contacts, including phone numbers and Apple-ID email addresses.
• Mark messages read from the desktop.
• Use native GTK, KDE/Kirigami, Quickshell, or terminal clients.
• Keep local history encrypted with GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet.
• Reply to group chats when BlueFerry can identify the participants safely.

BlueFerry only knows about messages it sees while connected; it does not download your iCloud Messages archive. Attachments, reactions, typing indicators, FaceTime, calls, and complete sent-message history are not supported. MMS and RCS need more testing.

Group replies are deliberately cautious. Bluetooth does not give BlueFerry a reliable group ID or complete roster, so it disables replies when the participants are unclear. Named groups may ask you to confirm a local reply roster. This does not change the group on the iPhone.