Image credits: buzzer sound
Was it too good to be true? Beeper, the startup that reverse-engineered iMessage to provide Android users with blue bubble text, is experiencing an outage, the company says Reported on Friday in a post by X. And it seems Apple is also to blame. Users with access to the app, including us at TechCrunch, are now seeing an error message when trying to send texts via the newly released Beeper Mini, and messages are no longer sent.
The error message says in red: “Failed to find server: Search request timed out.”
In response to a question on Reddit about whether the app is broken, a Beeper team member previously responded, “Please report issues through the app and give us a chance to investigate.”
However, Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky responded to TechCrunch’s question about the status of Beeper Mini: X-post to recognize outage, provides more detailed information. Asked if perhaps Apple has found a way to turn off Beeper Mini, he said, “Yes, all the data points to that.”
Unless Beeper’s engineers can somehow work around the issue, we don’t know what this means for future efforts with Beeper Mini.
Migicovsky, who previously founded smartwatch Pebble, claimed that the Beeper Mini will ultimately not only be beneficial for Android users who want to join their friends’ group chats on iMessage, but will also enhance security for iPhone users.
In an interview ahead of Beeper Mini’s launch, the founder explained that the green bubble text is not encrypted.
“So when you text a friend on Android, anyone can read them at any time. Apple can read them. Your mobile carrier can read them. Google…literally. “It’s like a postcard. Anyone can read it. So Beeper Mini actually increases the security of your iPhone,” he told TechCrunch.
Apple, on the other hand, sees iMessage as one of its key tools to lock users into its ecosystem, which is why it won’t release an iMessage app for Android. There was some hope that EU regulations would force iMessage to be more interoperable, but this week’s news revealed that iMessage is not popular enough with business users, so iMessage will be exempted from these regulations. It will be exempted. That means Apple has no reason not to try to shut down Beeper Mini if it can.
Migikowski is not too happy with how things have turned out.
“I’m very interested in why they think it makes sense to make security worse for iPhone users,” he said.
“If it’s Apple, the big question is, if Apple really cared about the privacy and security of its iPhone users, why would it eliminate a service that allows iPhones to send encrypted chats to Android users? With the announcement of RCS support, it’s clear that Apple realizes there’s a big hole here. The Beeper Mini is here today and works great. “Why would an iPhone user be forced to send his SMS unencrypted when chatting with his friends on Android?” he asked.
Founded in 2020, Beeper’s team was originally working on a multi-platform messaging aggregator, but was renamed Beeper Cloud this week with the launch of Beeper Mini. The latter uses new technology that allows an Android user to text an iMessage user as if he were texting from his iPhone, for just $1.99 per month. This means you’ll see blue bubbles in group chats instead of green ones. The startup no longer uses intermediaries like Mac servers to relay messages, as other iMessage to Android apps employ, so essentially Apple’s servers include Beeper Mini messages will appear to be coming from a device that runs iMessage natively. So it’s unclear how Apple was able to block access to Beeper Mini.
What this means for the future of Beeper Mini is unclear.
“We will consider our options,” Migikowski said.
Update, maybe?
Keep your phone nearby https://t.co/WjwNRvkzW5
— Eric Migikowski (@ericmigi) December 9, 2023