What is the difference between Chert and MessageBlue?

Chert supports 47 of the 77 features compared here, and MessageBlue supports 38. Chert adds group name and photo, edit and unsend, message effects, Live Photos and rich link previews. MessageBlue adds iMessage availability check, bring your own number, MCP server, self-hosting and local testing.

How much do Chert and MessageBlue cost?

Chert: A free 24-hour trial includes 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line; Shared is $25 a month and a dedicated line is $250 a month, but paid checkout is paused. MessageBlue: Free when you bring your own number on your own Mac; a dedicated line is $100 a month on Startups & SMB, and Business and Enterprise are contact sales.

Does MessageBlue support group name and photo?

MessageBlue does not list group name and photo on its site or in its docs.

Does MessageBlue support edit and unsend?

MessageBlue does not list edit and unsend on its site or in its docs.

Does MessageBlue support message effects?

MessageBlue does not list message effects on its site or in its docs.

Chert vs MessageBlue

Compare Chert and MessageBlue side by side: iMessage features, channels, developer tools, pricing and compliance, checked on each provider's own site.

Chert

iMessage and FaceTime numbers for AI agents

Starting price: $25/month (Shared)
Free plan: 24-hour trial: 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line

Visit Chert Read more

MessageBlue

iMessage API for agents, with bring-your-own-number

Starting price: $100/month per line
Free plan: $0 with your own number and Mac, all features, limited seats

Visit MessageBlue Read more

Chert supports 47 of the 77 features compared here, and MessageBlue supports 38.

Where Chert is ahead

and 10 more in the table below.

Where MessageBlue is ahead

and 1 more in the table below.

