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Apple

Apple's Newest Headache: An App That Upended Its Control Over Messaging 91

Posted by msmash from the escalating-matters dept.
Beeper Mini, which offers iPhone messaging on Android phones, has grown fast and its duel with Apple has gotten the attention of antitrust regulators. The New York Times: Apple was caught by surprise when Beeper Mini gave Android devices access to its modern, iPhone-only service. Less than a week after Beeper Mini's launch, Apple blocked the app by changing its iMessage system. It said the app created a security and privacy risk. Apple's reaction set off a game of Whac-a-Mole, with Beeper Mini finding alternative ways to operate and Apple finding new ways to block the app in response. The duel has raised questions in Washington about whether Apple has used its market dominance over iMessage to block competition and force consumers to spend more on iPhones than lower-priced alternatives.

The Justice Department has taken interest in the case. Beeper Mini met with the department's antitrust lawyers on Dec. 12, two people familiar with the meeting said. Eric Migicovsky, a co-founder of the app's parent company, Beeper, declined to comment on the meeting, but the department is in the middle of a four-year-old investigation into Apple's anticompetitive behavior. The Federal Trade Commission said in a blog post on Thursday that it would scrutinize "dominant" players that "use privacy and security as a justification to disallow interoperability" between services. The post did not name any companies.
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Apple's Newest Headache: An App That Upended Its Control Over Messaging More

Apple's Newest Headache: An App That Upended Its Control Over Messaging

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  • Community Note (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Friday December 22, 2023 @12:11PM (#64098973)

    Android users can still text iOS users over SMS and vice-versa, along with any other SMS compliant texting system.

    • Re:Community Note (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22, 2023 @12:31PM (#64099019)

      Is this slashdot or AARP magazine?

    • Sms only works if you have cell reception my dr office the building i work in, home depot, and other big box stores. Guess what you dont get great cell reception. The best part of imessage is that it defaults to going over whatever internet connection you have first. Then falls back to sms

      RCS is just SMS with new features. No cell reception no messages.

      My wife and i use facebook messenger not because we like it, but because it works with any internet connection.

      Googles big messaging push has been re

      • SMS works anywhere I have wifi. You must have a terrible provider. Verizon and ATT support service over wifi. I know because that is how I get calls and make texts in my home.

        • Att no longer supports sms over wifi on all phone models.

          I have att they dont go through. I have had S21, S20, S10 and S8
                None of them would send sms over wifi.

          • Might be your plan or country.

            https://www.att.com/support/ar... [att.com]

          • It only would work if the provider owns the WiFi hotspot/network anyway.
            If he is at my place in my WiFi net, he !most certainly does neither receive nor sent SMS.

            • Not true. Every phone Iâ(TM)ve owned in the last 10 years will make/receive phone calls and send/receive text messages while connected to literally any Wi-Fi network. Itâ(TM)s called âoeWi-Fi Callingâ, and it works on all major US carriers, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

              On my dual SIM iPhone, I can even make and receive calls and SMS on one carrierâ(TM)s network while out of range of a cell site, using only the data connection from the other carrierâ(TM)s SIM. I donâ(TM)

              • That can only work with special outers and under special circumstances.
                Or how is your carrier supposed to know that your phone is in my WiFi network?

    • Re:Community Note (Score:5, Funny)

      by PPH ( 736903 ) on Friday December 22, 2023 @12:43PM (#64099053)

      But then your child will have to live with the shame of having their messages appear on classmates phones in green bubbles instead of blue. Might as well send them to school with no shoes.

      • But then your child will have to live with the shame of having their messages appear on classmates phones in green bubbles instead of blue. Might as well send them to school with no shoes.

        I laughed when I first read that and then found out that it matters to half the females in my extended family, especially those in the 10-22yo range. They'd rather have an old cheap iPhone than a nice Android....having any Apple phone is more important to them than having a good phone.

        And of course, the Slashdot incels will predictably spout "well tough...show some balls and tell your kids 'NO' because spiting Apple is more important than your kid's happiness....back in my day, we didn't even have phon

        • I know one thing to be true. If a child never deals with adversity in childhood, they will never meet adversity as an adult. So not having the skills to navigate adversity is fine.

