Short answer: there is no public Apple iMessage bot API. If you want an agent to send and receive iMessages, the practical paths are BlueBubbles or another Mac-based bridge, AppleScript automation, pypush-style protocol experiments, or a managed platform. Photon is built for the last path: production iMessage agents with a real API, managed iMessage lines, SMS and RCS fallback, and the same Spectrum agent model you can use across other messaging surfaces.

Apple introduced conversation background customization in iMessage with iOS 26. Today, Spectrum takes it a step further with a new API that allows developers to programmatically personalize iMessage backgrounds for each conversation.

In the latest spectrum-ts release, we added opt-in OpenTelemetry tracing for Spectrum’s messaging layer.

Astrolabe is a declarative macOS configuration framework. You describe the desired state of a machine in Swift — packages, services, system settings, and related setup work — and Astrolabe keeps the machine moving toward that state over time. This update adds a built-in way for the Astrolabe binary itself to update after it has been installed.

Spectrum 1.6 is a fundamental redesign. We collapsed the entire platform surface from seven action methods down to two primitives — an input stream and an output dispatcher — because Spectrum is a tool for building agents, and the old surface did not reflect what agents actually are.

Spectrum’s terminal provider now runs a fully asynchronous chat UI in your terminal, with support for reactions, replies, and inline image rendering. Test agents without leaving your editor.

The developer world has decided LeetCode is dead. AI can solve any hard problem in seconds. Grinding algorithms is a hazing ritual from a bygone era. We have heard the arguments. We disagree — and we are doubling down. At Photon, every engineering hire goes through a live LeetCode interview. Not because we are nostalgic. Because we are testing for one specific thing that matters more now than it ever has: **the ability to find the meta**.