Apple services

What is identityservicesd?

identityservicesd is part of the Apple Identity Service (IDS). Messages, FaceTime and Continuity use IDS to find the keys and devices of the people you contact, and of your own devices.

Process: identityservicesdMade by AppleApplies to: macOS 14 Sonoma and later. Checked on macOS 27.2.Checked: 1 November 2026

Short answer

Part of macOS. It is the client of the Apple Identity Service, which finds the keys and devices of the people you message or call.

Don’t block

Don't block it. iMessage, FaceTime and features between your own devices need it to find keys and devices.

Path
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IDS.framework/identityservicesd.app/Contents/MacOS/identityservicesd
launchd label
com.apple.identityservicesd
Signing identifier
com.apple.identityservicesd

What it is

Apple publishes no man page for identityservicesd. The program is in the IDS framework of macOS, IDS.framework/identityservicesd.app, and launchd starts it for each user as com.apple.identityservicesd.

Apple Platform Security describes the Apple Identity Service. It is a directory of public keys and push addresses for iMessage, FaceTime and other features.

Apple says that when you start a conversation, the device asks IDS for the public keys and APNs addresses of all the recipient's devices.

Why it uses the network

  • Messages and calls. Before a message is encrypted, the Mac fetches each receiving device's keys from IDS.
  • Your own devices. Each device registers its public keys with IDS, so your other devices can reach it.
  • Screen Time and other features. Apple says that Screen Time data between a parent's and a child's devices travels with the end-to-end encrypted IDS protocol.

How much is normal

When you use Messages or FaceTime, small lookups are usual.

The messages and calls themselves can show under other processes, such as imagent and apsd.

On a test Mac, lsof also showed a connection to another Apple device on the local network.

When it uses a lot, and why

  • New conversations. Each new contact, or a group with many people, needs keys for every device of every person.
  • Signing in. After you sign in to iMessage or FaceTime, the Mac registers its keys and looks up your other devices.

Is it safe to block?

Don’t block

Don't block it. iMessage, FaceTime and features between your own devices need it to find keys and devices.

What breaks if you block it

  • iMessage can't send to new contacts, and FaceTime calls may fail to connect.
  • Features between your own devices that rely on IDS may stop.
  • Screen Time data from a child's devices may not reach a parent.

Blocking means a firewall rule that refuses its connections. Don’t quit or disable a macOS process to save data: macOS starts it again, and other features depend on it.

Reduce its use

  1. If you don't use iMessage on this Mac, open Messages. Choose Messages › Settings › iMessage and sign out.

  2. If you don't use FaceTime on this Mac, open FaceTime. Choose FaceTime › Settings and sign out.

  3. Don't quit identityservicesd in Activity Monitor. macOS starts it again.

See how much it uses

  1. Open Activity Monitor from Applications › Utilities. Click Network.

  2. Type identityservicesd in the search field. The Sent Bytes and Rcvd Bytes columns show what it moved since it started.

  3. In Terminal, watch only this process. Press d to show the change per second, and q to quit. nettop cuts names to 15 characters.

    nettop -p 'identityservice' -P

With Kilobat

  1. In the Kilobat app list, search for identityservicesd. Its row shows the live rate and what it moved today.

  2. In Connections, click the ⓘ button on one of its rows. The popover shows this page’s short answer, without going online.

  3. In Terminal, ask the same question. Add --json for scripts and agents.

    kilobat explain 'identityservicesd'

  4. Show its traffic over one day.

    kilobat bandwidth 'identityservicesd' day

  5. Through MCP, an AI agent asks explain_connection with the process name. It gets the same facts.

The live view and the explanations are free. History in the app needs Kilobat Pro. Blocking needs Pro and the network filter: see the network filter, Protection and the hotspot data saver.

Hosts it contacts

Apple and the maker document these hosts for this feature. A process can also contact others; Kilobat’s Connections tab shows what it actually opens on your Mac.

*.push.apple.comThe Apple Push Notification service (APNs). The Mac keeps one connection to it, so notifications, iMessage, FaceTime calls and iCloud changes can arrive.Apple →

Questions

Why does nettop show identityservice?

nettop shows at most 15 characters of a process name. Kilobat uses the same names.

Can Apple read my messages through IDS?

Apple says that IDS holds public keys and addresses. Messages are encrypted on the device for each receiving device.

Sources

Checked on 1 November 2026.