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Apple Puts a Stop to Beeper Mini's iMessage for Android Feature

scorpio vega said:
Why should they? They are already getting RCS. So why do they need iMessage on Android. Dont fall into the BS rhetoric they are trying to feed you about Apple being this big bad trying to trap us lmfao
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Honestly I agree with you. They have no good reason to. Most Android users wouldn't use it anyway. And RCS is a fine compromise they should have already made.

It's just that reading the technical details of it makes it clear that of course they so easily could.
 
Abazigal said:
I profess I am not a particularly tech-savvy user, and I am having a hard time envisioning how that would work.

For example, how might this work between say, WhatsApp and Telegram (just the two messaging apps I am familiar with). Telegram stores their messages in the cloud, so the advantage is that I can download telegram on another device and log in and all my past messages are all there. I also get a native desktop client without any of the relaying nonsense.

Conversely, WhatsApp pushes messages to the recipient's device. I guess it's better security that way? But it also means that if I restore an earlier cloud backup onto another device, I miss out on say, all the messages that took place after said backup.

They also have somewhat differing features like different animated stickers, and different editing timeframes (telegram lets you edit messages of up to 2 hours ago, WhatsApp has a cap of just 15 min). But at the end of the day, each has their pros and cons, and I get 2 sufficiently differentiated products because each is allowed to operate on their own terms and not have to worry about compatibility.

How are these two devices supposed to work interchangeably with each other, while preserving what makes each of them unique?

How is the backend even supposed to work, and who would be in charge of overseeing that exactly? Reminds me of that comic where it just means we end up with one more messaging standard in a bid to unify them all.
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Yep. I haven't seen the EU address this issue but this is exactly the problem with their Gatekeeper declarations.
 
Radon87000 said:
People need to stop bundling 'Android users' as a whole into this whole drama. All countries except the US saw through the dictatorship Apple is doing here and moved on to WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat a long time ago.

It's time consumers in the US wake up and stop being willing slaves of Apple like the rest of the world.
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A country moved to a software platform? What if I like being a willing slave of apple? Is that my perogative?
 
Why would you want iMessage to be compromised for all the scammers and grifters to be exploiting old people un-checked? Ofcourse Apple had to shut this down, they should sue their pants off too.

Be real people, this is a hack, and it leaves imessage wide open to robocallers and grifters, ridiculous. To expect that a commercial company be allowed to piggyback on Apples servers and infrastructure without compensation and legal agreements is beyond comprehension.

Does that mean I am against them opening up the protocol in a safe and legitimate way? Ofc not, this blue bubble ******** is annoying for me as an ios user aswell, I can‘t communicate properly with family that is on android, orelse I am forced to use a different method. Not good for me, and can’t be great for Apple in the long run either.

If Apple thinks this is legitimate strategy to retain users, I doubt it. It just solidifies the notion that Apple is a walled garden for the sake of keeping customers in and to cultivate a perception of "exclusivity" for the iPhone. I don’t like it, and it will hurt apple in the long run.

This hack though? Totally justified takedown. BUT, it should prompt Apple to be thinking about how they release imessage/icloud on android…
 
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aibloop said:
Why would you want iMessage to be compromised for all the scammers and grifters to be exploiting old people un-checked?
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How does sending iMessages from an android phone allow “old people” to be exploited

aibloop said:
Ofcourse Apple had to shut this down, they should sue their pants off too.
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If Apple had any legal recourse they would certainly take it

If they thought they could sue them they would

If they thought they did anything illegal (ie: criminal) they would pursue charges
 
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I7guy said:
A country moved to a software platform? What if I like being a willing slave of apple? Is that my perogative?
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There is nothing unique about iMessage which other messaging apps don't already do except iMessage creates a terrible experience any time an Android user and an iPhone user try to communicate.

This is exactly why most countries moved on from this platform because it essentially forces everyone to buy the iPhone.

Apple should stop using iMessage as a system seller as it creates a horrible experience for those involved.

You are entitled to your choice of a smartphone but your choice should not create a hostile environment for anyone trying to communicate with you.

I am really hoping the EU lights a fire under Apple and designated iMessage as a core platform service. Apple knows they are on thr losing side here which is why they have relented on RCS but the EU must see through this smoke screen.
 
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aibloop said:
Why would you want iMessage to be compromised for all the scammers and grifters to be exploiting old people un-checked? Ofcourse Apple had to shut this down, they should sue their pants off too.

