An email from Sunbird made me pause.
Months earlier, when iMessage support was first announced, I tried the service’s free trial. I wanted to know whether Android users had finally found a way into Apple’s messaging world.
I never made it through setup. The iMessage connection kept getting stuck, and I eventually deleted the app and moved on.
But I could not honestly answer a question Android users have asked for years.
Is iMessage on Android actually worth paying for?
- I am using Sunbird as a paying customer, not testing a demo.
- Week 1 stays as it happened, even if my perspective changes later.
- Support, setup time and account questions are all part of the experience.
- The goal is not to rush toward a verdict. It is to find out who Sunbird is really for.
In this editorial
Why I Started This Journey
I carry both an iPhone and an Android phone every day. If somebody wants to reach me through iMessage, they already have my iPhone number.
So this is not a product I personally need.
But if somebody asked whether there was a legitimate, practical way to use iMessage on Android, I could not give them a useful answer. I had tried Sunbird once, failed before I got through the door, and left it there.
That bothered me.
So instead of unsubscribing from another marketing email, I subscribed to Sunbird.
What happened next became the story.
The First Setup
Day 1: Becoming a Sunbird customer
The first surprise came before I even subscribed
I was using a Pixel 10 Pro XL. Oddly enough, I could not complete the purchase while connected to Wi-Fi.
I tried a few times, then turned Wi-Fi off and switched to cellular data. The purchase completed immediately.
I do not know whether that was my network, Google Play, or Sunbird. I only know that it was the first thing that happened when I tried to become a paying customer.
It is a small detail, but first impressions are usually made of small details.
Round two with iMessage
While preparing to try again, I learned something that may explain why my first attempt months ago went nowhere.
Back then, I had created a brand-new Apple ID specifically for testing. This time, I used my existing Apple account instead.
I entered my Apple ID and password. Apple then asked on my iPhone whether it was me attempting to sign in. I confirmed that it was.
There was no verification code. Just that prompt, and then the waiting began.
The longest 99% I have ever watched
Sunbird immediately told me that iMessage server availability was limited. Fair enough.
I watched the progress indicator climb: 7%, 47%, 90%, then 99%.
Then nothing.
More than half an hour later, I received a notification saying the sync had completed. The progress bar was still showing 99%.
Thirty minutes after that, it was still there.
An hour after I started, I was still staring at 99%.
At that point I was not looking for a technical explanation. I was wondering the same thing any customer would wonder.
Should I keep waiting?
Google Messages vs iMessage
Google Messages told a different story
While iMessage was sitting at 99%, I tried connecting Google Messages instead.
The first attempt failed. The second attempt worked.
What caught my attention was the way it connected. It appeared to use the same kind of device pairing I have seen with Google Messages for Web.
That made me stop and ask a bigger question: what exactly is Sunbird supposed to be?
Is it becoming part of my Android messaging experience? Or is it a bridge between services that already exist?
Trying Google Messages also appeared to reset the iMessage setup. So I was back where I started with the connection I had spent an hour watching.
I am not ready to turn that into a verdict. It was simply the moment where this stopped feeling like a question about blue bubbles and started feeling like a question about what kind of bridge Sunbird is trying to build.
Day 2: The support path
I explored Sunbird’s support chatbot and support flow. One thing stood out: it automatically prepared an email containing my device, app version and diagnostic information.
When something goes wrong, the hardest part is often explaining what happened. Here, the app seemed ready to collect the details before I had to work out how to describe them.
I sent my support request at 9:13 AM.
Day 3: A reply, then another 99%
Sunbird’s response
Sunbird replied at 4:26 AM the following morning, around 19 hours after my request.
Support asked whether the Apple ID used with Sunbird was also active on an Apple device, and whether Advanced Data Protection was enabled. Sunbird said that Apple security feature is not supported by the service yet.
I checked my Apple account. Advanced Data Protection was already disabled, so that explanation did not account for my setup problem.
The reply was useful because it gave me a concrete compatibility issue to rule out. But it also left the original 99% stall unresolved.
The app does recognise incorrect credentials
As part of the test, I deliberately entered an incorrect Apple password. Sunbird did eventually reject it with a “Wrong credentials” message.
