Beeper Mini Resorts to Jailbreaking iPhones to Rescue Blue Bubbles

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Can you please explain to me why you guys feel you are Obligated to iMessage? Like seriously. And please dont give me the same tired arguments about E2EE (half of you guys dont even know what that is or better yet use google and you are worried about privacy) and sending compressed videos (when they have a multi-tude of apps to send videos on).

Outside of all those same arguments, why on earth are you entitled to imessage...a feature made for IOS devices.

I can tell you why I hate the idea of Beeper (well one of them). It's simple. I use a lot of apple specific products and services and features that CANT work with Android (Apple pay and reservations for example. Sharing my location is another).

How am I supposed to know if I am talking to a legit Apple customer or a Fraud? Now you could argue that Apple should bring Apple imessage to Android and I'd argue why? Why do you feel you need something from another company because your preferred company can't make anything compelling that people want to use. Because RCS is one of Google's MANY attempts to control messaging over the last 20 years. Literally.

I can make a good point about RCS that i recently. Google doesn't even allow its RCS Apis to be utilized by 3rd party messaging apps thus forcing all android users who want to use RCS to use google's messaging app or not have RCS. Meaning Google is literally doing the same exact thing that Apple is accused of doing: Locking people into their apps.

Agreed. Imagine the distress of knowing that the person sending you a blue bubble hasn't given Apple some money. I don't think that's a world any of us wants to live in.

I need to know that I am not wasting time conversing with somebody who doesn't own an iPhone.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Can you please explain to me why you guys feel you are Obligated to iMessage? Like seriously. And please dont give me the same tired arguments about E2EE (half of you guys dont even know what that is or better yet use google and you are worried about privacy) and sending compressed videos (when they have a multi-tude of apps to send videos on).

I don't feel obligated to iMessage on Android, but I think that Apple should WANT to do it, for the security of both parties. I absolutely will use the E2EE as an argument, because that is the argument. I think non-encrypted communicated should go the way of the rotary phone. ALL communication should be encrypted now, by default; all texting, all calls, all email, without exception. Apple is actively reducing the security of it's users by letting them send SMS, which are unencrypted, to another party.

It's just the world we live in. Encrypt everything.

I own an iPhone (two actually), and an Android. Wife is an Android-only user.

 

[klasma]

I'm pretty sure they're not VC funded.

Yes they are, or at least were.

 

[laptech]

Whilst Beeper is making life even more difficult for Android users, I do think many people in here are missing the point about an iphone having to be used. Let's be clear about something, the article states an OLD iphone can be used, one that can be jailbroken. This therefore implies that as long as the iphone is able to power on and has working wifi, the old iphone can be in any state of disrepair, as long as it powers on, has working wifi and can be jailbroken because all that is needed if the iphones registration data. Technically the old iphone would not even need to have a battery just as long as it can power on via the charging cable attached to it. I have no doubt their are thousands upon thousands of old faulty iphones that cost less than $10 that could be used for such a purpose.

Doing it the way Beeper is suggesting, whilst awkward and cumbersome, is still way cheaper than having to buy a normal fully working iphone.

 

[scorpio vega]

It keeps repeating because there are certain iPhone users who are obsessed with blue bubbles. If you realize that blue bubbles exist ONLY on an iPhone screen then it becomes obvious that only one group could care about the color of their bubbles. Speaking of living in a bubble, I've began to realize that many iPhone users feel they're part of an exclusive club. Comments here lead me to believe these particular users think an open system would somehow take away their ability to feel unique. An iPhone owner who needs blue bubble exclusively is like the Porsche owner who has to wear a Porsche jacket to the office every day. It's just not a good look.

You guys really try to make apple users think more highly of our phones than we do? I am nearly 30 and i can't imagine a time since i was maybe 12 when I cared about what phone I had or felt bullied about a phone.

This is not 2008 where iPhones had exclusivity and if you didnt have one you were considered poor.

It's nearly 2024. Anyone who wants an iPhone can have an iPhone. Anyone who doesnt have an iPhone obivously doesnt want an iPhone and that's okay too. You can choose whatever phone you want.

Apple users (at least myself and my like minded IOS friends) really do not care what color the bubbles are. You have people on this very site who claim their love life or intimate life fails because women find them using Android less desirable. I can even link you to articles where people claim this and it's BS.

What it really is, and I hate to say it, because it sounds so ridiculous. It's not Apple users caring about blue bubbles. It's android users trying to create this 'iSheep' mentality. Just like the usual "Walled garden" rhetoric or the fact that Apple is 'controlling' us. It's ridiculous. And it's sad. Truly so, that grown adults are this pressed over trying to use iMessage.

Now you are literally being told to get an iPhone lmao. Do you not see how ridiculous this is?