          • I know one thing to be true. If a child never deals with adversity in childhood, they will never meet adversity as an adult. So not having the skills to navigate adversity is fine.

            Simple theories are fun until you hit reality. Making fake adversity for a kid is kinda mean. You want your children to become resilient? Probably smarter to push them to try harder things and push their limits to failure. Forcing them to use the phone they don't want to because you have some quasi-religious belief about Apple==bad?...doesn't seem like a great strategy. Probably would be smarter to push them into school sports and activities and afterschool programs.

            I grew up poor as did most of my

        • Who wears the pants in your family? (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Grow some balls. Letting some underage female dictate how your money is used, you are a disgrace to the male race. You probably even carry around a murse. I should have the local sheriff arrest you on general principles. Run, don't walk, to your nearest Harley Davidson retailer and turn in your Man card now. They have been notified and will be expecting you.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by irving47 ( 73147 )

        Judging by some of the videos I've seen of teenagers bitching about green bubbles, I almost think they'd choose the blue over the shoes.

      • You are likely not the parent of a teen. Kids today send messages via Steam and rarely read or reply to their SMS or iMessages.
      • The shame of garbage quality photos and videos (same as it was on candybar nokias) and the shame of ruining group chats for everybody.

    • Android users can still text iOS users over SMS and vice-versa, along with any other SMS compliant texting system.

      Beyond that, iMessage is a proprietary service. It's not supposed to be open to all, just Apple customers. And it's fully compatible with SMS from non-Apple platforms, so the government really doesn't have a leg to stand on here. Apple is doing nothing to block non-Apple platforms from texting iOS devices, and was up front about iMessage being a perk for Apple customers.

      • You might have a point if third party apps were allowed to support sms and/or rcs. Because Apple doesn't allow that (Android does, in case you're wondering) then your argument holds no water. Another problem with your argument is that imessage is set up in a tying arrangement.

        There's a very strong antitrust argument to be made here, on many levels in fact.

        • I would have to disagree. It did point out a security hole that apple has. Apple blocking was the correct course of action. Apple now needs to made a change so that the vulnerability cannot be exploited again.

          I do get it that everyone wants to load their own software from anywhere, and have completely open protocals. However, that is what leads to grandma downloading a malicious program that sends span emails to all her contacts or worse, drains her bank account.

          • Safety is and always will be the greatest argument against liberty. To be honest I couldn't care less what Apple does so long as it only affects iderps. In this area, that isn't the case, mainly because when I need to send shit to them (or vice versa) Apple deliberately degrades things like images in ways that are totally unnecessary, all in the name of trying to convince me to buy into their locked down useless shit.

            And that's all it is, is shit. In a previous job I had to carry around an iTurd basically 2

      • Down sampling any MMS to the point where they may as well not send it doesn't exactly count as fully compatible.

  • its behavior like this (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Friday December 22, 2023 @12:11PM (#64098975)
    is why this iphone 13 is going to be my last apple product, i knew the people that run apple are a bunch of pricks but now after my experience with an iphone and now this stonewalling android users, so now i am now going to keep my eye open for an after-christmas sale of a nice android phone, then i will reset this iphone and sell it on craigslist

    • Re:its behavior like this (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MikeDataLink ( 536925 ) on Friday December 22, 2023 @12:21PM (#64098989) Homepage Journal

      is why this iphone 13 is going to be my last apple product, i knew the people that run apple are a bunch of pricks but now after my experience with an iphone and now this stonewalling android users, so now i am now going to keep my eye open for an after-christmas sale of a nice android phone, then i will reset this iphone and sell it on craigslist

      This thing is. Google isn't any better. They do all of the same things Apple does. They're just more clever with how they do it and deliver it. I mean.... for example Google blocks advertisements for 3rd party repair of their products on search. Google blocks Chrome extensions that bypass Google restrictions (for example YouTube video downloaders) but allow the same Apps that work on their competitors. Google is just as evil as Apple. Don't fool yourself.

