Beeper Mini, an easy iMessage solution for Android, seems too good to be true. At least, it seems like it was a short-lived dream. On Friday, less than a week after its release, the app began experiencing technical issues that suddenly prevented users from sending or receiving blue bubble messages. The problem worsened with each passing day, with reports piling up on the Beeper subreddit.with a few people The Verge As of Friday afternoon, users were unable to activate their Android phone numbers on Beeper Mini, a clear sign that Apple has plugged any holes that allowed the app to work in the first place.
Beeper Mini is the result of a comprehensive attempt to reverse engineer Apple’s messaging protocols. The 16-year-old high school student managed to make it, and everything went smoothly for a while. This work became the basis for a new app that requires a $2 monthly subscription. Here’s what my colleague Jake wrote a few days ago:
Its developers figured out a way to register a phone number with iMessage, send messages directly to Apple’s servers, and send messages back to your phone natively within the app. This was a tricky process that required disassembling Apple’s messaging pipeline from start to finish. Beeper’s team needed to figure out where to send the messages, what they needed to look like, and how to get them out of the cloud. Migikowski said the most difficult part was deciphering what is essentially an Apple padlock throughout the system, meaning he could see if the connected device was his genuine Apple product. It is said that
Quinn Nelson from Snazzy Labs also created a great video explaining the technical details.Belief — or so I think. Hope – The consensus among Beeper developers and users was that blocking Android apps would be a huge ordeal for Apple and probably not worth the effort. Apparently, it was easier than anyone expected.
This will cause a major hindrance to Beeper’s plans. The company wanted to evolve Beeper Mini into an all-in-one messaging app that would eventually encompass his RCS and SMS.
Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky, reached for comment, did not deny that Apple was successful in blocking Beeper Mini. “If it’s Apple, the big question is…if Apple really cares about the privacy and security of its iPhone users, why would it provide a service that allows its users to send encrypted messages to Android users?” I guess the question is, will it stop? Rather than use insecure SMS? With the announcement of RCS support, it’s clear that Apple realizes there’s a big hole here. Beeper Mini announced today Here we are, and it works very well. Why should iPhone users be forced to send unencrypted SMS when chatting with friends on Android?”
Previous attempts to get iMessage to work on Android, like Beeper’s original app, required a complex system with a remote Mac logged into the user’s Apple ID. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei’s startup Nothing recently tried to bring his iMessage to modern phones, but those plans quickly fell through due to security and privacy concerns. His Beeper Mini approach, which actually talks to Apple’s own servers, was the most impressive attempt to date. But unless the company can somehow circumvent Apple’s blockade, it’s likely to be very fleeting.