The important part is that the rejection was not instant. It took a short time for the app to identify the incorrect password, rather than immediately telling me the sign-in could not continue.
I also tested an Apple app-specific password. That was rejected too, more quickly. The result does not explain what happens during a normal connection attempt, but it does show that Sunbird can recognise credentials that are not accepted.
The second attempt
I started another sign-in attempt at around 12:12 PM.
This time, the early progress was quicker. It reached 76% at 12:21 PM, 94% at 12:34 PM and 99% at 12:45 PM.
That was encouraging for a moment. But by 1:18 PM, after more than an hour in total and over 30 minutes sitting at 99%, the attempt ended without connecting.
The second run may have moved through the early stages faster, but it reached the same practical result: another lengthy setup attempt without a working iMessage connection.
The story around Sunbird
While waiting on that second attempt, I spent some time reading Sunbird’s Bird Feed, a collection of press releases and outside coverage about the service.
The tone is mostly optimistic. Much of the linked coverage comes from Sunbird’s earlier launch period, when iMessage on Android was still a promise people were excited to see tested.
Sunbird’s latest announcement says the app is in open beta, that a connection can occasionally take a second try, and that the in-app setup assistant is there to help when it does. That is Sunbird’s own description of the experience.
None of that makes the positive coverage wrong. It simply puts me in a different place: not reading about the promise of iMessage on Android, but living through the small uncertainties involved in trying to make it work.
A clearer answer from support
Later that day, Sunbird gave me a more definite answer. After reviewing my account again, support said its message engine could not connect with my existing Apple ID because it falls into a “rare connection edge case” the service does not yet support.
The recommended workaround was to clear Sunbird’s cache and data, restart my phone, then try again with a different Apple ID—either another existing account or a new one.
That closes Week 1 with a clearer result than another stalled progress bar: Sunbird cannot currently connect the Apple identity I actually use.
It also changes the next question. A different Apple ID may be enough to test whether Sunbird’s iMessage connection can work at all. But it cannot preserve the identity my friends and family already know. For an existing iPhone user moving to Android, that is not a small troubleshooting step. It is a different experience entirely.
More Than $2.99
When I subscribed, I thought I was paying $2.99 a month for iMessage on Android.
Three days later, it feels as though I am paying for something else too.
Patience, certainly. Time, definitely. Trust, perhaps.
There have been encouraging details: Google Messages connected on a second try, the support flow collected useful diagnostic context, and Sunbird did respond with a possible compatibility issue to investigate.
But there have also been two long iMessage attempts that reached 99% without giving me a usable connection, plus a support reply that arrived the following day without solving the underlying problem.
I am also starting to think the original question was too small.
Sunbird’s own documentation says that you do not need to own an Apple device. That makes sense for the Android user who simply wants blue bubbles. Creating a separate Apple ID may feel straightforward in that situation.
But what about somebody who already owns an iPhone and wants to try Android without walking away from the Apple identity their friends and family already know?
Should they use their existing Apple ID, as I did? Should they create another one? And if the answer is to create another Apple ID, does that weaken one of Sunbird’s biggest promises?
Can a service like this really become a bridge between Apple and Android without asking people to split their digital identity in two?
I do not know yet. And perhaps that is what this month is actually about.
None of that tells us whether Sunbird is worth paying for. Not yet.
But it has changed the question from “Would you pay $2.99 for blue bubbles?” to “What else are you being asked to pay?”
Week 2 – Living With Sunbird
Coming soon.
This chapter will pick up where Week 1 leaves off: with the service in daily life, the questions that remain, and support if it becomes part of the real experience again.
Week 3 – Has Anything Changed?
Coming soon.
If something changes, this chapter will say so. If it does not, that matters too.
Conclusion
Coming soon.
At the end of August, I will look back at the whole journey: whether Sunbird was worth paying for, who it seems built for, whether it earned trust, and whether it truly lowered the barrier between Apple and Android.
For now, I would rather leave you with the question I am still sitting with.
If you were trying Android without wanting to lose your place in Apple’s world, would you trust a service like Sunbird with that bridge?