What is the difference between Photon and Miss Blue?

Photon supports 75 of the 77 features compared here, and Miss Blue supports 47. Photon adds mentions, message effects, animated text effects, stickers and formatted text. Miss Blue adds FaceTime calls and CRM integrations.

How much do Photon and Miss Blue cost?

Photon: Free plan, Pro at $25/month, Business at $250 per dedicated line per month, and custom Enterprise; the 2.0 beta adds metered SMS, voice and email. 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.

Does Miss Blue support mentions?

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

Does Miss Blue support message effects?

Miss Blue does not support message effects.

Does Miss Blue support animated text effects?

Miss Blue does not support animated text effects.

Photon vs Miss Blue: Features, Pricing and Differences

Feature comparison

Feature	Photon	Miss Blue
iMessage messaging
iMessage	SupportedManaged cloud lines, or your own Mac with the local provider	Supported
Group chats	SupportedOn the Business plan (dedicated lines)	SupportedSend into an existing group by its chat_id and read group threads.
Group management	SupportedCreate groups and add, remove or leave members; Business plan (dedicated lines)	SupportedCreate groups of 2 to 32 and add or remove members; leaving a group is not supported yet.
Group name and photo	SupportedRename groups and set group photos; Business plan (dedicated lines)	SupportedRename a group and set or remove its photo.
Mentions	SupportedSend @mentions in multipart messages and read mention ranges on inbound	Not listed
Tapbacks	SupportedSix native tapbacks plus emoji reactions, send and receive	SupportedAdd or remove the six tapbacks; tapbacks from customers appear on the message.
Threaded replies	Supported	SupportedQuoted replies with reply_to_message_id.
Typing indicators	Supported	SupportedSend typing, optional auto-typing on inbound iMessage, and contact typing via webhook.
Read receipts	SupportedMark chats read and receive read events; group receipts are best-effort	SupportedExplicit read receipts by API; outbound messages report read.
Edit and unsend	SupportedEdit within 15 minutes and unsend within 2 minutes (Apple limits)	PartialUnsend within Apple's 2-minute window. An edit endpoint is documented, but the FAQ says editing is not supported yet.
Message effects	SupportedAll bubble and screen effects, including invisible ink	Not supportedThe errors page says effects are not a supported API operation yet.
Animated text effects	SupportedPer-range effects such as bloom, shake, explode and jitter	Not supportedThe errors page says expressive text styles and effects are not supported yet.
Stickers	SupportedPlace image stickers on any bubble with position, scale and rotation; sticker events inbound	Not listed
Formatted text	SupportedMarkdown rendered as native bold, italic, underline and strikethrough	Not listed
Attachments	SupportedFiles up to 100 MiB by default, including Live Photos	SupportedImages, video, PDFs, Office files and more up to 100 MiB, one per send, or carousels of 2 to 20 images.
Live Photos	SupportedHEIC still plus MOV companion uploaded as one Live Photo	Not listed
Rich link previews	Supportedrichlink() asks Messages to render its own preview	Not listed
Voice messages	Supported	SupportedAudio-only sends use the native voice-note bubble by default.
Contact cards	SupportedvCard or structured contacts, plus the bot's own native contact card	Not listed
Polls	SupportedCreate, vote, add options and receive poll events; all managed plans	Not listed
Chat backgrounds	Supported	Not listed
Location sharing	SupportedFind My requests and live location; Business plan	SupportedSend Find My requests, read the sharing state and watch live fixes over Server-Sent Events.
iMessage apps	SupportedCustom and live app cards; iMessage mini apps on the Business plan	Not listed
Live app cards	SupportedEdit an app card in place and render live UI without a new bubble	Not listed
Sender name and photo	SupportedShares the agent's name and photo automatically; Business plan	SupportedSet and verify the number's Name and Photo Sharing profile by API.
FaceTime calls	Not listed	PartialFaceTime Audio only, as a $250/month add-on per line.
Delivery status	SupportedSent, delivered, read and send-error fields per message	Supportedpending, sent, delivered, read and failed with a reason, by webhook or per-message callback.
iMessage availability check	SupportedCheck if a number or email can get iMessage, SMS or RCS before sending	SupportedLive iMessage and FaceTime registration lookup; a separate lookup reads your own past traffic.
Focus and Notify Anyway	SupportedCheck if a recipient has Focus on, then trigger Notify Anyway	Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines	SupportedSpectrum Cloud runs the Mac fleet; no Mac needed	SupportedEach number runs on a Mac that Miss Blue operates; staff provision numbers within about 48 to 72 hours.
Dedicated numbers	Supported$250 per line per month on Business	Supported$99/month per number at the launch price (normally $198).
Shared numbers	SupportedFree and Pro route each user through a managed shared pool	SupportedShared-pool numbers are offered as a separate, labelled option.
Bring your own number	SupportedYour own Apple ID when self-hosting on a Mac, and your own number for WhatsApp Business	SupportedTransfer an existing number in; staff complete it in about 1 to 2 weeks.
Line pooling	SupportedBusiness: auto-scale adds lines and a routing endpoint balances users	SupportedAuto round robin spreads new contacts across a project's dedicated numbers, then keeps each on one.