Does that mean I am against them opening up the protocol in a safe and legitimate way? Ofc not, this blue bubble ******** is annoying for me as an ios user aswell, I can‘t communicate properly with family that is on android, orelse I am forced to use a different method. Not good for me, and can’t be great for Apple in the long run either.

If Apple thinks this is legitimate strategy to retain users, I doubt it. It just solidifies the notion that Apple is a walled garden for the sake of keeping customers in.
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This is exactly my point. In 2023, Apple has made it impossible for Android and iPhones to communicate with each other.

It's time the EU took Apple to task for this mess they have created on purpose.
 
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Radon87000 said:
People need to stop bundling 'Android users' as a whole into this whole drama. All countries except the US saw through the dictatorship Apple is doing here and moved on to WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat a long time ago.

It's time consumers in the US wake up and stop being willing slaves of Apple like the rest of the world.
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Apple not integrating its programs with other third party apps is not a company dictatorship. People are free to use Apple or not.
 
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seek3r said:
I mean it also fully implemented imessage’s E2EE, that’s not just cosmetic
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So I guess Apple's existing iMessage encryption isn't strong enough for what you're texting…but it's fine for those of us not engaged in hacking, dark web commerce or spycraft.
 
Radon87000 said:
There is nothing unique about iMessage which other messaging apps don't already do except iMessage creates a terrible experience any time an Android user and an iPhone user try to communicate.

This is exactly why most countries moved on from this platform because it essentially forces everyone to buy the iPhone.

Apple should stop using iMessage as a system seller as it creates a horrible experience for those involved.

You are entitled to your choice of a smartphone but your choice should not create a hostile environment for anyone trying to communicate with you.

I am really hoping the EU lights a fire under Apple and designated iMessage as a core platform service. Apple knows they are on thr losing side here which is why they have relented on RCS but the EU must see through this smoke screen.
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iMessage is a platform app for apple. If one wants a seamless platform there have to be at least 5 or 6 good ones at this point.

I didn’t buy the iPhone because of message I bought it because imo apple has the best experience.

If your choice of smartphone creates a hostile environment for people communicating with you maybe you should get another smartphone. If iMessage is a selling point of the iPhone, then mitigation of a hostile environment would be a selling point if another phone.
 
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nathansz said:
How does sending iMessages from an android phone allow “old people” to be exploited



If Apple had any legal recourse they would certainly take it

If they thought they could sue them they would

If they thought they did anything illegal (ie: criminal) they would pursue charges
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This opens up for all sorts of exploitation, what do you mean?

A scammer can run hundreds of numbers through this and come up as original imessages? Just only to damm up the scammer messages this takedown is a good thing… I wish they did more, it is ridiculous sometimes around the world (more in EU for some reason)

How is this not a security breach? They are connecting to an apple server and getting access by an exploit? It consumes bandwidth and is a financial burden to Apple on just that point alone.


You are just justifying anything on the excuse that "Apple bad for blue messages…" Which is a fair point, but this is not that conversation imho.

I bet Apple could get this dev arrested and prosectued on the spot, however, its not a great look esp when the story is breaching and with EU regulators pacing around.


I do not agree on Apple’s strategy of "just buy an Iphone, idiot" It is arrogant and arsebackwards. And I do not agree on alot of things about Apple in 2023… But jesus please, don’t use an exploit and expect that to be ok, the dev on that app is just a scammer selling the app with full knowledge it will be taken down. However, as a demonstration it might push Apple towards doing smth more sensible with imessage. I wouldn’t hold my breath though…

And no, I do not live under the impression that Apple or any multinational trillion dollar company is looking out for peoples well being… The fact they got to that level of wealth is sign enough of that they are skimming the fat and all they care about is lining the pockets of shareholders. That goes for all the huge silicon valley companies btw. Stop protecting them, they are not on your side, they are only on the side of eternally rising profit.
 
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Abazigal said:
I profess I am not a particularly tech-savvy user, and I am having a hard time envisioning how that would work.

For example, how might this work between say, WhatsApp and Telegram (just the two messaging apps I am familiar with). Telegram stores their messages in the cloud, so the advantage is that I can download telegram on another device and log in and all my past messages are all there. I also get a native desktop client without any of the relaying nonsense.

Conversely, WhatsApp pushes messages to the recipient's device. I guess it's better security that way? But it also means that if I restore an earlier cloud backup onto another device, I miss out on say, all the messages that took place after said backup.

