Intro and Background
Info on how the clients were coded, what features they have, how to contribute, and more.
Background
All clients are coded in Flutter and Dart. Our first stable release was published June 15th, 2021, after extensive closed alpha and public beta testing since October of 2020. Along this journey we have learned quite a bit about development in Flutter, and we'd like to share that, along with other things, in the form of this documentation.
Why Flutter?
We were choosing between Flutter and React Native to be our framework for the project. Initially, we ended up going with React Native because most of the developers were familiar with JavaScript and React development.
However, React proved to be difficult for us when creating the UI. We wanted our app to look like iMessage, but with a bit of our own twist - this meant a lot of blur, opacity, and bouncy scrolling. At the time, React did not have great support for these types of things, while with Flutter, it was as simple as providing
decoration to a Container, or different ScrollPhysics to a scrollable widget.We did not consider native development because we figured that development would be slow and clunky, even if the app might be more performant and memory efficient - the tradeoff would not be worth it.
Features
- Send & receive texts, media, and location
- View tapbacks/reactions, stickers, and replies
- Create new chats (macOS 11+ has limited support while macOS 10 has full support)
- View read/delivered timestamps
- Mute or archive conversations
- Robust theming engine
- Choose between an iOS or Android-style interface
- Lots of customizations and options to personalize your experience
Private API Features
- Send and receive typing indicators
- Mark chats read on the host macOS device
- Create chats
- Rename group chats
- Add or remove participants from group chats
- Send messages, replies, message effects, mentions, and tapbacks
Supported Devices and Platforms
Android
Android 5.0+
Android Auto (GitHub build required at this time)
WearOS (currently in alpha)
Desktop
Windows 10 / 11 & Linux
Web
Any modern browser
Downloads
Releases · BlueBubblesApp/bluebubbles-app
GitHub
All client stable and beta builds can be found on GitHub
BlueBubbles - Apps on Google Play
GooglePlay
All Android stable and beta builds can be found on the Play Store
Get BlueBubbles - Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Windows builds are found exclusively on the Microsoft Store
Join the BlueBubbles Discord Server!
Discord
Alpha builds can be found in Discord
Screenshots
Chat List
Message View
Private API Features
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Contributors
Main Developers
zlshames - Overview
GitHub
Zach
tneotia - Overview
GitHub
Tanay
jjoelj - Overview
GitHub
Joel
Other Contributors
We appreciate y'all!
Bricktheworld - Overview
GitHub
Brick
SoPat712 - Overview
GitHub
Intellijence
elliotnash - Overview
GitHub
Elliot
Last modified 1mo ago