iMessage API: how a business can send iMessages to customers

There is no public iMessage API from Apple that lets a business send iMessages from its server. Apple's developer tools for Messages build apps and stickers that people use inside the Messages app. Businesses that want blue bubbles use a third-party iMessage API, or an app built on one, and Apple runs a separate customer service channel called Apple Messages for Business. This guide explains the three, and how Kanal will soon let Shopify stores send the first iMessage, as they do on WhatsApp.

Facts come from Apple's developer documentation, Apple's Messages for Business documentation (version 3.1, last updated July 21, 2026) and the public pages of iMessage API providers, all read on October 19, 2026.

What Apple offers developers: the Messages framework

Apple's Messages framework documentation describes what developers can build:

• Sticker packs and iMessage apps, as standalone apps or extensions of an iOS app
• A custom interface inside the Messages app
• Interactive messages that carry app-specific data, updated in sessions (for games or collaborative apps)
• Default messaging app support: since iOS and iPadOS 18.2, a person may choose an app other than Messages to send instant messages

In 1, the framework builds sticker packs and iMessage apps; in 2, everything it allows happens inside the Messages app.

All of these run on the user's device, inside a conversation the user controls. None lets a company's server send an iMessage to a phone number. That is why "iMessage API" searches lead to the providers below.

iMessage API providers

The services that rank for "iMessage API" describe their offer on their own pages:

• Sendblue presents an iMessage API to send and receive iMessages, with "real blue bubbles from real phone numbers", automatic fallback to RCS, then SMS, and flat-rate pricing per line (sendblue.com/api).
• LoopMessage presents one API to send and receive iMessage, SMS, RCS and WhatsApp under the same phone number, with a sandbox and dedicated or shared senders (loopmessage.com).

Calling an API directly suits a product team. A Shopify store usually wants the result instead: messages triggered by store events, sent to the right segment, with consent and revenue tracked. That is what a messaging app connected to the store adds.

Questions worth asking any iMessage provider or app:

Apple Messages for Business: a different product

Apple Messages for Business is Apple's channel for customer service conversations inside Messages. From Apple's documentation:

• It goes through a provider. A company needs an Apple-approved Messaging Service Provider; Apple lists them on its Business Register site.
• No phone number. The business is identified by a Business ID, the customer by an anonymous Opaque ID.
• Apple does not charge for the channel; the provider may.
• It is not called iMessage. Apple asks businesses to say "Apple Messages" in customer-facing communications.

In 1, a company needs an Apple-approved Messaging Service Provider; in 2, Apple does not charge, the provider may.

It is a support product, built around agents and a provider's console. Our guide to Apple Messages for Business covers setup and providers. Kanal's iMessage, coming soon, is a different thing: messages from your store, sent like your WhatsApp and SMS messages.

iMessage on Kanal (coming soon): send the first message, like on WhatsApp

iMessage is coming soon to Kanal: iMessage on Kanal will sit next to WhatsApp, SMS and RCS in the same app. A store will send the first iMessage, an abandoned cart reminder for example, to customers who opted in, and run the same automations it runs on WhatsApp:

• Abandoned cart recovery: a reminder with the cart link when a checkout is left unfinished.
• Post-purchase upsell: a product that goes with what the customer just bought.
• Review requests: a message a few days after delivery.
• Back-in-stock alerts: the product, the moment it is available again.
• Win-back: a message to customers who have not ordered for a while, built from your order segments.
• Campaigns: launches and sales sent to a segment.
• AI agent: answers to customers who reply.

Marketing iMessages follow the same consent rules as marketing texts in the US: an opt-in first, your brand name, and a way to stop. Our guide to SMS opt-in and consent sets them out.

In the meantime, Kanal reaches these customers on WhatsApp, SMS and RCS, with the same flows. More than 500 brands use Kanal, installed in about five minutes from the Shopify App Store. Read our guide to iMessage marketing, or book a demo to see Kanal on your store.