Android users who are tired of feeling left out of the “Blue Bubble Club” when texting friends on iPhone can now send Blue Bubble messages from Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 to friends who own iOS. You can now send and finally participate.
The app ‘Beeper Mini’ is available on Google Play and brings iMessage support to Android. As stated on Beeper’s website, Beep Mini connects directly to Apple servers to send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages. This is a big change from Beeper’s previous universal iMessage app, which used a Mac relay server in the cloud to send iMessages.
As shown in the screenshot below, Beeper Mini replicates the iMessage experience on Android phones, giving these users access to iMessage-centric features like reacting to messages. Full size high resolution photos and videos. And of course, your boyfriend’s Android phone number will show a blue bubble.
This isn’t the first app to try this. Nothing released their own take on it a few weeks ago called Nothing Chats. However, unlike Nothing’s product, which only works with the Nothing 2 smartphone, Beeper Mini works with any Android smartphone.
Additionally, Beeper Mini does not require an Apple ID account to use the service. Signing in with your Apple ID is optional. In contrast, Nothing Chats stores a user’s girlfriend’s iCloud login credentials as a token for the app to function.
However, it’s important to note that the Beeper Mini comes at a cost. After your 7-day free trial, you must pay a monthly subscription of $1.99 to continue using Beeper Mini. “Our business model is simple: we build great apps and make money from people who find value in them,” he explains in his Beeper Mini FAQ section. “We feel this business model aligns our success with our customers’ goals. No ads, complete data security and privacy, and an incentive to continually improve the app with new features and improvements. It is given.”
The Beeper Mini comes at an interesting time, as Apple has finally announced that it will support Rich Communication Services (RCS) on the iPhone starting next year. Apple hasn’t gone into full details about how it will support RCS, other than that it has no plans to “open up iMessage to other platforms,” so RCS Messages will remain in a green bubble.
Taylor is a reporter for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.