I think we can all agree at this point Apple should allow beeper its own third party app store on iOS.

Who is we?

This is MacRumors giving them coverage based on a deleted blog post.

LOL MR is not the only company posting about this joke of company. MR like every other site makes money on clicks and for better or worse, Beeper is the trending thing in tech.

which goes to show you how boring tech is right now if this is all we have to talk about.

 

[GLS]

Keep pushing that boulder, Sisyphus.

 

[dominiongamma]

The garbage where Android belongs

 

[scorpio vega]

I don't feel obligated to iMessage on Android, but I think that Apple should WANT to do it, for the security of both parties. I absolutely will use the E2EE as an argument, because that is the argument. I think non-encrypted communicated should go the way of the rotary phone. ALL communication should be encrypted now, by default; all texting, all calls, all email, without exception. Apple is actively reducing the security of it's users by letting them send SMS, which are unencrypted, to another party.

It's just the world we live in. Encrypt everything.

I own an iPhone (two actually), and an Android. Wife is an Android-only user.

On lagdroid, i Have to use google's app just to get RCS. That's a no no. On my Galaxy S22, i always used PulseSms. Because i hate google messages and i dont want google having access to my data.

Apple is not responsible for your choice to use a lagdroid/android lol. Like that's ridiculous that you think they should want to look out for you when your own OEM basically says use my apps or dont have security.

More importantly the amount of complaints I have read about the reliability of RCS depending on if you use Google Jibe servers or if you use Carrier implemented RCS to the point that people are actively turning OFF RCS shows me that it is not ready for primetime.

I dont like the idea of 2FA being forced down my throat. I shouldnt be forced to use something for a site or app i dont want to just because you're paranoid that some random person might hack your text out of the 7 billion people on earth.

 

[scorpio vega]

oh dear pearl clutching christ lmao

Who is clutching pearls? It is not about melodrama.
If I am trying to use an apple specific feature, I am going to be confused as to why it is not working.

Case in point: i sent my brother money to get our mom's christmas gift since I am not going to be home to pick it up myself. I sent my part via Apple pay. Had he been hacking into using beeper, i would have been none the wiser. Who is to say that the money i sent would at best fail, and at worse, that $200 bucks i sent is just laying in limbo because the phone is not sure WHERE it should be going.

Like let's use common sense outside of the whole "I am obligated to this" feature.

No hacking, they are using Apple’s regular iMessage protocol. The only difference is that it is a proprietary protocol instead of an open protocol.

So still hacking. You do realize there is more than one meaning for the word hacking. Reverse engineering is still a form of hacking.

Are they still charging people at this point for this terrible hack?

No they quickly abandoned that dumb idea after scamming the poor souls who paid for it out of sheer desperation lmao

At this point, just use your old iPhone and be done with it. Or, if you don't have any iPhone yet, just buy a used one or buy an iPod Touch. Same thing.

Exactly. I forgot about iPod touches. It's not that deep. Just buy one and call it day lol.

I'm waiting for the final version of this which Apple will not be able to block. It'll involve you buying an iPhone, copying and pasting your message from the Messages app into a Beeper Mini proxy app on the iPhone. This will then appear on your Android Beeper Mini app. To send a message you'll then just reverse this process, typing it out on Android and then copying and pasting from the Beeper Mini proxy into Messages to send it.

It'll be flawless and perfectly solve this problem once and for all...

LMAO honestly, i can see Android users doing that lol.

 

[scorpio vega]

The garbage where Android belongs

I shouldn't laugh at this but it is funny

Agreed. Imagine the distress of knowing that the person sending you a blue bubble hasn't given Apple some money. I don't think that's a world any of us wants to live in.

I need to know that I am not wasting time conversing with somebody who doesn't own an iPhone.

Cute. Imagine being given an example on why actual users who are users of the ecosystem have reservations about this and you try to make it about not wanting to associate with someone who doesn't own an iPhone.

that is WILD, mate.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Android users are literally green with envy and will do anything to be blue to avoid the stigma of owning an Android device amongst their high school peers.

I own an iPhone and several Pixel phones and not once did I care about the color of the bubbles.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Apple is not responsible for your choice to use a lagdroid/android lol. Like that's ridiculous that you think they should want to look out for you when your own OEM basically says use my apps or don't have security.

Apple does claim to be responsible for Apple users being secure, so why not give Apple users the option to ALWAYS be secure, regardless of who they communicate with.

This is about the Apple users communicating with Android users, not the other way around. At least for me.

 

[I7guy]

I hope Apple is able to have some technical way of stopping these requests that aren't actually legitimate. I am wondering why a lawsuit isn't in the works.

 

[scorpio vega]

Apple does claim to be responsible for Apple users being secure, so why not give Apple users the option to ALWAYS be secure, regardless of who they communicate with.

