What is the difference between Chert and Miss Blue?

Chert supports 47 of the 77 features compared here, and Miss Blue supports 47. Chert adds message effects, Live Photos, rich link previews, contact cards and polls. Miss Blue adds threaded replies, iMessage availability check, bring your own number, RCS fallback and RCS.

Does Miss Blue support message effects?

Miss Blue does not support message effects.

Does Miss Blue support Live Photos?

Miss Blue does not list Live Photos on its site or in its docs.

Does Miss Blue support rich link previews?

Miss Blue does not list rich link previews on its site or in its docs.

Chert vs Miss Blue

Q: How much do Chert and Miss Blue 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. Miss Blue: A free sandbox for testing, then $99 per dedicated number per month at the launch price (normally $198), with the usual $479 setup fee waived until October 31; FaceTime Audio ($250), phone calls ($75) or both ($300) are optional add-ons per line, and Enterprise is custom.

Compare Chert and Miss Blue 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

Miss Blue

Dedicated iMessage line with API, team inbox and calling

Starting price: $99/month per number (launch price)
Free plan: Free sandbox; 30-minute live demo line

Visit Miss Blue Read more

Chert supports 47 of the 77 features compared here, and Miss Blue supports 47.

Where Chert is ahead

and 2 more in the table below.

Where Miss Blue is ahead

and 2 more in the table below.

