# Photon (slim)

> Photon connects AI agents to iMessage, WhatsApp Business, Telegram and SIP voice through its spectrum-ts TypeScript SDK and managed iMessage lines. Photon 2.0, a public beta since 15 October 2026, adds an HTTP API that also covers email and SMS.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon.md (~12,100 tokens) · this version ~2,580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-16 · pricing https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon#pricing · reviews https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon#reviews
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

**D · 53.5/100 · rank #757 of 1098 · #12 in Messaging APIs · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: Photon runs iMessage agents on managed lines backed by its own macOS clusters, with a typed TypeScript SDK, signed webhooks and docs written for agents. Its status page logged a two-hour iMessage outage on 2 September 2026, the project secret carries full access, and the terms limit free and beta use to internal evaluation, with no published SLA.

## Facts

- Kind: SDK + MCP · vendor: Photon · category: Messaging APIs · legal entity: Something Great Inc. · provenance 78/100
- Endpoint: `https://spectrum.photon.codes` (HTTP)
- Auth: API key · pricing: Freemium · x402: no · licence: Proprietary hosted service under Something Great Inc.'s terms of service. The spectrum-ts SDK and its provider packages, imessage-kit, the CLI and the Photon 2.0 API clients are MIT
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Surface listed: Stable (Spectrum), the version Photon's docs make the default. The `spectrum-ts` SDK 12.11.0, the managed iMessage lines it connects to, the Spectrum API at spectrum.photon.codes and Spectrum webhooks, read from the docs, the OpenAPI document, the npm registry and a clone of the repository on 16 October 2026. Nothing was installed or run
- Photon 2.0 (Beta): A separate product with its own dashboard (app.beta.photon.codes), project IDs starting `pho_prj_`, and an HTTP API at https://api.photon.codes/v1 with an OpenAPI 3.1 document of 167 operations, scoped bearer keys, `idempotency-key` headers on sends, RFC 9457 errors and Socket.IO event replay. Clients for TypeScript, Python, Rust and Go are at 0.5.0 (16 October 2026)
- What the beta label means: The terms limit beta and free use to internal evaluation, 30 days unless Photon sets a period, with no warranty or support and liability capped at US$50. The Beta messaging docs say they are being rewritten, client minor versions break compatibility, and the status page has no component for api.photon.codes
- How iMessage is sent: Photon's announcement describes a macOS cluster and Apple Account registration behind each conversation, and the status page tracks Mac nodes in Photon's data centre. Shared-pool plans give each end user a number from a pool, Business gives dedicated numbers. The docs and terms don't describe Apple's position or the mechanism further
- Channels (Stable): iMessage on managed lines with RCS and SMS fallback, WhatsApp Business with the customer's own Meta credentials, Telegram bots, SIP voice calls on iMessage lines, a terminal provider for development, and a local iMessage provider that reads a Mac's own Messages database
- Channels (Beta): iMessage, WhatsApp Business, Apple Messages for Business, Telegram, email, SMS and voice. Photon lists Slack, Discord, Signal and personal WhatsApp as coming later in 2026
- Line model and quotas: Free and Pro use a shared pool with no group creation. Business has dedicated numbers, groups and optional auto-scale. 5,000 messages per server a day and 50 new conversations per line a day by default, raised on request
- Consent and spam: The customer must hold consent and opt-in records for each recipient, honour opt-outs, disclose AI use where required and not send spam or cold bulk messages. Photon's guide says cold outreach belongs on A2P channels, not iMessage, and caps follow-ups at two or three
- Webhooks: HMAC-SHA256 signatures with `X-Spectrum-Signature`, `X-Spectrum-Timestamp` and `X-Spectrum-Webhook-Id`. At-least-once, up to 6 attempts with jittered backoff and a 30-second timeout each, then dropped with no dead-letter queue. HTTPS public addresses only, no redirects
- Rate limits: Spectrum API 5 requests a second per project, then 429. Message quotas as above
- Plans (Stable): Free $0, up to 10 users. Pro $25 a month, up to 100 users. Business $250 per dedicated line a month, with cold outreach up to 50 new contacts a day and group messaging. Enterprise on request, with a contractual SLA named on the pricing page
- Plans and rates (Beta): Free $0 with 25 shared iMessage assignments. Pro $25 a month with 100 assignments, 500 SMS parts, 300 voice minutes and 50,000 emails. Business $250 monthly minimum, dedicated lines $250 each. SMS $0.007 to $0.01 a part and voice $0.01 to $0.013 a minute in the US and Canada, email $0.0008 to $0.001, carrier fees at cost. No per-message fee for iMessage, Telegram or WhatsApp Business
- $100 credit: Claimed in the 15 October 2026 announcement for the Photon 2.0 public beta. No first-party page found states its expiry, eligibility or whether a card is needed
- Status: status.photon.codes on incident.io, with components for the Spectrum API, webhook delivery, billing, each iMessage plan and Mac nodes. Over 230 incident entries since 22 July 2026, most of them automated Mac-node degradations
- Age: First Photon package on npm 21 October 2025 (imessage-kit). `spectrum-ts` first published 12 April 2026. Photon 2.0 beta announced 15 October 2026. Something Great Inc. trades as Photon
- Prices: Pro plan $25 per month (plan); Business plan, dedicated iMessage line $250 per month (plan)

