One day not so long ago, iMessage on Android is working thanks to Beeper Mini. The next day, it’s dead. A few days later, it’s back thanks to workarounds. Then, Apple kills it again. Beeper CEO, Eric Migicovsky announced this week that they are done with the cat and mouse game with Apple, essentially calling it quits on their effort to bring iMessage to Android.
Calling it iMessage on Android is a bit of a disservice to the actual goal of the feature. In reality, what Beeper Mini did was upgrade the experience between iPhones and Android for both users. As explained, the goal of the app was and is to, “upgrade chats between iPhone and Android users from unencrypted green bubble SMS to encrypted, fully featured blue bubble chats.”
Why does Apple hate that so much? Probably money, but instead of saying that, they opt for corp speech instead, citing things such as “user privacy” and “exploitations.” Beeper has answers to all of Apple’s ridiculous claims, but alas, this is Apple we’re talking about. They do things differently.
If you were someone who has been following this story, it appears we’ve reached the end. While some people didn’t seem to understand why Beeper Mini was awesome, many of us did. But hey, we have Apple supporting RCS next year, so that’s something to look forward to. *eye roll*
// Beeper
Nah I bet you this is just excuse, in reality they probably got squeezed legally pretty good.
I know this is rich coming from someone commenting on an Android-focused website, but it’s stuff like this that screams to me that Apple is the wrong choice for me. I don’t even mean the blocking of iMessage itself but what their decisions with iMessage communicates to me as a consumer. The fact Apple is willing to cripple their own products to make it difficult for their customers to switch, IMO, shouts from the rooftops that they’re fully confident their customers would leave if given a straightforward option. I have no clue how to take it any differently. If you are fully confident you are the superior choice, you should be fully motivated to make things the best for your customers. Apple isn’t even doing that but going as far as to intentionally handicap their own software because they know their users would flee if those hurdles didn’t exist. If not, remove them for the benefit of the customers.
I’d like to think that apps like Beeper were essentially the last straw for Apple to finally support RCS. Even though this failed, their efforts are greatly appreciated.
If that’s what you need to make yourself feel better… sure. RCS is only being adopted by Apple because EU regulations had iMessage in its cross-hair. Supporting RCS is the carrot Apple offered to keep it locked down. If we are being honest none of this needed to go that route if the telcos made RCS the default instead of sms/mms. Apple would have no choice but to support it.
I wonder how this will affect Sunbird and their cross platform iMessage app.
Good. Now they can go come up with their own technology. They were never a real company
You’re clueless. ????
Whoever thought Apple would have allowed this was smoking some good stuff ????
Apple sues bakeries with non similar logos. Not surprising here
I’m guessing threat of lawsuit.
Well to be fair this reverse engineering is a hack. It’s not really a surprise Apple would block it.
Hardly a hack. Do a little homework before making asinine comments.
Good. We don’t need third party jerry rigged work arounds that expose our phones and messages. I get we all want convenience but we shouldn’t have to sacrifice encryption and security.
It literally doesn’t sacrifice anything.
Yeah quite the opposite. I read that iMessages from iPhone to Android are currently unencrypted. Beeper was making those encrypted.
Read Beeper’s statement that’s linked in the above article that you (supposedly) just read. Beeper Mini does not sacrifice privacy or security.
Might I suggest educating yourself before making claims in the future?
Ken is a ????
Did Beeper really think that this wasn’t going to happen lol. Like come on of course Apple was going to figure out how to stop it from working.
They forgot to consult an attorney.