Feature comparison

Feature	Chert	Miss Blue
iMessage messaging
iMessage	Supported	Supported
Group chats	Supported2 to 31 recipients; first group message must be text only.	SupportedSend into an existing group by its chat_id and read group threads.
Group management	SupportedCreate, add or remove participants, and leave a group.	SupportedCreate groups of 2 to 32 and add or remove members; leaving a group is not supported yet.
Group name and photo	SupportedSet a group's display name and icon.	SupportedRename a group and set or remove its photo.
Mentions	Not listed	Not listed
Tapbacks	SupportedSix standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.	SupportedAdd or remove the six tapbacks; tapbacks from customers appear on the message.
Threaded replies	Not listedHomepage mentions reply context; no reply-to field in the API docs.	SupportedQuoted replies with reply_to_message_id.
Typing indicators	SupportedBest effort; group typing is not supported on every line.	SupportedSend typing, optional auto-typing on inbound iMessage, and contact typing via webhook.
Read receipts	SupportedMark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.	SupportedExplicit read receipts by API; outbound messages report read.
Edit and unsend	PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.	PartialUnsend within Apple's 2-minute window. An edit endpoint is documented, but the FAQ says editing is not supported yet.
Message effects	SupportedApple send effects, validated against an allowed list.	Not supportedThe errors page says effects are not a supported API operation yet.
Animated text effects	Not listed	Not supportedThe errors page says expressive text styles and effects are not supported yet.
Stickers	Not listed	Not listed
Formatted text	Not listed	Not listed
Attachments	SupportedUpload then send; several images can go out as one grouped message.	SupportedImages, video, PDFs, Office files and more up to 100 MiB, one per send, or carousels of 2 to 20 images.
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.	SupportedAudio-only sends use the native voice-note bubble by default.
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.	SupportedSend Find My requests, read the sharing state and watch live fixes over Server-Sent Events.
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).	SupportedSet and verify the number's Name and Photo Sharing profile by API.
FaceTime calls	SupportedInbound audio and video, outbound audio only, bridged to your LiveKit agent.	PartialFaceTime Audio only, as a $250/month add-on per line.
Delivery status	SupportedPer-message status with delivered_at, and the channel used (iMessage or SMS).	Supportedpending, sent, delivered, read and failed with a reason, by webhook or per-message callback.
iMessage availability check	Not listed	SupportedLive iMessage and FaceTime registration lookup; a separate lookup reads your own past traffic.
Focus and Notify Anyway	Not listed	Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines	SupportedChert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.	SupportedEach number runs on a Mac that Miss Blue operates; staff provision numbers within about 48 to 72 hours.
Dedicated numbers	Supported$250/mo per line, arranged on a call; no self-serve checkout yet.	Supported$99/month per number at the launch price (normally $198).
Shared numbers	SupportedFree 24-hour trial and $25/mo Shared plan on a shared line.	SupportedShared-pool numbers are offered as a separate, labelled option.
Bring your own number	Not listed	SupportedTransfer an existing number in; staff complete it in about 1 to 2 weeks.
Line pooling	SupportedPicks and pins a sender line per recipient from your assigned lines.	SupportedAuto round robin spreads new contacts across a project's dedicated numbers, then keeps each on one.
SMS fallback	PartialLines enabled for SMS retry only; plain-text 1:1 messages, not groups or media.	SupportedFalls back to RCS, or to SMS where RCS is unavailable, from the same number.
RCS fallback	Not listedHomepage says SMS or RCS fallback; API docs only describe SMS retry.	SupportedFalls back to RCS where the carrier and recipient support it.
Outbound-first messaging	SupportedFirst send to a new recipient creates a lead and pins a line.	SupportedNew contacts are paced: 50 per number per day by default and 150 messages a day in total.
Calls on the iMessage number	PartialHomepage offers one number for iMessage and FaceTime; docs say identities are not unified yet.	SupportedFaceTime Audio and phone calls from the number customers already message.
Other channels
SMS	PartialOnly as an automatic retry after a failed iMessage, on enabled lines.	SupportedAs fallback from the iMessage number; the docs also describe Twilio SMS lines.
RCS	Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.	SupportedAs fallback when the carrier and recipient support it.
WhatsApp	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered
Telegram	Not supported	Not supported
Slack	Not listed	Not supportedNot offered as a channel; the Slack page is an integration guide.
Email	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered as a channel; iMessage can be sent to Apple ID email addresses.
Phone calls	Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.	PartialBrowser phone calls as a $75/month add-on; API keys cannot place regular phone calls.
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.	SupportediMessage with RCS and SMS fallback, groups and calls share one API and webhook stream.
Developer tools
REST API	Supported	Supported113 endpoints across 13 resources, with an OpenAPI file.
TypeScript SDK	Beta@trychert/sdk 0.2.0 on npm (MIT); the homepage still says SDK packages are not published.	Not listedThe API is plain HTTP; no SDK package was found.
Python SDK	BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.	Not listed
Other SDKs	BetaRust, C#/.NET, C++ and Go clients are source previews on GitHub.	Not listed
CLI	BetaFaceTime CLI on npm's beta tag; the SDK adds a chert-sdk CLI for sends.	Supportedmb, with installers for macOS, Linux and Windows.
Webhooks	SupportedMultiple subscriptions with event filters; message.received for inbound.	Supported
Signed webhooks	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 per-subscription secret over timestamp and raw body.	SupportedHex HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and raw body; per-message callbacks are unsigned.
MCP server	Not listed	Supportedmb mcp serves the CLI commands as MCP tools for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others.
Open source	PartialSDKs are MIT and a FaceTime link connector is Apache-2.0; the service is closed.	Not supportedThe CLI repo holds builds and installers without a license; the service is closed.
Self-hosting	Not listedOnly the open-source FaceTime link connector runs on your own machine.	Not listed
Local testing	Not listedSSE stream and dev inbox avoid a public webhook, but a real phone is still needed.	Supportedmb_sandbox_ keys simulate outcomes and signed webhooks on a virtual number, with no phone.
Custom channel providers	Not listed	Not listed
Event replay	SupportedDurable event log with replay by event ID, polling and SSE.	PartialPer-endpoint delivery log and history sync; docs say to poll GET /v1/messages to repair missed events.
OpenTelemetry	Not listed	Not listed
No-code integrations	Not listed	BetaGoHighLevel connector is in beta; the Zapier, Make and n8n pages are setup guides.
CRM integrations	SupportedSalesforce managed package and HubSpot app.	BetaGoHighLevel connector in beta; HubSpot and Salesforce pages describe API builds set up in onboarding.
Built for AI agents
Agent framework	PartialChert-managed FaceTime assistants and a LiveKit voice-agent starter; messaging is send and receive.	PartialNo agent SDK; offers a managed conversational AI add-on and multi-step automations.
Agent framework integrations	PartialFaceTime calls connect to LiveKit agents; no messaging framework integrations.	PartialGuide pages for Vercel AI SDK, Chat SDK, LangChain and Claude Agent SDK; no adapter package found.
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.	SupportedShared Message Center for human takeover, with internal notes and resolving.
Audit logs	Not listed	Not listed
Message history API	PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.	SupportedThread history by API and a conversation sync from the line's Mac.
Plans and compliance
Free plan	Partial24-hour trial with 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line.	SupportedFree sandbox with simulated sends, plus a 30-minute live demo line by texting DEMO.
Public pricing	Supported	Supported
No per-message fees	SupportedFlat monthly prices; paid plans have usage limits that are not spelled out.	Supported
Uptime SLA	Not listed	PartialEnterprise only: contracted service terms; no uptime figure published.
Isolated infrastructure	SupportedDedicated $250/mo line for your project; lower plans use shared lines	SupportedDedicated numbers run on hardware assigned to you; Enterprise adds dedicated equipment.
SOC 2 Type II	Not listed	Not listed
GDPR	SupportedPrivacy policy sets out GDPR legal bases and rights.	Not listed

Feature

Chert

Miss Blue

iMessage messaging

iMessage

Group chats

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

Send into an existing group by its chat_id and read group threads.

Group management

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

Create groups of 2 to 32 and add or remove members; leaving a group is not supported yet.

Group name and photo

Set a group's display name and icon.

Rename a group and set or remove its photo.

Mentions

Not listed

Tapbacks

Six standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.

Add or remove the six tapbacks; tapbacks from customers appear on the message.

Threaded replies

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

Quoted replies with reply_to_message_id.

Typing indicators

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

Send typing, optional auto-typing on inbound iMessage, and contact typing via webhook.

Read receipts

Mark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.

Explicit read receipts by API; outbound messages report read.

Edit and unsend

PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.

PartialUnsend within Apple's 2-minute window. An edit endpoint is documented, but the FAQ says editing is not supported yet.