Feature comparison

Feature	Chert	MessageBlue
iMessage messaging
iMessage	Supported	Supported
Group chats	Supported2 to 31 recipients; first group message must be text only.	SupportedSend text, attachments and voice notes to groups; receive group messages.
Group management	SupportedCreate, add or remove participants, and leave a group.	PartialCreate groups of 2 to 31 by API; no add or remove participant endpoints.
Group name and photo	SupportedSet a group's display name and icon.	Not listed
Mentions	Not listed	Not listed
Tapbacks	SupportedSix standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.	SupportedSend or remove emoji or tapbacks; inbound tapbacks arrive by webhook.
Threaded replies	Not listedHomepage mentions reply context; no reply-to field in the API docs.	Not listed
Typing indicators	SupportedBest effort; group typing is not supported on every line.	SupportedSend and stop, up to 20 seconds; no inbound typing webhook documented.
Read receipts	SupportedMark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.	SupportedSend read receipts; outbound messages report a read status.
Edit and unsend	PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.	Not listed
Message effects	SupportedApple send effects, validated against an allowed list.	Not listed
Animated text effects	Not listed	Not listed
Stickers	Not listed	Not listed
Formatted text	Not listed	Not listed
Attachments	SupportedUpload then send; several images can go out as one grouped message.	SupportedAttachments by public URL.
Live Photos	Supportedlive_photo pairs an uploaded HEIC with its MOV.	Not listed
Rich link previews	Supportedrich_link parts render as preview bubbles; falls back to a plain URL.	Not listed
Voice messages	SupportedNative voice notes on enabled lines; inbound memos arrive as attachments, no transcript.	SupportedTo individuals and groups.
Contact cards	SupportedBuilds a vCard bubble in DMs and groups.	Not listed
Polls	SupportedEnabled lines only; read votes by polling, no vote webhooks yet.	Not listed
Chat backgrounds	Not listed	Not listed
Location sharing	PartialOne-time location pin on enabled lines; not Live Location or Find My.	Not listed
iMessage apps	Not listed	Not listed
Live app cards	Not listed	Not listed
Sender name and photo	SupportedNative name-and-photo sharing on enabled lines (share_native).	Not listed
FaceTime calls	SupportedInbound audio and video, outbound audio only, bridged to your LiveKit agent.	Not listedInbox video call button is marked coming soon; voice calls need the team to enable.
Delivery status	SupportedPer-message status with delivered_at, and the channel used (iMessage or SMS).	Supportedsent, delivered, read, SMS_FALLBACK and failed via status webhook.
iMessage availability check	Not listed	SupportedCheck a number, or a whole group's participants, before sending.
Focus and Notify Anyway	Not listed	Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines	SupportedChert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.	SupportedRequest a number and the team provisions it, typically in 3 to 5 business days.
Dedicated numbers	Supported$250/mo per line, arranged on a call; no self-serve checkout yet.	Supported$100/mo per line on Startups & SMB.
Shared numbers	SupportedFree 24-hour trial and $25/mo Shared plan on a shared line.	Not listed
Bring your own number	Not listed	SupportedPair your own Mac and its Apple ID number with the MessageBlue agent.
Line pooling	SupportedPicks and pins a sender line per recipient from your assigned lines.	SupportedAssigns the least-mapped number per contact and remaps contacts if a number is blocked.
SMS fallback	PartialLines enabled for SMS retry only; plain-text 1:1 messages, not groups or media.	SupportedStatus event reports SMS_FALLBACK; not available for group creation.
RCS fallback	Not listedHomepage says SMS or RCS fallback; API docs only describe SMS retry.	Not listedMarketing pages say SMS or RCS fallback; docs only describe SMS.
Outbound-first messaging	SupportedFirst send to a new recipient creates a lead and pins a line.	SupportedStart chats with any iMessage-capable number; warns after 5 unanswered messages.
Calls on the iMessage number	PartialHomepage offers one number for iMessage and FaceTime; docs say identities are not unified yet.	Not listedInbox voice call button says to contact the team; number used is not stated.
Other channels
SMS	PartialOnly as an automatic retry after a failed iMessage, on enabled lines.	PartialOnly as fallback; new chats need an iMessage-capable recipient.
RCS	Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.	Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on marketing pages.
WhatsApp	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered
Telegram	Not supported	Not supported
Slack	Not listed	Not supported
Email	Not supportedNot offered	Not supported
Phone calls	Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.	Not listedInbox voice call button says to contact the team; call type and number not stated.
Apple Messages for Business	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered
Unified channel API	PartialiMessage and SMS retry share one API; FaceTime uses a separate API.	PartialOne API for iMessage and its SMS fallback only.
Developer tools
REST API	Supported	SupportedOpenAPI 3.1 spec published.
TypeScript SDK	Beta@trychert/sdk 0.2.0 on npm (MIT); the homepage still says SDK packages are not published.	Supportednpm messageblue (0.0.7), generated from the OpenAPI spec.
Python SDK	BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.	Not supportedDocs say only TypeScript is published today; other languages on request.
Other SDKs	BetaRust, C#/.NET, C++ and Go clients are source previews on GitHub.	Not supported
CLI	BetaFaceTime CLI on npm's beta tag; the SDK adds a chert-sdk CLI for sends.	Not listedThe API page mentions a CLI, but none is documented.
Webhooks	SupportedMultiple subscriptions with event filters; message.received for inbound.	SupportedInbound and status URLs with retries and dead-lettering.
Signed webhooks	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 per-subscription secret over timestamp and raw body.	SupportedX-MB-Signature: HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and raw body.
MCP server	Not listed	PartialDocumentation-only MCP server at docs.messageblue.ai/_mcp/server.
Open source	PartialSDKs are MIT and a FaceTime link connector is Apache-2.0; the service is closed.	Not listed
Self-hosting	Not listedOnly the open-source FaceTime link connector runs on your own machine.	SupportedEnterprise plan: your cloud (BYOC), VPC or on-prem
Local testing	Not listedSSE stream and dev inbox avoid a public webhook, but a real phone is still needed.	PartialBrowser test bench runs the no-code agent without sending an iMessage.
Custom channel providers	Not listed	Not listed
Event replay	SupportedDurable event log with replay by event ID, polling and SSE.	SupportedFailed and dead-lettered deliveries are kept and can be replayed.
OpenTelemetry	Not listed	Not listed
No-code integrations	Not listed	SupportedZapier, plus a no-code agent builder.
CRM integrations	SupportedSalesforce managed package and HubSpot app.	SupportedAgent connects to Salesforce, HubSpot and others; HubSpot inbox sync is private beta.
Built for AI agents
Agent framework	PartialChert-managed FaceTime assistants and a LiveKit voice-agent starter; messaging is send and receive.	SupportedNo-code agent with model choice, prompt, knowledge, tools, memory and multi-step tasks.
Agent framework integrations	PartialFaceTime calls connect to LiveKit agents; no messaging framework integrations.	Not listedSite says it works with LangChain and the Vercel AI SDK via webhooks; no official integration.
Streaming replies	Not listed	Not listed
Agent group chats	Not listed	Not listed
Human handoff	SupportedSlack reply triage with approve-to-send drafts, plus a console reply pane.	SupportedTeam inbox for manual replies; pause the agent or block it per contact.
Audit logs	Not listed	SupportedOn the Business and Enterprise plans
Message history API	PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.	SupportedConversation by phone number.
Plans and compliance
Free plan	Partial24-hour trial with 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line.	Supported$0 when you bring your own number on your own Mac; every feature included.
Public pricing	Supported	SupportedFree and $100/mo listed; Business and Enterprise are contact sales.
No per-message fees	SupportedFlat monthly prices; paid plans have usage limits that are not spelled out.	SupportedFlat $100/mo per line.
Uptime SLA	Not listed	Supported99.9% SLA listed from the $100 plan; the API page says enterprise plans
Isolated infrastructure	SupportedDedicated $250/mo line for your project; lower plans use shared lines	SupportedEnterprise plan: single-tenant or self-hosted stack
SOC 2 Type II	Not listed	PartialEnterprise page claims audited SOC 2 Type II; pricing says SOC 2 ready; no report found.
GDPR	SupportedPrivacy policy sets out GDPR legal bases and rights.	Not listed