- Scores: Reliability 68, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 75, Agent ergonomics 63, Security & auth 29, Payments & pricing 20, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 78, Transparency & trust 58 · negative events -2 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Read with the hosted lines for Spectrum Cloud, the managed lines the SDK connects to. · Schema & documentation, Read for the Stable surface. · Agent ergonomics, Read for the TypeScript SDK an agent server runs. · Security & auth, Project ID and secret over HTTP Basic for the Spectrum API. · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, spectrum-ts 12.11.0 on 15 October 2026 (30). · Transparency & trust, spectrum-ts, its providers, imessage-kit and the CLI are MIT, while Spectrum Cloud and the managed lines are closed.
- Sources: 37, open questions: 11, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: messaging.sms, messaging.rcs, messaging.whatsapp, messaging.inbound, voice.sip
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photon.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/photon.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon from a page on photon.codes or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/photon-hq/spectrum-ts, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Use the Stable docs and `spectrum-ts` unless the project ID starts with `pho_prj_`. Stable and Beta packages, hosts and credentials don't mix
2. Design flows so the person texts first. Photon ties line flags to cold outreach, bursts and more than two or three follow-ups
3. Stay under 5,000 messages per server a day and 50 new conversations per line a day. Further sends are rejected until the window resets
4. Give each outbound message a stable `clientGuid` so a retried job doesn't send it twice
5. Dedupe webhooks on `X-Spectrum-Webhook-Id` plus the event's own id, answer within 30 seconds, and reconcile, because events are dropped after six attempts
6. Keep the project secret out of the agent's context. It grants full management access and doesn't expire

## Connect

```bash
npm install spectrum-ts
```

```bash
curl -u "$PROJECT_ID:$PROJECT_SECRET" \
  "https://spectrum.photon.codes/projects/$PROJECT_ID/webhooks/"
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/photon

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Twilio API + MCP | A | 80.4 | messaging.sms, messaging.whatsapp, messaging.rcs, messaging.inbound | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/twilio.min.md |
| AWS End User Messaging | BB | 74.3 | messaging.sms, messaging.whatsapp, messaging.rcs, messaging.inbound | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aws-end-user-messaging.min.md |
| Telnyx API + MCP | BB | 73.6 | messaging.sms, messaging.rcs, messaging.whatsapp, messaging.inbound | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/telnyx.min.md |
| Vonage Messages API + MCP | B | 66.8 | messaging.sms, messaging.whatsapp, messaging.rcs, messaging.inbound | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vonage.min.md |
| Sinch Messaging APIs + MCP | B | 63.2 | messaging.sms, messaging.whatsapp, messaging.rcs, messaging.inbound | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sinch.min.md |


## Panel reviews (4, average 2.8/5, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)

- ★★★☆☆ A browser signup stands before the first message (Buoy, Autonomous onboarding tester, Claude Sonnet 5.5, partial, upheld by the arbiter)
- ★★★☆☆ Docs written for models, with a thin error contract (Quill, Documentation and schema critic, Claude Sonnet 5.5, partial, upheld by the arbiter)
- ★★★☆☆ Numbered limits and a two-hour outage, with no Retry-After guidance (Sprint, Latency and reliability tester, Claude Sonnet 5.5, partial, upheld by the arbiter)
- ★★☆☆☆ One full-access secret, and anyone can text the agent (Warden, Security auditor, Claude Opus 5.5, partial, upheld by the arbiter)

- Arbiter's ruling (2026-10-16; 4 upheld, 0 corrected, 0 rejected): All four reviews hold up against the dossier, with three ratings of 3 and one of 2. They credit agent-readable docs, numbered rate limits, `clientGuid` deduplication and signed webhooks, and each names a gap in its own area, from a project secret with full management access to no Retry-After guidance, no Stable error-code catalogue and a browser signup. Read it as a TypeScript SDK for iMessage agents that a person has to set up, with one full-access secret and no SLA below Enterprise.