      • >> Google blocks advertisements for 3rd party repair of their products on search.

        [citation needed]

      • Google's intentions may not be better, but Android's walled garden is pretty easy to break out of. Apple's position here reminds me of when there were competing telephone exchanges, and I think Apple will have to fight for their monopoly
      • android has features i like that apple refuses to let me have, first thing i will do is get f-droid and load up my favorites, when will apple allow that?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I know! When will Microsoft let me compile outlook on gentoo linux?!!!

          • You chose a very poor example. Microsoft's platforms have been wide open since 1981.
            You can run any app from any source on Windows.

            • And you can run any App, Program on OS X and macOS - from any source, too.
              So what was your point?

              • Someone criticized the iOS walled garden. Someone else pretended Microsoft had comparable restrictions. I pointed out how far from the truth that is.

      • 100% this.

        Apple is a mega corp that has leveraged it's exclusive features to differentiate it's products. Apple is also the firm that is often refusing to turn over customer data to law enforcement without subpoenas and refusing to offer decryption tools.

        Google however openly shares your data and it's android platform is easily opened up by law enforcement, no warrants or high dollar hacking hit required. It blocks data it doesn't want you to see. Advertisements from competing products, repair services,

        • Google however openly shares your data

          Google never willingly shares anyone's data, that would undermine Google's business model. Google does collect people's data, in huge amounts, and Google collects more data than Apple does (though Apple is by no means innocent in this regard). Your claim that Android is less secure than iOS is not generally true, but it is true in specific cases. The thing about Android is that it's fragmented, there are lots of phones made by lots of manufacturers and some of those don't support their hardware very well or

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dryeo ( 100693 )

        That is why I use duckduckgo on my Android phone. Can I install an alternative browser with an alternative search on an iPhone? I also use Firefox for the extensions among other reasons.
        That is the difference, on Android, I can avoid much of Googles BS, though not enough. I understand on an iPhone, you're stuck with whatever Apple allows, and they don't allow much.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by TomGreenhaw ( 929233 )
      I went through this cycle. While I actually preferred my Samsung Note phone, I no longer was able to see the family shared photos and couldn't engage in facetime with loved ones. That "walled garden" purported to keep people safe and secure effectively holds groups of people hostage. I grudgingly have gone back to Apple, but I am not looking forward to my eventual forced upgrade and am angered when I look at my pile of perfectly good "vintage" hardware that I can no longer use.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        It's why you have to have a Facebook and Google account to be alive. Try accepting a google calendar invite or viewing a google doc your homeowners associate wants to use without a google account. How can I see a restaurant menu without a Facebook account? These should be freed from their monopoly as well. Login walls should be banned and anonymous editing and viewing via URL only of all google apps must be enforced by the FTC.

        • If I have to hit a Facebook server to see a menu, I'll either demand a paper menu or eat somewhere else. FB is fully blocked on my phone. I can't see them and (hopefully) they can't see me.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bahbus ( 1180627 )

        Plenty of 3rd party solutions to video calls. Facetime isn't anything special.

  • The wheels of government always get squeaky when they are not greased with the proper amount of cash.

  • All Beeper did was show there was a security flaw in iMessage that allowed potential abuse by anonymous individuals to potentially send unsolicited messages (aka "spam") to users.

    And there have been solutions like BlueBubbles and AIrMessage (the latter is open-source and free) that gateway iMessage to your Android that have been around for years compared to Beeper.

    Of course, given the sudden rise, and fall of Beeper, I have no conclusion other than it was just a massive pump and dump scheme to jack up the stock price so everyone can cash out.

    Even the OnePlus thing (which was really just a really lame version of BlueBubbles and AirMessage just hosted by a third party instead of yourself) would've lasted far longer. Heck I don't think Apple got them shut down, they shut themselves down.

    Though, there are other cloud-hosted iMessage gateways as well and they have been running for years as well.

