How to start new conversation in iMessage using AppleScript? - macos

Question

So I'm working on creating an applescript which essentially automates sending an imessage. What I have working now is:
on run {msg, phoneNum}
tell application "Messages"
set serviceID to id of 1st service whose service type = iMessage
send msg to buddy phoneNum of service id serviceID
end tell
end run
This works for the most part except it doesn't work when starting a new conversation. When you run the script to a number which you don't have a conversation with in messages, you get a popup warning saying "Your message does not have any recipients". However, this creates a conversation with that person, and when you run the same script again it works.
I figured if it works the second time, there must be a way to create a new conversation somehow, however I have never really used applescript or really any script languages before so I'm not sure how to go about that.
Edit: Immediately after posting I thought of a rough workaround. If right before you send the message you send an empty string, you can create a new conversation, and it works with a already existing conversation.
on run {msg, phoneNum}
tell application "Messages"
set serviceID to id of 1st service whose service type = iMessage
send "" to buddy phoneNum of service id serviceID
send msg to buddy phoneNum of service id serviceID
end tell
end run
While this works, I'd imagine there is a better/more elegant solution than this one.

Answer 1

My solution is to tell Applescript to press "Command + N", which is the shortkey for "Start a new conversation"
activate application "Messages"
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Messages"
key code 45 using command down -- press Command + N to start a new window
keystroke "<replace with phone number>" -- input the phone number
key code 36 -- press Enter to focus on the message area
keystroke "<replace with message>" -- type some message
key code 36 -- press Enter to send
end tell
This script will start a new conversation and send the message to the phone number through iMessage

Answer 2

There are many ways to do it.
First example:
on run {targetBuddyPhone, targetMessage}
tell application "Messages"
set targetService to 1st service whose service type = iMessage
set targetBuddy to buddy targetBuddyPhone of targetService
send targetMessage to targetBuddy
end tell
end run
Second example:
tell application "Messages"
set targetBuddy to "[phone]"
set targetService to id of 1st service whose service type = iMessage
repeat
set textMessage to "Hello pal!"
set theBuddy to buddy targetBuddy of service id targetService
send textMessage to theBuddy
delay (random number from 10 to 30)
end repeat
end tell