Feature

Chert

MessageBlue

iMessage messaging

iMessage

Group chats

2 to 31 recipients; first group message must be text only.

Send text, attachments and voice notes to groups; receive group messages.

Group management

Create, add or remove participants, and leave a group.

PartialCreate groups of 2 to 31 by API; no add or remove participant endpoints.

Group name and photo

Set a group's display name and icon.

Not listed

Mentions

Not listed

Tapbacks

Six standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.

Send or remove emoji or tapbacks; inbound tapbacks arrive by webhook.

Threaded replies

Not listedHomepage mentions reply context; no reply-to field in the API docs.

Not listed

Typing indicators

Best effort; group typing is not supported on every line.

Send and stop, up to 20 seconds; no inbound typing webhook documented.

Read receipts

Mark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.

Send read receipts; outbound messages report a read status.

Edit and unsend

PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.

Not listed

Message effects

Apple send effects, validated against an allowed list.

Not listed

Animated text effects

Not listed

Stickers

Not listed

Formatted text

Not listed

Attachments

Upload then send; several images can go out as one grouped message.

Attachments by public URL.

Live Photos

live_photo pairs an uploaded HEIC with its MOV.

Not listed

Rich link previews

rich_link parts render as preview bubbles; falls back to a plain URL.

Not listed

Voice messages

Native voice notes on enabled lines; inbound memos arrive as attachments, no transcript.

To individuals and groups.

Contact cards

Builds a vCard bubble in DMs and groups.

Not listed

Polls

Enabled lines only; read votes by polling, no vote webhooks yet.

Not listed

Chat backgrounds

Not listed

Location sharing

PartialOne-time location pin on enabled lines; not Live Location or Find My.

Not listed

iMessage apps

Not listed

Live app cards

Not listed

Sender name and photo

Native name-and-photo sharing on enabled lines (share_native).

Not listed

FaceTime calls

Inbound audio and video, outbound audio only, bridged to your LiveKit agent.

Not listedInbox video call button is marked coming soon; voice calls need the team to enable.

Delivery status

Per-message status with delivered_at, and the channel used (iMessage or SMS).

sent, delivered, read, SMS_FALLBACK and failed via status webhook.

iMessage availability check

Not listed

Check a number, or a whole group's participants, before sending.

Focus and Notify Anyway

Not listed

Numbers and delivery

Managed lines

Chert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.

Request a number and the team provisions it, typically in 3 to 5 business days.

Dedicated numbers

$250/mo per line, arranged on a call; no self-serve checkout yet.

$100/mo per line on Startups & SMB.

Shared numbers

Free 24-hour trial and $25/mo Shared plan on a shared line.

Not listed

Bring your own number

Not listed

Pair your own Mac and its Apple ID number with the MessageBlue agent.

Line pooling

Picks and pins a sender line per recipient from your assigned lines.

Assigns the least-mapped number per contact and remaps contacts if a number is blocked.

SMS fallback

PartialLines enabled for SMS retry only; plain-text 1:1 messages, not groups or media.

Status event reports SMS_FALLBACK; not available for group creation.

RCS fallback

Not listedHomepage says SMS or RCS fallback; API docs only describe SMS retry.

Not listedMarketing pages say SMS or RCS fallback; docs only describe SMS.

Outbound-first messaging

First send to a new recipient creates a lead and pins a line.

Start chats with any iMessage-capable number; warns after 5 unanswered messages.

Calls on the iMessage number

PartialHomepage offers one number for iMessage and FaceTime; docs say identities are not unified yet.

