This reminds me of the time when Palm had to reverse engineer to get their products to sync with iTunes. Every single updates to iTunes broke compatibility with Palm sync.
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Beeper Mini Brings iMessage to Android With No Need for Apple ID Sign-In
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This is blatant plagiarism and is typical of Google and Microsoft who have never had an original idea other than: COPY APPLE.
Google could have developed their OWN messaging app. They had Hangoust and then canceled it to do some other stupid moonshot that has since been canceled. Google has no originality, no creativity, and are currently copying Apple's custom chip with their laughable Tensor line, which is nothing more than a Snapdragon.
Instead they went with a now antiquated RCS, and apparently had to surrender to the absolute positive proof now that iPhone is superior and Android is a cheap rip off, because someone had to reverse engineer iMessage, which is in and of itself partially unethical given it relies on exploits to a system that were heretofore undiagnosed and Apple will soon be patching and locking down.
Dear Google,
Get some creativity and make your OWN app rather than hacking competitors and then open sourcing for free someone else's hard work, as is typical with anarchists and syndicalists.
EDIT: We found the Android people.....the Debbie thumbs downers.....
Google could have developed their OWN messaging app. They had Hangoust and then canceled it to do some other stupid moonshot that has since been canceled. Google has no originality, no creativity, and are currently copying Apple's custom chip with their laughable Tensor line, which is nothing more than a Snapdragon.
Instead they went with a now antiquated RCS, and apparently had to surrender to the absolute positive proof now that iPhone is superior and Android is a cheap rip off, because someone had to reverse engineer iMessage, which is in and of itself partially unethical given it relies on exploits to a system that were heretofore undiagnosed and Apple will soon be patching and locking down.
Dear Google,
Get some creativity and make your OWN app rather than hacking competitors and then open sourcing for free someone else's hard work, as is typical with anarchists and syndicalists.
EDIT: We found the Android people.....the Debbie thumbs downers.....
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I've been supporting their (Beeper) cause since 2022, this app is a game changer. Sunbird is a joke. I've used AirMessage and Bluebubbles via private MacOS server on my PC which also worked well. Beeper Mini is surprisingly awesome. A few clicks and swipes, all of my Apple chats (from my phone number, NOT Apple ID- this is key) turned into iMessage chats. I'd been getting along just fine using my Apple ID within the main Beeper app for iMessage, but this way is great.
I don't have any critical information or photos sent via text or email, nothing except my iCloud photos storage is connected to my Apple ID, and even then I have multifactor authentication enabled for everything. My Apple ID email is only used for my Apple ID and nothing else. If someone hacks and sees family and dog photos, have at it. I've accepted privacy is out the window long ago and don't upload or share anything that I wouldn't be OK leaking. This is too convenient at the moment for me to care. Until Apple supports RCS this is really handy.
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Couple teenagers in my house (US); they have iPhones but use Snap for everything.
Adults also bully their friends for being a green bubble, its not exclusive to kids.
Kind of a strange, misdirected rant given that the Beeper has nothing to do with Google.
RCS is coming with no encryption available.It is a step forward, however ….
Apple's implementation will definitely be secured with end-to-end encryption. That's one of the reasons that they won't be using Google's RCS servers.
Android is better and I get to communicate with the folks who care about blue bubbles aka lots iPhone users. Also the fact that I am paying $2 a month to do this is a direct counter to the "Android users are poor" argument. Seems like a win win.
Aside from the last part of the post, a lot of those points aren't invalid. iPhone OS came to existence first. Apple SOC came to existence first. Many many of Google's products (other than Search, Gmail and a few others) are generally following the foot steps of others and mostly Apple.
Google's RCS implementation is end to end encrypted. Apple is choosing to use the universal profile implementation which at current time *not* only not end to end encrypted, but not encrypted at all.
They certainly would have wanted to get this out before the iPhone RCS support. Make whatever money they can now from it before customers realize they don’t need this.
I can’t imagine Apple will let unauthorized connections to it’s servers continue on for very long though.
Or, it might actually push Apple to making their own iMessage client for Windows and Android. If they kill beeper, what’s stopping another app from coming out. Me being an iPhone user wanting to iMessage my friend whom I have no idea uses Beeper, how do I know my texts to her are secure? Beeper claims they are, but I have no idea if my sensitive information is safe or not.
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If Android was better, iPhones wouldn't have become the replacement for BlackBerry's in sensitive environments.
Android is a landmine field when it comes to security due to its openness and inconsistently from vendor to vendor.
So they raised $16 million in funding, but they're still charging $1.99 per month? For people to access their messages?
This may just be me, but worrying about what people think of you based on what color your messages use in a messaging app on a phone seems rather odd.
This may just be me, but worrying about what people think of you based on what color your messages use in a messaging app on a phone seems rather odd.
Ladies are much less likely to date green bubbles...it's what makes iPhone iPhone.
I would never have guessed that the separation between the blue bubbles and the green would be so extensive. I doubt apple imagines it would be such a cultural rift that appears in memes and sketches. Its crazy.
any time you reverse engineer apple stuff you better have some good lawyers to back you up
It's because they screw up the group chat. The answer is to move to WhatsApp.
yup. registering non apple devices on apple servers, I can't think of anything dumber to be honest. I didn't think the palm-iTunes shim would be topped and yet, this guy did it. spectacularly.
Exactly. My entire family and circle of friends use iPhones, except for one friend. I hate Apple dictating what I can and can't install on my phone (I pay the $99 developer fee so that I can easily sideload, done doing this). My choice of product (phone) should be based on what I want and not based on what everyone else uses / what is convenient for others. I paid for Beeper in the early days because I was really excited about what they were trying to do and have free access to Mini which is awesome. Who knows how long this will last, it is too good to be true, in my opinion.
It isn't about "just get an iPhone" as everyone says. I've had every iPhone since the 4 and have the 15PM. Android is just more enjoyable for me and I can use my phone however I damn well please. Rocking true iMessage from my phone number on my Pixel 8 Pro is unreal to me.
Why would anyone support this? It's purposely deceptive to end users. How could it possibly be e2e encrypted?
I'm honestly surprised that Apple hasn't already gone the route of selling iMessage as a subscription service to Android users. Charge $5/month and reap those profits on the green bubble users who get shamed into subscribing. That would at least ensure E2E is active.
I suspect the reasons they haven't at least partially relate to the inherent friction iMessage creates against switching to Android and/or the antitrust issues they've been facing (in which case having a paid service that is both defaulted & 100% subsidized on iPhones could be seen as problematic).
I'd rather use SMS than rely on Meta as my primary means of communication. Not to mention the app is hideous. For a continent with otherwise good taste, Europe's obsession with whatsapp is wild to me.