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The MacRumors Show: Should Apple Allow iMessage for Android?

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On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the recent controversy around Android apps that seek to enable iMessage functionality.


Several companies have been vying to offer solutions for Android users who wish to send and receive iMessages for some time. Most recently, "Beeper Mini" offered a way to do so with no need to sign in with an Apple ID.

The app's developers used reverse-engineered iMessage protocols to register Android phone numbers with Apple's servers, allowing Android users to send blue bubble messages to iPhone users with support for all iMessage functionality, including read receipts, typing indicators, and reactions.

Apple ended up blocking Beeper Mini last week, with the company confirming that it took steps to shut down the app since it apparently posed risks to the security and privacy of iMessage users.

In a blog post, the Beeper Mini team said that the app had the "fastest growing paid Android application in history," with more than 100,000 downloads. This was said to be evidence that Android and iPhone customers "desperately want to be able to chat together" with all of the features available on iMessage. Earlier this week, the app's functionality returned, but now with the requirement to sign in with an Apple ID and receive messages via an email address rather than a phone number.

Beeper Mini's developers say that despite reaching out to Apple, they have not heard back. It is unlikely that Apple will give in and allow Beeper Mini to function as it did, and Apple may shut down further functionality as well if it can.

Apple does have plans to bring a range of iMessage-like features to chats between iPhone users and Android users through RCS, a protocol that Apple will add to iPhones next year. RCS will bring support for high quality video and images, emoji reactions, typing indicators, read receipts, and more, all features that Beeper Mini says that Android and iPhone users are desperate to have in cross-platform chats.

What do you think about Android apps that enable iMessage functionality? Let us know in the comments. The MacRumors Show is now on its own YouTube channel, so head over and subscribe to keep up with new episodes and clips going forward:



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Article Link: The MacRumors Show: Should Apple Allow iMessage for Android?
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/15/the-macrumors-show-imessage-on-android/
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If anything Apple could just sell it on the Google Play store for like $.99 and make it on par in usability as if it's on iphone. Lets face it. If those people are sticking with android, making iMessage not function as well or making the experience messaging Apple users less than stellar isn't going to drive them over, lol.

They could make a new tier called iMessage pro and add a bunch of extra features and sell it to all mobile platforms, lol. While keeping the current iteration free for iphone users of course.
 
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I think the irony here is that Beeper's business model relies on Apple 'penalizing their own customers'—but only just a bit. If Apple continues disallowing Beeper, Beeper dies, but if Apple were to offer iMessage on Android themselves, Beeper would still be dead.

They want this odd middle ground where things are broken just enough for them to fix.
 
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hagar said:
Yes. If they want iMessage to stay relevant outside the US.

Or *become* relevant.
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I love these sort of comments.
So self engulfed in US life, that no other country could ever even remotely adopt or evolve to utilize what a modern US company provides to the whole world.

iMessage is very much engrained and relevant here in Australia.

*Wonder if gun control will ever become relevant in the US*
 
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MacDaddyPanda said:
If anything Apple could just sell it on the Google Play store for like $.99 and make it on par in usability as if it's on iphone. Lets face it. If those people are sticking with android, making iMessage not function as well or making the experience messaging Apple users less than stellar isn't going to drive them over, lol.
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They don‘t even need to charge money for it directly.

Force Android users to sign up for an Apple ID to use the app, then lure them into paying for iCloud+ or Apple One by encouraging them to enable Messages in iCloud which fills up the free 5GB in five nanoseconds with messages. First baby steps into the Apple ecosystem.

Plethora of ways to monetize it, like also allowing Sticker etc. purchases via the iMessage App Store or by also building in support for SharePlay but locking it behind an iCloud+ sub. I‘d wager they rather go the exclusivity way and keep most features for Apple ecosystem people.
 