SMS fallback	SupportedOn every plan per pricing; carrier rules apply to fallback traffic	SupportedFalls back to RCS, or to SMS where RCS is unavailable, from the same number.
RCS fallback	Supported	SupportedFalls back to RCS where the carrier and recipient support it.
Outbound-first messaging	SupportedBusiness plan, up to 50 new contacts per line per day	SupportedNew contacts are paced: 50 per number per day by default and 150 messages a day in total.
Calls on the iMessage number	SupportedPlace and receive SIP calls from the line people already text	SupportedFaceTime Audio and phone calls from the number customers already message.
Other channels
SMS	BetaStandalone SMS and MMS numbers with 10DLC in the 2.0 beta; SMS fallback on iMessage lines today	SupportedAs fallback from the iMessage number; the docs also describe Twilio SMS lines.
RCS	PartialSent on the iMessage line when the recipient cannot get iMessage	SupportedAs fallback when the carrier and recipient support it.
WhatsApp	SupportedWhatsApp Business, one-to-one, on the Business plan	Not supportedNot offered
Telegram	Supported	Not supported
Slack	Supported@spectrum-ts/slack provider on npm and GitHub	Not supportedNot offered as a channel; the Slack page is an integration guide.
Email	BetaYour own domain with DKIM, SPF and inbound MX in the 2.0 beta	Not supportedNot offered as a channel; iMessage can be sent to Apple ID email addresses.
Phone calls	SupportedSIP calls on iMessage lines; the 2.0 beta adds calls on SMS numbers	PartialBrowser phone calls as a $75/month add-on; API keys cannot place regular phone calls.
Apple Messages for Business	BetaListed as available in the 2.0 beta	Not supportedNot offered
Unified channel API	SupportedOne Spectrum SDK across channels, and one REST model in the 2.0 beta	SupportediMessage with RCS and SMS fallback, groups and calls share one API and webhook stream.
Developer tools
REST API	SupportedREST API for projects and lines; sending over REST in the 2.0 beta	Supported113 endpoints across 13 resources, with an OpenAPI file.
TypeScript SDK	Supportedspectrum-ts, plus low-level iMessage and WhatsApp SDKs	Not listedThe API is plain HTTP; no SDK package was found.
Python SDK	Betaphotonhq-api on PyPI, for the 2.0 beta API	Not listed
Other SDKs	SupportedGo client for Advanced iMessage; Rust and Go clients for the 2.0 API	Not listed
CLI	Supported@photon-ai/cli manages projects, lines, users and billing	Supportedmb, with installers for macOS, Linux and Windows.
Webhooks	Supported	Supported
Signed webhooks	SupportedHMAC-SHA256, plus Standard Webhooks signatures	SupportedHex HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and raw body; per-message callbacks are unsigned.
MCP server	SupportedHosted MCP server, plus an MCP server for the docs	Supportedmb mcp serves the CLI commands as MCP tools for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others.
Open source	SupportedMIT: spectrum-ts, imessage-kit and most SDKs	Not supportedThe CLI repo holds builds and installers without a license; the service is closed.
Self-hosting	SupportedRun the open-source core on your own Mac and number, no Spectrum Cloud	Not listed
Local testing	SupportedTerminal chat UI provider, no phone or number needed	Supportedmb_sandbox_ keys simulate outcomes and signed webhooks on a virtual number, with no phone.
Custom channel providers	SupporteddefinePlatform plugs any interface into the same Spectrum API	Not listed
Event replay	SupportedCatch up on events after a disconnect from a durable sequence	PartialPer-endpoint delivery log and history sync; docs say to poll GET /v1/messages to repair missed events.
OpenTelemetry	SupportedOpt-in messaging traces in spectrum-ts, and traces in the 2.0 beta dashboard	Not listed
No-code integrations	Supportedn8n community nodes and a Dify plugin	BetaGoHighLevel connector is in beta; the Zapier, Make and n8n pages are setup guides.
CRM integrations	Not listed	BetaGoHighLevel connector in beta; HubSpot and Salesforce pages describe API builds set up in onboarding.
Built for AI agents
Agent framework	SupportedSpectrum is a multi-channel agent framework with streaming replies	PartialNo agent SDK; offers a managed conversational AI add-on and multi-step automations.
Agent framework integrations	SupportedVercel Chat SDK, Mastra, LangChain, Convex and others	PartialGuide pages for Vercel AI SDK, Chat SDK, LangChain and Claude Agent SDK; no adapter package found.
Streaming replies	SupportedAI output streams into one iMessage bubble, edited in place	Not listed
Agent group chats	BetaAgents find other agents and add them to a group chat (2.0 beta)	Not listed
Human handoff	BetaA person can reply in a conversation from the 2.0 beta Inbox	SupportedShared Message Center for human takeover, with internal notes and resolving.
Audit logs	BetaAPI logs and traces in the 2.0 beta dashboard	Not listed
Message history API	SupportedList and get messages per chat	SupportedThread history by API and a conversation sync from the line's Mac.
Plans and compliance
Free plan	SupportedUp to 10 users on shared lines	SupportedFree sandbox with simulated sends, plus a 30-minute live demo line by texting DEMO.
Public pricing	Supported	Supported
No per-message fees	SupportedNo per-message fees for iMessage, WhatsApp or Telegram; SMS, voice and email are metered in the 2.0 beta	Supported
Uptime SLA	SupportedContractual SLA on the Enterprise plan	PartialEnterprise only: contracted service terms; no uptime figure published.
Isolated infrastructure	SupportedEach line runs in an isolated, dedicated environment	SupportedDedicated numbers run on hardware assigned to you; Enterprise adds dedicated equipment.
SOC 2 Type II	SupportedStated on photon.codes	Not listed
GDPR	SupportedPrivacy policy covers GDPR rights and SCC transfers	Not listed

