Typing indicators broken on macOS 26 (Tahoe) — imagent requires private entitlements

[zoskebutler]

Summary

imsg typing fails on macOS 26.3 (Tahoe) because imagent now enforces Apple-private entitlements on its XPC service (com.apple.imagent.desktop.auth). Any third-party binary — signed or unsigned — is rejected.

Environment

• macOS 26.3 (Build 25D125, Tahoe)
• imsg v0.5.0 (Homebrew)
• Apple Swift 6.2.3

Steps to Reproduce

imsg typing --to +1XXXXXXXXXX --duration 5s

Error

typingIndicatorFailed("Chat not found for identifier: iMessage;-;+1XXXXXXXXXX.
Make sure Messages.app has an active conversation with this contact.")

Root Cause

The error message is misleading — the actual failure is the daemon connection. System logs show:

imagent: (IMDaemonCore) [com.apple.Messages:DaemonClientConnections]
Client <pid> does not have any of allowed entitlements <private>, invalidating connection

On macOS 26, imagent rejects XPC connections from processes that lack Apple-private entitlements. IMDaemonController.isConnected always returns false, so IMChatRegistry.allExistingChats returns 0 results, and the chat lookup fails.

This is a macOS-level lockdown — code signing alone does not fix it. The required entitlements (likely com.apple.imagent.chat or similar) are restricted to Apple-signed binaries.

What We Tried

• connectToDaemon, connectToDaemonWithLaunch:, connectToDaemonWithLaunch:capabilities:blockUntilConnected: — all fail
• Ad-hoc signing with Apple entitlements → SIGKILL (macOS blocks claiming private entitlements)
• Setting listener ID to com.apple.MobileSMS — still rejected
• Waiting up to 3+ seconds for async connection — never connects
• Verified IMChatRegistry, IMDaemonController, and IMChat classes all still exist and load fine via dlopen
• All existing selectors (existingChatWithGUID:, existingChatWithChatIdentifier:, setLocalUserIsTyping:) are present

Possible Alternatives

• Accessibility API: Programmatically focus the Messages.app input field to trigger native typing indicators — no entitlements needed
• AppleScript extension: If Messages.app ever exposes typing via its scripting dictionary
• Messages.app plugin/extension: Would inherit the app's entitlements, but Apple may block this path too

Related

• PR feat: add typing indicator support via IMCore private framework #41 (original typing indicator implementation)
• This likely affects all IMCore-dependent features on macOS 26+

[Lasqueti]

Downgrade Mac, only fix to this.