Not listedInbox voice call button says to contact the team; number used is not stated.

Other channels

SMS

PartialOnly as an automatic retry after a failed iMessage, on enabled lines.

PartialOnly as fallback; new chats need an iMessage-capable recipient.

RCS

Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.

Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on marketing pages.

Not supportedNot offered

Not supported

Slack

Not listed

Not supported

Not supportedNot offered

Not supported

Phone calls

Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.

Not listedInbox voice call button says to contact the team; call type and number not stated.

Apple Messages for Business

Not supportedNot offered

Unified channel API

PartialiMessage and SMS retry share one API; FaceTime uses a separate API.

PartialOne API for iMessage and its SMS fallback only.

Developer tools

REST API

OpenAPI 3.1 spec published.

TypeScript SDK

Beta@trychert/sdk 0.2.0 on npm (MIT); the homepage still says SDK packages are not published.

npm messageblue (0.0.7), generated from the OpenAPI spec.

Python SDK

BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.

Not supportedDocs say only TypeScript is published today; other languages on request.

Other SDKs

BetaRust, C#/.NET, C++ and Go clients are source previews on GitHub.

Not supported

CLI

BetaFaceTime CLI on npm's beta tag; the SDK adds a chert-sdk CLI for sends.

Not listedThe API page mentions a CLI, but none is documented.

Webhooks

Multiple subscriptions with event filters; message.received for inbound.

Inbound and status URLs with retries and dead-lettering.

Signed webhooks

HMAC-SHA256 per-subscription secret over timestamp and raw body.

X-MB-Signature: HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and raw body.

MCP server

Not listed

PartialDocumentation-only MCP server at docs.messageblue.ai/_mcp/server.

Open source

PartialSDKs are MIT and a FaceTime link connector is Apache-2.0; the service is closed.

Not listed

Self-hosting

Not listedOnly the open-source FaceTime link connector runs on your own machine.

Enterprise plan: your cloud (BYOC), VPC or on-prem

Local testing

Not listedSSE stream and dev inbox avoid a public webhook, but a real phone is still needed.

PartialBrowser test bench runs the no-code agent without sending an iMessage.

Custom channel providers

Not listed

Event replay

Durable event log with replay by event ID, polling and SSE.

Failed and dead-lettered deliveries are kept and can be replayed.

OpenTelemetry

Not listed

No-code integrations

Not listed

Zapier, plus a no-code agent builder.

CRM integrations

Salesforce managed package and HubSpot app.

Agent connects to Salesforce, HubSpot and others; HubSpot inbox sync is private beta.

Built for AI agents

Agent framework

PartialChert-managed FaceTime assistants and a LiveKit voice-agent starter; messaging is send and receive.

No-code agent with model choice, prompt, knowledge, tools, memory and multi-step tasks.

Agent framework integrations

PartialFaceTime calls connect to LiveKit agents; no messaging framework integrations.

Not listedSite says it works with LangChain and the Vercel AI SDK via webhooks; no official integration.

Streaming replies

Not listed

Agent group chats

Not listed

Human handoff

Slack reply triage with approve-to-send drafts, plus a console reply pane.

Team inbox for manual replies; pause the agent or block it per contact.

Audit logs

Not listed

On the Business and Enterprise plans

Message history API

PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.

Conversation by phone number.

Plans and compliance

Free plan

Partial24-hour trial with 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line.

$0 when you bring your own number on your own Mac; every feature included.

Public pricing

Free and $100/mo listed; Business and Enterprise are contact sales.

No per-message fees

Flat monthly prices; paid plans have usage limits that are not spelled out.

Flat $100/mo per line.

Uptime SLA

Not listed

99.9% SLA listed from the $100 plan; the API page says enterprise plans

Isolated infrastructure

Dedicated $250/mo line for your project; lower plans use shared lines

Enterprise plan: single-tenant or self-hosted stack

SOC 2 Type II

Not listed

PartialEnterprise page claims audited SOC 2 Type II; pricing says SOC 2 ready; no report found.

GDPR

Not listed

Checked on each provider's own site and docs on 2026-10-25. “Not listed” means the provider does not mention it.

Pricing

Chert

A free 24-hour trial includes 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line; Shared is $25 a month and a dedicated line is $250 a month, but paid checkout is paused.

Pricing model: flat monthly per line, with usage limits

Source

MessageBlue

Free when you bring your own number on your own Mac; a dedicated line is $100 a month on Startups & SMB, and Business and Enterprise are contact sales.

Pricing model: flat per line

Source