Message effects

Apple send effects, validated against an allowed list.

Not supportedThe errors page says effects are not a supported API operation yet.

Animated text effects

Not listed

Not supportedThe errors page says expressive text styles and effects are not supported yet.

Stickers

Not listed

Formatted text

Not listed

Attachments

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

Images, video, PDFs, Office files and more up to 100 MiB, one per send, or carousels of 2 to 20 images.

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.

Audio-only sends use the native voice-note bubble by default.

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.

Send Find My requests, read the sharing state and watch live fixes over Server-Sent Events.

iMessage apps

Not listed

Live app cards

Not listed

Sender name and photo

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

Set and verify the number's Name and Photo Sharing profile by API.

FaceTime calls

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

PartialFaceTime Audio only, as a $250/month add-on per line.

Delivery status

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

pending, sent, delivered, read and failed with a reason, by webhook or per-message callback.

iMessage availability check

Not listed

Live iMessage and FaceTime registration lookup; a separate lookup reads your own past traffic.

Focus and Notify Anyway

Not listed

Numbers and delivery

Managed lines

Chert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.

Each number runs on a Mac that Miss Blue operates; staff provision numbers within about 48 to 72 hours.

Dedicated numbers

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

$99/month per number at the launch price (normally $198).

Shared numbers

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

Shared-pool numbers are offered as a separate, labelled option.

Bring your own number

Not listed

Transfer an existing number in; staff complete it in about 1 to 2 weeks.

Line pooling

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

Auto round robin spreads new contacts across a project's dedicated numbers, then keeps each on one.

SMS fallback

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

Falls back to RCS, or to SMS where RCS is unavailable, from the same number.

RCS fallback

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

Falls back to RCS where the carrier and recipient support it.

Outbound-first messaging

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

New contacts are paced: 50 per number per day by default and 150 messages a day in total.

Calls on the iMessage number

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

FaceTime Audio and phone calls from the number customers already message.

Other channels

SMS

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

As fallback from the iMessage number; the docs also describe Twilio SMS lines.

RCS

Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.

As fallback when the carrier and recipient support it.

Not supportedNot offered

Not supported

Slack

Not listed

Not supportedNot offered as a channel; the Slack page is an integration guide.

Not supportedNot offered

Not supportedNot offered as a channel; iMessage can be sent to Apple ID email addresses.

Phone calls

Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.

PartialBrowser phone calls as a $75/month add-on; API keys cannot place regular phone calls.

Apple Messages for Business

Not supportedNot offered

Unified channel API

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

iMessage with RCS and SMS fallback, groups and calls share one API and webhook stream.

Developer tools

REST API

113 endpoints across 13 resources, with an OpenAPI file.

TypeScript SDK

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

Not listedThe API is plain HTTP; no SDK package was found.

Python SDK

BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.

Not listed

Other SDKs

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

Not listed

CLI

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

mb, with installers for macOS, Linux and Windows.

Webhooks

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

Signed webhooks

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

Hex HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and raw body; per-message callbacks are unsigned.

MCP server

Not listed

mb mcp serves the CLI commands as MCP tools for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others.

Open source

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

Not supportedThe CLI repo holds builds and installers without a license; the service is closed.

Self-hosting

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

Not listed

Local testing

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

mb_sandbox_ keys simulate outcomes and signed webhooks on a virtual number, with no phone.

Custom channel providers

Not listed

Event replay

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

PartialPer-endpoint delivery log and history sync; docs say to poll GET /v1/messages to repair missed events.

OpenTelemetry

Not listed

No-code integrations

Not listed

BetaGoHighLevel connector is in beta; the Zapier, Make and n8n pages are setup guides.

CRM integrations

Salesforce managed package and HubSpot app.

BetaGoHighLevel connector in beta; HubSpot and Salesforce pages describe API builds set up in onboarding.

Built for AI agents

Agent framework

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

PartialNo agent SDK; offers a managed conversational AI add-on and multi-step automations.

Agent framework integrations

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

PartialGuide pages for Vercel AI SDK, Chat SDK, LangChain and Claude Agent SDK; no adapter package found.

Streaming replies

Not listed

Agent group chats

Not listed

Human handoff

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

Shared Message Center for human takeover, with internal notes and resolving.

Audit logs

Not listed

Message history API

PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.

Thread history by API and a conversation sync from the line's Mac.

Plans and compliance

Free plan

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

Free sandbox with simulated sends, plus a 30-minute live demo line by texting DEMO.

Public pricing

No per-message fees

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

Uptime SLA

Not listed

PartialEnterprise only: contracted service terms; no uptime figure published.

Isolated infrastructure

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

Dedicated numbers run on hardware assigned to you; Enterprise adds dedicated equipment.

SOC 2 Type II

Not listed

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

Miss Blue

A free sandbox for testing, then $99 per dedicated number per month at the launch price (normally $198), with the usual $479 setup fee waived until October 31; FaceTime Audio ($250), phone calls ($75) or both ($300) are optional add-ons per line, and Enterprise is custom.

Pricing model: flat per line

Source