If you’ve been waiting for blue bubble messaging on your Android smartphone, the wait will continue until Apple shuts down Beeper Mini, the app that allowed Android users to experience iMessage features, including blue bubbles. Apple hasn’t shut down the app itself, but it does have a blocking technique that exploits fake credentials, rendering the Beeper Mini unusable.
The Beeper Mini app is still on the Google Play Store, but it is no longer able to send and receive iMessages, which costs Rs 190 per month.
As reported by The Verge, Nadine Haija, Apple’s senior PR manager, said:
At Apple, we build our products and services with industry-leading privacy and security technologies designed to give you control of your data and keep your personal information safe. We’ve taken steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials to access iMessage. These techniques posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata leakage and the potential for unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks. We will continue to provide updates to protect our users.
And…I may have spoken a little too soon. It’s not working for all accounts yet. I still have work to do, so I’m going to sleep now, but I’ll be back tomorrow.
— Beeper (@onbeeper) December 9, 2023
Beeper built a custom service that exploited a loophole in Apple’s iMessage, allowing the app to connect to Apple’s notification service and trick Apple servers into believing that the messages were actually sent from an iOS device. Now you can intercept and deliver iMessages on Android devices.
Beeper, on the other hand, claims that its platform is completely secure and encrypted and does not violate user privacy. This is the second recent attempt to provide iMessage with a blue bubble on Android, the first being Nothing Chat powered by Sunbird, but it was only a short time from publication as the protocol was not encrypted. It was removed again within a few days. Violates user privacy.
This development indicates that iMessage’s blue bubble isn’t coming to Android anytime soon. However, with Apple implementing his RCS messaging standard soon, Android users should soon be able to enjoy a rich messaging experience.