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Beeper's iMessage App for Android is Back (theverge.com) 82

Posted by msmash from the security-woes dept.
The faceoff between Apple and Beeper has entered another round. Days after Apple managed to block Beeper Mini from seamlessly sending and receiving iMessages on Android, Beeper says the app is up and running again -- sort of. From a report: See, Beeper Mini works a little differently this time: you must now sign in with an Apple ID, whereas previously it would automatically register you to iMessage via your phone number. Beeper says it's working on a fix to restore phone number registration with iMessage, but until then, your friends won't be able to send iMessages directly to your phone number. Instead, the blue bubbles will have to come to and from your email address. That's not nearly as convenient, but at the end of the day, it's still iMessage.

Another change is that for now, owing to what could escalate into a cat-and-mouse game with Apple, Beeper Mini will be free to use. "Things have been a bit chaotic, and we're not comfortable subjecting paying users to this," the company wrote in a blog post today about the update. The app originally required a $2-per-month subscription. Apple's statement on Friday made clear that it won't hesitate to shut down further attempts to dupe its servers into believing Android phones are genuine Apple devices.
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Beeper's iMessage App for Android is Back More

Beeper's iMessage App for Android is Back

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  • I don't text much, so perhaps I just don't understand this at all, but is there that much envy over the blue vs. green text bubbles that this is something that need be done? I mean I'm all for trying to spite the big corporate overlord, but if you're the type of person who cares about the color of the text bubbles you send or that someone else sends, I hate to break it to you but you're a shitty person.
    • I don't think its envy - It's the nerfed feature set like not being able to do HD images and things like that. The images in a nerfed chat are worse that you got on a flip phone circa 2003 - The bubble color just indicates the fact this chat is nerfed.

    • iMessage will send only SMS (and MMS) to non-Apple users, but will has many more features when sending messages to other iOS users (including end-to-end encryption).

      Beeper tries to bring these Apple-exclusive features to Android users.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 )

      I don't text much, so perhaps I just don't understand this at all, but is there that much envy over the blue vs. green text bubbles that this is something that need be done?

      The green/blue bubble thing itself is stupid, but it absolutely is a big thing in some social circles (read: middle/high schoolers and adults that never matured past middle school).

      While it's our responsibility as parents to teach our kids to not to let companies manipulate them like that for profit ... Apple's role in encouraging kids ostracizing other kids for not using Apple's products (in order to drive more sales) is more than a little sleazy.

      • The green/blue bubble thing itself is stupid, but it absolutely is a big thing in some social circles (read: middle/high schoolers and adults that never matured past middle school).

        So... high-tech moguls -- or high, tech moguls. :-)

      • I must live in a strange social circle. My peer group is engineers, and absolutely zero of us have ever commented on the bubble color or feature set in either our individual or group chats, and we have a mix of Android and Apple users.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        "Apple's role in encouraging kids ostracizing other kids..."

        Apple plays no role in this. Apple distinguishes secured messages from unsecured using the color. Apple also views iMessage as a distinguishing feature. What Apple doesn't do it encourage petty behavior through meaningless differences, that's the user base doing that.

        • Apple plays no role in this. Apple distinguishes secured messages from unsecured using the color.

          They lock messages from non-Apple devices out of that with their point-blank refusal to support secure messages between Apple and non-Apple devices. It's incredibly disingenuous to pretend that Apple's motivations have anything to do with notifying the users about secured messaging.

          Apple also views iMessage as a distinguishing feature.

          The only "distinguishing feature" of iMessage is that it doesn't interoperate with other vendor's phones. Which is of course the point, because (despite your claim to the contrary) Apply absolutely loves and encourages petty beh

          • They lock messages from non-Apple devices out of that with their point-blank refusal to support secure messages between Apple and non-Apple devices. It's incredibly disingenuous to pretend that Apple's motivations have anything to do with notifying the users about secured messaging.

            Please describe the encryption standard Apple is supposed to use for non-Apple devices they do not control. Hint: such a standard does not exist. What does exist is Google's proprietary implementation, WhatsApp's proprietary implementation, etc.

            The only "distinguishing feature" of iMessage is that it doesn't interoperate with other vendor's phones. Which is of course the point, because (despite your claim to the contrary) Apply absolutely loves and encourages petty behavior to drive more sales.

            iPhones can send SMS messages to other phones. What you are complaining about is the equivalent of complaining that Hondas do not use Ford software.