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Suppose you owned and operated a server, and operated a service from that server. Many people don’t realize this costs time (man hours) and money. Now suppose a third-party found access into your server and is charging thousands of other people money to also access your server on a daily basis. Would you want to continue to maintain and pay for that server to allow access to a growing number of unauthorized users. Eventually those unauthorized users are going to raise the cost of running your server. So, do you block the unauthorized users.. or do you cancel the service because it’s too expensive to maintain?

One of the reasons that Apple products are so expensive is that part of that cost goes to help pay for the many services that Apple users enjoy, including iMessage and its associated servers.
 
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TimFL1 said:
They don‘t even need to charge money for it directly.

Force Android users to sign up for an Apple ID to use the app, then lure them into paying for iCloud+ or Apple One by encouraging them to enable Messages in iCloud which fills up the free 5GB in five nanoseconds with messages. First baby steps into the Apple ecosystem.

Plethora of ways to monetize it, like also allowing Sticker etc. purchases via the iMessage App Store or by also building in support for SharePlay but locking it behind an iCloud+ sub. I‘d wager they rather go the exclusivity way and keep most features for Apple ecosystem people.
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My messages are like 700mb and has been around that for years. What's taking up all your space?
 
-BigMac- said:
I love these sort of comments.
So self engulfed in US life, that no other country could ever even remotely adopt or evolve to utilize what a modern US company provides to the whole world.

iMessage is very much engrained and relevant here in Australia.

*Wonder if gun control will ever become relevant in the US*
Click to expand...
*about as relevant as free speech in AUS*
 
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Iwavvns said:
Suppose you owned and operated a server, and operated a service from that server. Many people don’t realize this costs time (man hours) and money. Now suppose a third-party found access into your server and is charging thousands of other people money to also access your server on a daily basis. Would you want to continue to maintain and pay for that server to allow access to a growing number of unauthorized users. Eventually those unauthorized users are going to raise the cost of running your server. So, do you block the unauthorized users.. or do you cancel the service because it’s too expensive to maintain?

One of the reasons that Apple products are so expensive is that part of that cost goes to help pay for the many services that Apple users enjoy, including iMessage and its associated servers.
Click to expand...
They are communicating with Apple users... and vice versa. Apple isn't loosing money because some android user wants to send a iphone user a message thats encyrpted... poor apple, the little guy barely getting by....
 
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Iwavvns said:
Suppose you owned and operated a server, and operated a service from that server. Many people don’t realize this costs time (man hours) and money. Now suppose a third-party found access into your server and is charging thousands of other people money to also access your server on a daily basis. Would you want to continue to maintain and pay for that server to allow access to a growing number of unauthorized users. Eventually those unauthorized users are going to raise the cost of running your server. So, do you block the unauthorized users.. or do you cancel the service because it’s too expensive to maintain?

One of the reasons that Apple products are so expensive is that part of that cost goes to help pay for the many services that Apple users enjoy, including iMessage and its associated servers.
Click to expand...
It seems to me that Beeper is violating DCMA regulations.
Why is that people feel that any company is required to provide their apps/services on all platforms? XBOX? PlayStation? All flavors of Android? Windows? Ubuntu???
It should be up to the company that owns/develops the product...
 
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jameslmoser said:
They are communicating with Apple users... and vice versa. Apple isn't loosing money because some android user wants to send a iphone user a message thats encyrpted... poor apple, the little guy barely getting by....
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They are still using iMessage servers and Services. Didn’t I read that 100,000 people had installed Beeper mini? That’s quite a large number of unauthorized users.
 
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-BigMac- said:
I love these sort of comments.
So self engulfed in US life, that no other country could ever even remotely adopt or evolve to utilize what a modern US company provides to the whole world.

iMessage is very much engrained and relevant here in Australia.
Click to expand...
I love the irony in this comment. Whilst iMessage may be very much engrained in Australia, it is very much not engrained in other parts of the world. For example: in Europe (with a much larger customer base than Australia), services such as WhatsApp are much more popular than iMessage, because of the better interoperability across platforms. So it turns out that Hagar (with his supposedly blinkered view) was making a perfectly valid point.
 
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