This is about the Apple users communicating with Android users, not the other way around. At least for me.

But the only ones complaining about E2EE are android users.
example: you with the android.

Again you keep mentioning "Secure" you do realize most of the general population don't know what E2EE is.

Most dont even realize that they are using RCS when they use google messages. It is just normal texting.
Most think iMessage is simply texting.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

But the only ones complaining about E2EE are android users.
example: you with the android.

Again you keep mentioning "Secure" you do realize most of the general population don't know what E2EE is.

Most dont even realize that they are using RCS when they use google messages. It is just normal texting.
Most think iMessage is simply texting.

I'm not an Android user; I just have a spare to goof around with, without a sim card. Google messages explicitly says RCS in the text fields when you are using RCS.

SMS should be deprecated, and Apple should help. Beeper isn't the company to do it.

 

[bayportbob]

this is just a disaster... time to bail while you still have sanity left... just wait until Apple messaging gets it update to support Android better... or as Tim Cook said, buy an iPhone...

 

[scorpio vega]

I own an iPhone and several Pixel phones and not once did I care about the color of the bubbles.

you are certainly a minority because Android users this past month have been looking pretty desperate.

I even read in an android forum that with Apple adopting RCS that means it may finally become useful and a point i made earlier is that the irony of criticizing apple for taking so long to implement UNRELIABLE RCS is that Google actually needs RCS to become relevant lol.

 

[scorpio vega]

SMS should be deprecated.

Based on what you say.

Considering RCS requires a data connection (like iMessage) no it should not. If i cant access a server for RCS, i should always be able to fall back to SMS for redundancy.

I'm not an Android user. I just have a spare, to goof around with, without a sim card.

Google messages explicitly says RCS in the text fields when you are using RCS.

And again that is only if i use google messages. If i want to use my preferred app (you know since Android is about control), i actually can't lol. Because then i have no RCS.

the irony.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

you are certainly a minority because Android users this past month have been looking pretty desperate.

I even read in an android forum that with Apple adopting RCS that means it may finally become useful and a point i made earlier is that the irony of criticizing apple for taking so long to implement UNRELIABLE RCS is that Google actually needs RCS to become relevant lol.

Google doesn't own RCS. It's a standard, that has been messed with by Google.

 

[scorpio vega]

Google doesn't own RCS. It's a standard, that has been messed with by Google.

RCS is there to replace obsolete SMS, which should be discontinued within the next few years.

Google does not own RCS but google has heavily invested in RCS and the jibe protocol which is considered the dominating protocol for RCS so yes google has a huge stake in this. Feel free to look that up for more info.

It's why Carriers are switchcing to Google jibe and unfortunately yet again Google is getting way too much power/control in another market and it is also why Apple is refusing to use Google's method (aka the primary focus). Keep in mind Messages is now default on All Android so Android is effectively locking people into a feature that is supposed to otherwise be universal.

(But the EU wants to talk about iMessage being anticompetitive and google is intentionally blocking a global feature to use its API in 3rd party messaging apps lol)

 

[elvisimprsntr]

RSC+Google=Ad$

I enabled RCS on Google Messages and all I got was ads (Update: Google responds)

If ads have started to appear in your Google Messages app, you're not alone. The RCS messaging standard may be responsible.

www.androidauthority.com

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Google does not own RCS but google has heavily invested in RCS and the jibe protocol which is considered the dominating protocol for RCS so yes google has a huge stake in this. Feel free to look that up for more info.

It's why Carriers are switchcing to Google jibe and unfortunately yet again Google is getting way too much power/control in another market and it is also why Apple is refusing to use Google's method (aka the primary focus). Keep in mind Messages is now default on All Android so Android is effectively locking people into a feature that is supposed to otherwise be universal.

(But the EU wants to talk about iMessage being anticompetitive and google is intentionally blocking a global feature to use its API in 3rd party messaging apps lol)

I think it (RCS) should be available on any android app.

That reminds me, I wish Apple let you pick a different SMS app for carrier SMS, or pick a different default messaging app.

 

[CarAnalogy]

It's 👏 not 👏 just 👏 about 👏 the 👏 blue 👏 bubbles.

I don't understand why this stupid narrative keeps repeating.

Oh because it's much more fun to deliberately mischaracterize it as pettiness on the part of Apple sheep.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I think it (RCS) should be available on any android app.

That reminds me, I wish Apple let you pick a different SMS app for carrier SMS, or pick a different default messaging app.

Or at least give it actual useful features and not more useless fluff.

I could schedule a text message to be sent later from an Android phone in 2017. What the hell, Apple. They did for Mail, but not Messages.

 

[scorpio vega]

pick a different default messaging app.

you dont have to use messages.

you can just as easy use any other message app and share photos and such to them with ease.