Connecting iMessage

You text yourself, and your agent answers in that thread, on every device signed into your Apple ID. It reads and sends through Messages on this Mac, so it works while this Mac is awake with Archie running.

Before you start#

• A Mac signed into Messages with your Apple ID. If you can text yourself, you're ready.
• About 5 minutes. Archie does the download for you.

1. Pick iMessage on Archie’s Chat app card and press Get it. Archie fetches the small tool it reads and sends Messages through, and checks it against a known fingerprint before running it.

   Already have the tool? Archie finds it and downloads nothing.

2. Give Archie permission to read Messages: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, press +, and add Archie.

   This is the permission that lets anything read the Messages history on a Mac.

3. Type your own phone number or Apple ID email into the field on Archie’s Chat app card, then press Connect. To see which one Messages uses: in Messages, click Messages in the menu bar, then Settings, then iMessage, and look under You can be reached for messages at.

4. In Messages, send yourself a hi at that number or email. That creates the thread your agent will live in.

   Already have a note-to-self thread? Skip this.

5. Switch on your agent, at the top of its page. The first time it answers, macOS asks whether Archie may control Messages; click Allow.

   Clicked Don't Allow by mistake? System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation, find Archie, and switch Messages on.

You'll know it worked when#

The iMessage row on Archie’s Chat app card says connected in green. Your agent won't answer until you claim it: switch it on, then send the six-digit code Archie shows you in that thread.

If something goes wrong#

• The agent can't read Messages: switch Archie on in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, then quit and reopen Archie.
• The agent reads but never sends: switch on System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation → Archie → Messages.
• No conversation with your handle was found: text yourself once in Messages, and enter the number or email exactly as Messages shows it.
• Texts from your phone get no answer: this Mac has to be awake with Archie running.
• Every message shows twice on your phone (once gray, once blue): that's normal for a conversation with yourself, and your agent's replies start with its name. To stop the doubling, give your agent an Apple ID of its own (below).
• Messages came to the front by itself: that's Archie sending through it.

Texting it like a contact, on an Apple ID of its own#

If the Mac running Archie can be your agent's, such as a spare Mac or a Mac mini, sign its Messages into an Apple ID made for your agent. You text it like any contact, so nothing shows twice. Messages is signed into one Apple ID at a time, so your own texts stop showing on that Mac.

• Make an Apple ID for your agent at account.apple.com. On the Mac running Archie, open Messages, click Messages in the menu bar, then Settings, then iMessage, sign out of yours and sign in with the new one.
• On Archie’s Chat app card, pick iMessage, choose An Apple ID of its own, and type the phone number or email you'll text it from. Press Connect.
• Text your agent's Apple ID once from your phone. Then switch on your agent and send the six-digit code in that conversation.
• Text Replies reads whichever Apple ID Messages on this Mac is signed into, so on this setup it reads your agent's texts, not yours.