Apple is building support for iMessage, its new messaging service in iChat, Mac OS X Lion’s instant messaging software and iMessage is one of major features of iOS 5 that was showcased at WorldWide Developer Conference 2011 Keynote. A developer found two new properties hat are not supported by iChat’s native protocols and it wouldn’t be the first time Apple provided native cross-compatibility for messaging between iOS devices and OS X……………
Code found in the iChat application for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion has led to speculation that Apple could add integration with its forthcoming iMessage application in iOS 5 and inside the framework of Lion’s iChat software are two new properties, related to delivery of messages and verifying whether a message has been read. iMessage is a unified messaging service for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that allows users to send text and multimedia messages over Wi-Fi and 3G with read and delivery receipts and real-time typing indication. But as far as Apple has officially said, there is no way to send iMessages to or from non-iOS devices such as your Mac. One developer has revealed to MacRumors that there is evidence that Apple has already started building in iMessage support into OS X Lion’s iChat instant messaging software. Buried in the framework of OS X Lion’s iChat, are two new properties:
@interface IMMessage : NSObject
{
IMHandle *_sender;
IMHandle *_subject;
NSAttributedString *_text;
NSString *_plainBody;
NSDate *_time;
NSDate *_timeDelivered;
NSDate *_timeRead;
The timeDelivered and timeRead fields indicate the tracking of delivery and read receipts for instant messages. These features are not supported in any of iChat’s native messaging protocols, while the same features are offered in Apple’s iMessage protocol. These properties were also not present in previous versions of iChat prior to OS X Lion. Adding iMessage support into OS X Lion’s iChat would allow iOS 5 users and Mac users to easily send text messages to each other in real time. This would not be the first time Apple has added such cross compatibility between its Mac and iOS product lines. iMessage for iOS has not yet launched and will be part of iOS 5 which will be released this fall. It’s not clear if and when Apple will launch iChat support for iMessage, but it seems work has already started.
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