They also have somewhat differing features like different animated stickers, and different editing timeframes (telegram lets you edit messages of up to 2 hours ago, WhatsApp has a cap of just 15 min). But at the end of the day, each has their pros and cons, and I get 2 sufficiently differentiated products because each is allowed to operate on their own terms and not have to worry about compatibility.

How are these two devices supposed to work interchangeably with each other, while preserving what makes each of them unique?

How is the backend even supposed to work, and who would be in charge of overseeing that exactly? Reminds me of that comic where it just means we end up with one more messaging standard in a bid to unify them all.
Click to expand...

The EU doesn't require them to all to work together. That isn't anywhere in the whole DMA. It's just the rule that gatekeepers need to open up their platform to third parties who want to connect to them. Signal isn't a gatekeeper so no issues there. iMessage is also not a gatekeeper (yet, and it doesn't seem that it is going to be) so also no issue there.

Whatsapp is a gatekeeper. This doesn't mean that Whatsapp needs to open their platform to anyone. Just to companies who request to work with them. (Like an API) I don't think either iMessage or Signal is going to want that.
 
kkrazy said:
This is categorically untrue. BBM eventually was made available as an app for both iOS and Android.
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After blackberry started failing, and no one was using BBM, they were grasping at straws. Maybe when iPhones stop selling, and Apple is about to go under they will open iMessage up, until then, Apple can keep iMessage as blackberry kept BBM, to themselves (the servers and infrastructure to run iMessage isn’t free)
 
hacky said:
Why?
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Because it cost Apple money to run iMessage, and they aren’t going to take a loss by letting people use they’re service for free, I don’t want people stealing the service, and running up the cost of Apple devices(I doubt Apple will just take the loss).
 
Someone here literally said it was one line of code away from not working. When your software is built on hacks don’t be surprised when it stops working.
 
missingar said:
Thank God now apple won't have to actually come up with any actual compelling features for iPhone 16 and can keep releasing the same phone again for years to come with the knowledge that users are safely locked into their ecosystem. What a relief for us all.
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Locked is a strange way to say love the unique features of Apple devices.
 
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Radon87000 said:
This is exactly my point. In 2023, Apple has made it impossible for Android and iPhones to communicate with each other.

It's time the EU took Apple to task for this mess they have created on purpose.
Click to expand...
Do you have any idea what 'impossible' means? What has your experience been?

I've never had a problem communicating with any other cell phone users, at all, on any OS.

There is even this great feature where you can put your phone to your head, speak into it and hear their voice response in real time!
 
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CyberGene said:
I highly doubt it there are separate public/private keys (and then symmetric AES keys) for each registered device under the same Apple ID since it would be an overkill. Unless you’ve read Apple doing it but I am not aware of such a document.
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It seems Apple are indeed using the public/private keys for encryption and don’t mention an exchange of a symmetric key:

iMessage security overview

In iMessage, Apple messages and attachments are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can access them.
support.apple.com

That’s an overkill IMO but yeah, can’t deny it’s the most secure way.

However with the above description it seems impossible for a client to not have an Apple ID, so as previously explained the statement about how only phone numbers are used is apparently misleading and there must be some behind the scenes creation of Apple ID-s or something
 
I7guy said:
If your choice of smartphone creates a hostile environment for people communicating with you maybe you should get another smartphone. If iMessage is a selling point of the iPhone, then mitigation of a hostile environment would be a selling point if another phone.
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You don't get it -- whichever phone you buy, it's a hostile environment to communicate with people that have the other OS phone. It'll get better when Apple actually implements RCS, if that ever happens, but I can't hold my breath over it.

I have both android and iOS phones, and I can't even use texting to transfer pics and anything like that across, I have to use email, and even then it may not work depending on the size. It's ugly having to worry about that.

I'd like to go with something like the people in the EU, app based communications, but getting everyone to switch at the same time isn't something that can happen. People in the EU went that way slowly, over time, and because of texting costs.
 
It was only a matter of time before this happened, and the CEO of Beeper knew this, but still put time into this. Why not put time into something worthwhile instead of trying to create problems?
 
lucasajackson said:
Then BlackBerry opened up BBM to other platforms.
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and then they became irrelevant..why to buy BB if you have same service elsewhere? and cheaper? this is not how market works. If you do have an advantage, you have to keep it. Giving it await for nothing is just pure nonsense.
 
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