        • I find it strange that Apple chose green to indicate that a message is not secure. Green is used to indicate "safe" throughout the world. I would expect them to use a reddish color instead to indicate "risk". Also, green is widely associated with Android in the phone market. Apple knew what they were doing. :-\

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
            It might just be me, but I've always read green bobbles as "it might cost money to message this/these recipient/recipients" but that might just be because the only people I message semi-regularly that use android, are abroad and my contract does not include free sms/mms abroad.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pcaylor ( 648195 )

        > Apple's role in encouraging kids ostracizing other kids for not using Apple's products (in order to drive more sales) is more than a little sleazy.

        Citation needed.

        Show me any credible source that says Apple is encouraging this. Heck, I'll take a non-credible source.

        There are plenty of things Apple does that are more than a little sleazy and can be fairly criticized. There's no need to make up new ones.

        • Maybe Apple didn't intend for this to hapoen, and they might not have had any idea about "green bubbles bad" would become a thing in schools. But now it did, they are more than happy to ride this wave, and the best thing is that no one can even point to them and make a solid accusation of doing this, provided they don't boast about it in their company e-mails.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by pcaylor ( 648195 )

            Everything you said is true. But the original allegation was that Apple was encouraging kids to ostracize other kids. And nobody can come up with a single quote from anyone at Apple even saying that it was a good thing. Even you concede that 'maybe' Apple didn't intend for the blue/green bubbles to become a social stigma. Your worst accusation is that Apple is happy to benefit from it. And you are probably right. But riding a wave is not causing a wave, and we doing blame a surfer if the wave drowns s

  • i hope beeper wins, Apples walled garden sucks and not only in the communication dept but also the app store lock in too, this will be my last iphone if apple dont open up ios for that

    • i hope beeper wins, Apples walled garden sucks and not only in the communication dept but also the app store lock in too, this will be my last iphone if apple dont open up ios for that

      Buh-Bye!

  • I use Viber for most of my texting and photo sending. It's end-to-end encrypted, works on Apple and Android and nobody's fighting over it.

    There's also Signal, Telegram, and a dozen others.

    Just take you ball and go... to the next park down the street!

    • It comes as news to exactly nobody that there are 3rd party cross-platform messaging networks.

      What may come as news to you, is that most users don't want to have to use 14 different networks to talk to the people they need to talk to. This is why iMessage is still used by anyone at all - it's the default, there is no option on iOS to make any other app the default, and it talks to any phone number out there as long as you don't give a fuck what quality and experience a non-iPhone user will receive.

      For exam

  • Do not share your username and password with third parties.

    FFS I can't believe a tech site like /. is trying to defend a company directly asking for username and password info, with what, a cross their fingers promise to keep it safe and secure from leaking?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by giesen ( 820885 )

      Do not share your username and password with third parties.

      FFS I can't believe a tech site like /. is trying to defend a company directly asking for username and password info, with what, a cross their fingers promise to keep it safe and secure from leaking?

      Beeper (Mini) does not require an Apple ID or any credentials to be shared with Beeper. It performs validation via SMS

  • If Apple really wanted to they could entangle the iMessage certificate somewhere with the low-level chain of trust and that would be the end of 3rd party clients. They probably don't do this yet because of older Macs that don't have a Secure Enclave.

    • Re:Trivial to shutdown (Score:5, Interesting)

      by kqs ( 1038910 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @03:25PM (#64074273)

      There are multiple ways Apple can shut this down, and they will. Which is a shame. Apple has the choice of either allowing secure and private communication, or making more money. Apple has constantly chosen more money, by making sure that when their customers communicate with non-Apple folks, the messages are insecure and non-private. That's Apple's right, of course. But I'm tired of people claiming that Apple prioritizes privacy and security, when Apple has constantly demonstrated the opposite.

      • Especially since there is an argument to be made that shutting down cross-platform iMessage support is harming Apple's users that send things to Android users via essentially clear text SMS.

        If they're all about protecting their users' privacy, why are they leaving such a glaring hole that is completely in their power to fix?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kqs ( 1038910 )

          It's not an argument, it's a fact.

          If you use Apple devices and iMessage, then you are giving money to the company which could secure your communications but chooses not to. Their oft stated motive is money; if they let iMessage on non-Apple devices, then they believe that some people may switch from iOS to Android, costing Apple profit.