  • The back story is what /. (news for nerds) was... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jhon ( 241832 ) on Friday December 22, 2023 @12:54PM (#64099087) Homepage Journal

    It was a 16 year old who reverse engineered iMessage and worked with Beeper

    https://www.wired.com/story/be... [wired.com]

    Oh, how I miss that /.

    "In early August, Migicovsky received a message on Discord from the user JJTech0130. JJTech0130, whose name is James Gill, said he had just released a coding project called Pypush—a mashup of “Python,” a coding language, and “push notifications.” Gill claimed he had “reimplemented iMessage” and thought Migicovsky might be interested. Less than 10 minutes later, Migicovsky responded, “Holy crap! Does it work?”"

    • Plus he put the python code on github and anyone could try it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by phayes ( 202222 )

      The teen-ager reverse engineered the use of an Apple Library and the use of this library to send messages. This use of Apple code and Apple servers was always a sword of Damocles hanging over Beeper mini’s commercialisation of the android to iMessage bridge.

  • I was a big Apple user for a while - when their Macbook Pros had Intel processors and things were compatible.. Now I just have an Iphone and Apple really pisses me off every day. I am so sick of shit where interoperability is actively being prevented. Here's some examples - I can't use IMessages on anything other than a Mac. I can't create a contact for a group text in my Iphone.. if it includes non-Iphone users.. WTF is that.. I have a list for work where people are supposed to be alerted if I am doing cer

    • I was a big Apple user for a while - when their Macbook Pros had Intel processors and things were compatible.. Now I just have an Iphone and Apple really pisses me off every day. I am so sick of shit where interoperability is actively being prevented.

      Except Apple Silicon macs still run Intel software just fine. I've yet to find a single app that won't work.

      Here's some examples - I can't use IMessages on anything other than a Mac. I can't create a contact for a group text in my Iphone.. if it includes non-Iphone users.. WTF is that.. I have a list for work where people are supposed to be alerted if I am doing certain tasks - and I cannot save that list and name it in my Iphone because it's not 100% Iphone users.. Anti-competitive monopoly much? I think so.

      Except this is simply not true. You can group message with non-Apple users. I do it every day. It's called SMS and your iPhone will automatically switch to SMS if a non-Apple device is in the list of recipients.

      Fuck Apple and fuck everyone else too.

      Are your meds not working today? :-)

      • When you geoup non iphone users into a group text chat. In imessage they are nicely grouped. On andreiod every single text response to the group is a seperate sms from a seperate source. I and my wife does it everyday. It is why her work uses facebook messenger for work group chats. That way all the messages show up in one chat window instead of 30

        I suggest you see what the non iphone world has to deal with when working with imessage.

        It is why only usa has a lot of imessage users.

  • This is our fault, we should have known better.
    Back in IE days, Mozilla showed us a possibility, and we did the propagation.
    Then somehow we got fooled into thinking Google are the good guys. Than AOSP slowly removed key components, and we got Chrome...
    We got convinced by Apple that they're building cool things.
    I'm too young to remember how MS got a foothold, I don't remember a world where it had any sympathy.

    Email is the only popular free (as in freedom -- user picks provider and client, all interoperable)

  • Beeper caters to people who have a Mac computer, and Android phone, and care deeply about the color of their text bubbles. Im gonna estimate that there are roughly 200 people on the planet who fit this demographic. Not exactly an existential threat to Apple.

  • "The duel has raised questions in Washington about whether Apple has used its market dominance over iMessage to block competition"

    Oh heavens, say it isn't so. Apple would never do anything underhanded to make a profit, would they? WOULD THEY?

    • I think you might not understand the difference between competitive and anticompetitive.

      If someone wants to compete with iMessage they are free to do so. Set up the infrastructure, write an app for Android and one for iOS, with all the features the like, sell it or give it away for free or charge per message, whatever they prefer. Apple isnâ(TM)t going to stop them from competing.

      Trying to use Appleâ(TM)s infrastructure that Apple is paying for isn't competing.
  • Posted yesterday on Slashdot that Beeper Mini's gotten tired of the whackamole with Apple and said they can't win ! They will no longer try to update it !!!

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