Deploying Messenger to Mac

Updated by Stephen Boss

Messenger is available as a dmg for Mac for easy deployment via shell script or for mass deployment via your favorite RMM, MDM, or other deployment solution.

Before proceeding, make sure you have completed the following:
1. Finished setting up messenger.
2. Understand the difference between Partner-level and Customer-level deployments.

About Messenger for Mac

Messenger lives in the tray and by default will auto start with your Mac. To open the app, find the icon in your tray and open it. It will inherit the tray icon that you define in your Messenger settings.

Deploying via Shell

Retrieving your App ID

You will need an App ID to deploy Messenger for your customers - this tells messenger to inherit your branding.

You can retrieve your partner-level App ID from the Thread Admin Panel -> Messenger -> Installation.

Save as a .sh script.

You will need to run the following script as a super user.
If you are not a Mac or Linux user and you're creating this script in a popular notepad editor like Visual Studio Code, make sure your End of Line settings are set to LF (\n). This allows Terminal to interpret the script file properly on Mac.
#!/bin/bash

# Exit the script on any command failure
set -e
set -o pipefail

# Log file
LOG_PATH="/tmp/messenger_install.log"

# Fetch the current console user correctly
CURRENT_USER=$(scutil <<< "show State:/Users/ConsoleUser" | awk '/Name :/ && ! /loginwindow/ { print $3 }')

# macOS username
if [ -n "$SUDO_USER" ]; then
    USERNAME="$CURRENT_USER"
else
    USERNAME="$CURRENT_USER"
fi

MESSENGER_CONFIG="/Users/$USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Messenger"

# Function to log messages
log() {
    echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - $1" | tee -a "$LOG_PATH"
}

log "username: $USERNAME"

# Variables
DOWNLOAD_URL="https://assets.getthread.com/messenger/downloads/desktop/messenger.dmg"
DMG_PATH="/tmp/messenger.dmg"
MOUNT_PATH="/tmp/messenger_mount"
APP_ID="YOUR_APP_ID_HERE"

log "Starting installation of Messenger app..."

# Uninstall existing Messenger apps
rm -rf /Applications/Messenger.app && rm -rf /Applications/Chatgenie\ Messenger.app

# Download the DMG file
log "Downloading DMG from $DOWNLOAD_URL..."
curl -o "$DMG_PATH" "$DOWNLOAD_URL"
log "DMG downloaded to $DMG_PATH."

# Function to unmount the DMG
function unmount_dmg {
    log "Unmounting DMG from $MOUNT_PATH..."
    hdiutil detach "$MOUNT_PATH" || true
    log "DMG unmounted."
}

# Mount the DMG
log "Mounting DMG..."
hdiutil attach "$DMG_PATH" -mountpoint "$MOUNT_PATH"
log "DMG mounted at $MOUNT_PATH."

# Trap any error and ensure that the DMG gets unmounted even if there's an error
trap unmount_dmg EXIT

# Install the app
log "Installing Messenger app to /Applications..."
cp -R "$MOUNT_PATH"/*.app /Applications/
log "Installation complete."

# Unmount the DMG
unmount_dmg

# Remove the downloaded DMG to clean up
log "Removing downloaded DMG..."
rm "$DMG_PATH"
log "DMG removed."

# Close any running instances of the app
log "Closing any running instances of the Messenger app..."
pkill -f "Messenger.app/Contents/MacOS/Messenger" || true
log "Instances closed."

# Allow a brief moment for configuration to complete
sleep 2

# Run the nohup command to configure the app
# nohup MAY NOT work in some RMM tools (Addigy), in this case just remove the nohup part
log "Running the nohup command"
nohup /Applications/Messenger.app/Contents/MacOS/Messenger APP_ID="$APP_ID" FLOW=customer &

sleep 2

# Launching the app, creates the config.json file, see MESSENGER_CONFIG
log "Launching the Messenger app..."
open -a Messenger
log "Messenger app launched."

sleep 5

# Close any running instances of the app
log "Closing any running instances of the Messenger app..."
pkill -f "Messenger.app/Contents/MacOS/Messenger" || true
log "Instances closed."

# Modify the value of APP_ID in config.json, see MESSENGER_CONFIG
if [ -d "$MESSENGER_CONFIG" ]; then
    log "Messenger config folder exists for user $USERNAME."
    echo '{ "APP_ID": "'"$APP_ID"'" }' > "$MESSENGER_CONFIG/config.json"
    log "Configured Messenger app ID in $MESSENGER_CONFIG/config.json."
else
    log "Messenger config folder not found for user $USERNAME."
fi

sleep 5

# Configuration is complete, app is ready to use, launch it
log "Launching the Messenger app..."
open -a Messenger
log "Messenger app installation and configuration complete! Script v9"

Executing the Shell Script

To execute the above script on a Mac, first download your script as a .sh file (see above). Then open terminal and run the following commands:

cd ~/Downloads
chmod +x messenger_mac.sh
./messenger_mac.sh
In the above example, we assume you named your script messenger_mac.sh and downloaded it to the downloads directory.

Running the app from commandline (nohup)

nohup /Applications/Messenger.app/Contents/MacOS/Messenger APP_ID=YOUR_APP_ID_HERE FLOW=customer

Uninstalling the app

#!/bin/bash

# Check for root privileges
if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then
    echo "This script must be run as root (use sudo)"
    exit 1
fi

# Specify the full path to the application you want to uninstall
APP_MESSENGER="/Applications/Messenger.app"
APP_CHATGENIE_MESSENGER="/Applications/Chatgenie Messenger.app"

# Check if the MESSENGER application exists
if [ -e "$APP_MESSENGER" ]; then
    echo "Uninstalling $APP_MESSENGER..."

    # Remove the application
    rm -rf "$APP_MESSENGER"

    echo "$APP_MESSENGER has been uninstalled."
else
    echo "$APP_MESSENGER is not installed."
fi

# Check if the CHATGENIE MESSENGER application exists
if [ -e "$APP_CHATGENIE_MESSENGER" ]; then
    echo "Uninstalling $APP_CHATGENIE_MESSENGER..."

    # Remove the application
    rm -rf "$APP_CHATGENIE_MESSENGER"

    echo "$APP_CHATGENIE_MESSENGER has been uninstalled."
else
    echo "$APP_CHATGENIE_MESSENGER is not installed."
fi

exit 0

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