          This is your choice. You can give your money to a company which has demonstrated that your privacy and security are less important than their profit margin. I mean, I choo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        There are multiple ways Apple can shut this down, and they will. Which is a shame. Apple has the choice of either allowing secure and private communication, or making more money. Apple has constantly chosen more money, by making sure that when their customers communicate with non-Apple folks, the messages are insecure and non-private. That's Apple's right, of course. But I'm tired of people claiming that Apple prioritizes privacy and security, when Apple has constantly demonstrated the opposite.

        Not defending Apple, on the contrary, what I'm about to say is one of the leading causes of insecurity in many important sectors including banking.

        If they make things secure, it'll annoy people into not using it.

        If they do that, people will just start using WhatsApp or something similar (yes, people know Meta is datamining it, they just don't care and no, nothing you say is interesting enough for them to care about whilst we're at it). So Apple needs to keep the system insecure, this means they'll alw

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kqs ( 1038910 )

          I don't understand your argument. Both iMessage and RCS+E2EE are secure and private. (Secure and private for mass-market chat systems, at least, but that's all most people want.) The insecure and non-private systems are SMS and MMS. (Note that to implement iMessage or RCS you need access to texting services (SMS) so that there is a fallback.)

          Google wants RCS+E2EE on all systems. It's available on all Android phones and is starting to appear on feature phones, but Apple will not allow it on iPhones. Ap

      • . Apple has the choice of either allowing secure and private communication, or making more money. Apple has constantly chosen more money, by making sure that when their customers communicate with non-Apple folks, the messages are insecure and non-private.

        Please tell me how Apple will implement E2EE on devices they do not control that have hardware that they did not specify. I would to know how you think encryption algorithms not baked into the device's hardware will get implemented. Also how does Apple use a Secure Enclave system in devices that do not have one.

        That's Apple's right, of course. But I'm tired of people claiming that Apple prioritizes privacy and security, when Apple has constantly demonstrated the opposite.

        Implementing security is not a triv

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kqs ( 1038910 )

          Please tell me how Apple will implement E2EE on devices they do not control

          I mean, Google managed to implement E2EE on all android phones, even though the hardware and many pieces of the software are controlled by the manufacturer. And I believe that other vendors are following Google's spec for E2EE over RCS, though I don't know if any are released yet.

          The fact of the matter is Apple designed their own solution when no one else had one

          Ummm... E2EE solutions for messaging systems predate iMessage and the iPhone. I'm sorry that you think that Apple invented the concept, but they didn't. They just wrote one particular implementation of the concept. I seem to re

    • It would also cut off any Apple device that isn't under current software support, since Beeper is using Apple's own client connection services to create the link. This means cutting off potentially thousands of legitimate users (and creating user hardship / ill-will) to try to fuck over some upstart that is just trying to do what Apple should have done years ago.

  • Does any grown person really want this simply to appear to be using an Apple device? Or do they mostly want artificially restricted perks such as emojis that are intended to only be available on recognized Apple devices?
  • I think people would have more luck trying to convince Apple users to just download some widely available 3rd party messenger. It isn't that hard...

    • Downloading? No, it isn't that hard.

      Convincing someone that they need to download, sign up for, verify, and use a specific app just to talk to me? That's the height of arrogance, and anyone with any self-worth would tell you to go fuck yourself.

      Why are you so important that someone else should change how they interact with everyone else they know just to appease you?

      • Downloading? No, it isn't that hard.

        Convincing someone that they need to download, sign up for, verify, and use a specific app just to talk to me? That's the height of arrogance, and anyone with any self-worth would tell you to go fuck yourself.

        Why are you so important that someone else should change how they interact with everyone else they know just to appease you?

        Instead you just tell them to get an iPhone.
        the irony

      • I mean, the iphone users are the height of arrogance then in that they will bitch at you about having Android and not iphone? Good lord- calm down. Imagine getting this angry about this. Do you own an iphone by chance?

        • I do not, but good wrong assumption.

          I don't try to force other people to live their lives my way.

          • It was not an assumption- it was a question. Further, there has to be some common ground. Either everyone settles on SMS, everyone settles on imessage, or everyone settles on some third party platform. No one is "being forced" here.

    • In Europe, they all download WhatsApp, as do all the Android users.

      • And I'm not saying whatsapp is much better (it is meta after all) but at least there is an understanding you might have to put some modicum of effort into reaching people using other OSs.

  • Hi, I'm the mole, please whack me!

    Seems like an odd stance to take with Apple, the results are guaranteed.

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