I've tried a couple of emulators and nothing has worked yet. I'll probably see if I can't just wait this out. Or maybe I'll go check out some used electronics this weekend. Used iPods and iPads aren't that expensive.
I'm assuming you don't have a Mac? iMessage works fine on them in the Messages app, though I think they'd have to add you via email if you didn't have a phone on the account.
You might try OS X in a VM, but iMessage seems like one of those things that might require real hardware (most things work in a VM, some stuff doesn't, I think iMessage doesn't because there's no crypto root of trust present or something like that).
This is so annoying that Apple does this shit. My fantasy league does not want me in the group chat because my Android based phone messes up their ability to "like" comments when there's an Android in the mix :rolleyes:
Do you recall just how annoying the carriers were before Apple dropped iMessage in their laps and said, "Take it or you don't get the iPhone"? $0.25/SMS or some such nonsense, limited SMS plans with 100 messages a month, etc. That SMS is basically free now is a direct response to what Apple did.