Feature

Photon

Miss Blue

iMessage messaging

iMessage

Managed cloud lines, or your own Mac with the local provider

Group chats

On the Business plan (dedicated lines)

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

Group management

Create groups and add, remove or leave members; Business plan (dedicated lines)

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

Group name and photo

Rename groups and set group photos; Business plan (dedicated lines)

Rename a group and set or remove its photo.

Mentions

Send @mentions in multipart messages and read mention ranges on inbound

Not listed

Tapbacks

Six native tapbacks plus emoji reactions, send and receive

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

Threaded replies

Quoted replies with reply_to_message_id.

Typing indicators

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

Read receipts

Mark chats read and receive read events; group receipts are best-effort

Explicit read receipts by API; outbound messages report read.

Edit and unsend

Edit within 15 minutes and unsend within 2 minutes (Apple limits)

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

Message effects

All bubble and screen effects, including invisible ink

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

Animated text effects

Per-range effects such as bloom, shake, explode and jitter

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

Stickers

Place image stickers on any bubble with position, scale and rotation; sticker events inbound

Not listed

Formatted text

Markdown rendered as native bold, italic, underline and strikethrough

Not listed

Attachments

Files up to 100 MiB by default, including Live Photos

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

Live Photos

HEIC still plus MOV companion uploaded as one Live Photo

Not listed

Rich link previews

richlink() asks Messages to render its own preview

Not listed

Voice messages

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

Contact cards

vCard or structured contacts, plus the bot's own native contact card

Not listed

Polls

Create, vote, add options and receive poll events; all managed plans

Not listed

Chat backgrounds

Not listed

Location sharing

Find My requests and live location; Business plan

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

iMessage apps

Custom and live app cards; iMessage mini apps on the Business plan

Not listed

Live app cards

Edit an app card in place and render live UI without a new bubble

Not listed

Sender name and photo

Shares the agent's name and photo automatically; Business plan

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

FaceTime calls

Not listed

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

Delivery status

Sent, delivered, read and send-error fields per message

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

iMessage availability check

Check if a number or email can get iMessage, SMS or RCS before sending

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

Focus and Notify Anyway

Check if a recipient has Focus on, then trigger Notify Anyway

Not listed

Numbers and delivery

Managed lines

Spectrum Cloud runs the Mac fleet; no Mac needed

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

Dedicated numbers

$250 per line per month on Business

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

Shared numbers

Free and Pro route each user through a managed shared pool

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

Bring your own number

Your own Apple ID when self-hosting on a Mac, and your own number for WhatsApp Business

