We Built an iMessage API for OpenClaw Agents So You Don't Need a Mac

If you run OpenClaw on anything other than a Mac, you've probably hit this wall: the iMessage integration requires BlueBubbles, BlueBubbles requires macOS, and macOS requires Apple hardware running 24/7. For a messaging feature. We kept seeing this come up. People deploy OpenClaw on Linux VPSes, in Docker, on cloud VMs. The Mac requirement for iMessage was a dealbreaker for most of them. So we built Claw Messenger — a relay service that gives your OpenClaw agent a real phone number with iMessage, RCS, and SMS, no Apple hardware anywhere in the chain. Here's how to set it up, what it actually does under the hood, and when it makes more sense than the Mac route. The setup (about 5 minutes) Install the plugin: openclaw plugins install @emotion-machine/claw-messenger Sign up at clawmessenger.com and grab your API key. Base plan is $5/mo for 1,000 messages. Add the channel to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json: { "channels": { "claw-messenger": { "apiKey": "cm_your_key_here", "serverUrl": "wss://rel