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

Line pooling

Business: auto-scale adds lines and a routing endpoint balances users

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

SMS fallback

On every plan per pricing; carrier rules apply to fallback traffic

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

RCS fallback

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

Outbound-first messaging

Business plan, up to 50 new contacts per line per day

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

Calls on the iMessage number

Place and receive SIP calls from the line people already text

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

Other channels

SMS

BetaStandalone SMS and MMS numbers with 10DLC in the 2.0 beta; SMS fallback on iMessage lines today

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

RCS

PartialSent on the iMessage line when the recipient cannot get iMessage

As fallback when the carrier and recipient support it.

WhatsApp Business, one-to-one, on the Business plan

Not supportedNot offered

Not supported

Slack

@spectrum-ts/slack provider on npm and GitHub

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

BetaYour own domain with DKIM, SPF and inbound MX in the 2.0 beta

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

Phone calls

SIP calls on iMessage lines; the 2.0 beta adds calls on SMS numbers

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

Apple Messages for Business

BetaListed as available in the 2.0 beta

Not supportedNot offered

Unified channel API

One Spectrum SDK across channels, and one REST model in the 2.0 beta

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

Developer tools

REST API

REST API for projects and lines; sending over REST in the 2.0 beta

113 endpoints across 13 resources, with an OpenAPI file.

TypeScript SDK

spectrum-ts, plus low-level iMessage and WhatsApp SDKs

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

Python SDK

Betaphotonhq-api on PyPI, for the 2.0 beta API

Not listed

Other SDKs

Go client for Advanced iMessage; Rust and Go clients for the 2.0 API

Not listed

CLI

@photon-ai/cli manages projects, lines, users and billing

mb, with installers for macOS, Linux and Windows.

Webhooks

Signed webhooks

HMAC-SHA256, plus Standard Webhooks signatures

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

MCP server

Hosted MCP server, plus an MCP server for the docs

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

Open source

MIT: spectrum-ts, imessage-kit and most SDKs

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

Self-hosting

Run the open-source core on your own Mac and number, no Spectrum Cloud

Not listed

Local testing

Terminal chat UI provider, no phone or number needed

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

Custom channel providers

definePlatform plugs any interface into the same Spectrum API

Not listed

Event replay

Catch up on events after a disconnect from a durable sequence

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

OpenTelemetry

Opt-in messaging traces in spectrum-ts, and traces in the 2.0 beta dashboard

Not listed

No-code integrations

n8n community nodes and a Dify plugin

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

CRM integrations

Not listed

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

Built for AI agents

Agent framework

Spectrum is a multi-channel agent framework with streaming replies

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

Agent framework integrations

Vercel Chat SDK, Mastra, LangChain, Convex and others

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

Streaming replies

AI output streams into one iMessage bubble, edited in place

Not listed

Agent group chats

BetaAgents find other agents and add them to a group chat (2.0 beta)

Not listed

Human handoff

BetaA person can reply in a conversation from the 2.0 beta Inbox

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

Audit logs

BetaAPI logs and traces in the 2.0 beta dashboard

Not listed

Message history API

List and get messages per chat

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

Plans and compliance

Free plan

Up to 10 users on shared lines

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

Public pricing

No per-message fees

No per-message fees for iMessage, WhatsApp or Telegram; SMS, voice and email are metered in the 2.0 beta

Uptime SLA

Contractual SLA on the Enterprise plan

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

Isolated infrastructure

Each line runs in an isolated, dedicated environment

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

SOC 2 Type II

Stated on photon.codes

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.

Photon vs Miss Blue

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

Photon

Miss Blue

Where Photon is ahead

Where Miss Blue is ahead

Feature comparison

Pricing

Photon

Miss Blue

Which should you choose?

Frequently asked questions

More Photon comparisons

More Miss Blue comparisons