Beehaw
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
 Lee Duna   ( @throws_lemy@lemmy.nz )  to TechnologyEnglish · 2 years ago

Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access after launch of service that brought iMessage to Android

techcrunch.com

external-link
message-square
30
link
fedilink
  • cross-posted to:
  • hackernews@lemmy.smeargle.fans
  • hackernews@derp.foo
108
external-link

Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access after launch of service that brought iMessage to Android

techcrunch.com

 Lee Duna   ( @throws_lemy@lemmy.nz )  to TechnologyEnglish · 2 years ago
message-square
30
link
fedilink
  • cross-posted to:
  • hackernews@lemmy.smeargle.fans
  • hackernews@derp.foo
Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access after launch of service that brought iMessage to Android | TechCrunch
techcrunch.com
external-link
Was it too good to be true? Beeper, the startup that reverse-engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users, is experiencing an outage,
alert-triangle
You must log in or # to comment.
  •  Stillhart   ( @Stillhart@lemm.ee ) 
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    69
    ·
    2 years ago

    I am Jack’s COMPLETE lack of surprise.

    •  ɔiƚoxɘup   ( @Quexotic@beehaw.org ) 
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 years ago

      Right? I tried it out with a friend of mine that has an Apple device, I have Android, and we were joking about Apple shutting it down within a few days. Lo and behold it took only 3 days.

    •  Powderhorn   ( @Powderhorn@beehaw.org ) 
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think I need a macro for that.

  •  I_am_10_squirrels   ( @I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org ) 
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    2 years ago

    This was predicted on the post about Beeper

    •  Chris Remington   ( @remington@beehaw.org ) MA
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      2 years ago

      I’m just curious as to what Beeper’s response will be.

      •  MostlyBlindGamer   ( @MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com ) 
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        ·
        2 years ago

        Something something monopoly, something something gatekeepers. They don’t need a war chest big enough to sue Apple, they just need to convince the EU to do it. I’m sure they saw this coming from the start.

        •  sanzky   ( @sanzky@beehaw.org ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 years ago

          The status of Apple as gatekeeper in the messaging app ecosystem is not yet clear. Remember that iMessages is not really popular in Europe, and Europe wont name Apple as a gatekeeper because of imessage’s popularity in the U.S. The EU does seem to be inclined to define them as gatekeeper, but that is not yet final. and if Apple implements RCS that might get them out of the hook. see section 5.4 of this document https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/202344/DMA_100013_215.pdf

          •  MostlyBlindGamer   ( @MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com ) 
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            You were absolutely right! It’s been a while, huh? WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are gatekeepers and WhatsApp is supposed to open up based on the Signal Protocol. I guess we’re settling on that.

        •  progandy   ( @progandy@feddit.de ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 years ago

          Apple will respond with something something RCS coming soon I guess.

          •  MostlyBlindGamer   ( @MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com ) 
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            No doubt, but MagSafe turning into the Qi 2 standard is… interesting. It may or may not be part of a broader shift.

  •  jaschen   ( @jaschen@lemmynsfw.com ) 
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    2 years ago

    Fucking apple and it’s greedy service.

    •  ɔiƚoxɘup   ( @Quexotic@beehaw.org ) 
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 years ago

      At this point it’s not even just that, it’s actually very petty and childish.

  •  Michal   ( @Michal@programming.dev ) 
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    2 years ago

    I’d like to see a game of cat and mouse until Apple fucks up and breaks their own imessage app

    •  onlinepersona   ( @onlinepersona@programming.dev ) 
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      2 years ago

      If Bleeper were opensource, I imagine there’d be more contributors willing to reverse engineer iMessage.

      •  fixmycode   ( @fixmycode@feddit.cl ) 
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        https://github.com/mautrix/imessage https://github.com/beeper/barcelona these are the core processes used to connect to the iMessage service

      •  spikespaz   ( @spikespaz@programming.dev ) 
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 years ago

        I thought it was. What a missed opportunity.

        •  delmain   ( @delmain@beehaw.org ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 years ago

          Then they’d have a harder time charging $2/month for it.

  •  §ɦṛɛɗɗịɛ ßịⱺ𝔩ⱺɠịᵴŧ   ( @shreddy_scientist@lemmy.ml ) 
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    2 years ago

    With the original Beeper app you made an Apple ID through Apples website to use for setting up iMessage. This does require folks having the email in order to use iMessage, so definetly worth setting up an alias. It still works, while Beeper Mini doesn’t apparently.

    •  Pons_Aelius   ( @Pons_Aelius@kbin.social ) 
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      2 years ago

      It still works

      Yes and allowing beeper to MaInTheMiddle your messages does not present any security issues at all.

      •  floridaman   ( @floridaman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        2 years ago

        Their Matrix bridge is open source, and (at least they claim) everything is E2E encrypted. I love Beeper, and as unstable of a service as it is, it’s still really great and I fully trust it with my messages. Waited 2 years for this service and I’m gonna use it lol.

        •  Vojtěch Fošnár   ( @vfosnar@beehaw.org ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          2 years ago

          It is end to bridge encrypted. I trust them too but I still prefer to self-host this stuff.

          https://www.beeper.com/faq#how-does-beeper-connect-to-encrypted-chat-networks-like-imessage-signal-whatsapp

        •  noodle (he/him)   ( @noodlejetski@lemm.ee ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 years ago

          everything is E2E encrypted

          not really. an E2E encrypted message is decrypted on their server, and then reencrypted before they sent it to the recipient.

  •  Pratai   ( @Pratai@lemmy.ca ) 
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    deleted by creator

    •  allywilson   ( @allywilson@sopuli.xyz ) 
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      2 years ago

      Why? As the article states this actually lessens security for everyone (including iPhone users).

      •  Pratai   ( @Pratai@lemmy.ca ) 
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        deleted by creator

        •  detalferous   ( @detalferous@lemm.ee ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          33
          ·
          2 years ago

          I don’t really understand your argument.

          •  Pratai   ( @Pratai@lemmy.ca ) 
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            deleted by creator

        •  allywilson   ( @allywilson@sopuli.xyz ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          16
          ·
          2 years ago

          This is nothing to do with the OS.

          He has a point though, you haven’t refuted that.

          •  Pratai   ( @Pratai@lemmy.ca ) 
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            deleted by creator

            •  allywilson   ( @allywilson@sopuli.xyz ) 
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              33
              ·
              2 years ago

              Because you’re confusing the difference between an OS, an application and a protocol.

              •  Pratai   ( @Pratai@lemmy.ca ) 
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                deleted by creator

                •  allywilson   ( @allywilson@sopuli.xyz ) 
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  30
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  creating an app that essentially copped their proprietary OS

                  The OS hasn’t been ‘copped’. They emulated the protocol, and your lack of understanding and confusing the two has led us to having this conversation.

                •  FZDC   ( @FZDC@beehaw.org ) 
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  20
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  Stop arguing semantics. We’re done here.

                  Compare to Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass:

                  “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master——that’s all.

                  Yeah, if you want to make up your own definitions to the words you use, and then order those around you to stop arguing semantics, then you’re basically not having a conversation at all.

                  Your comment was confusing because you don’t seem to understand what is or isn’t part of an operating system, and the mere mention of the operating system was pretty far removed from any relevance to your own point.

                  It’s a proprietary service, and if you want to argue that companies can run proprietary services in a closed manner, denying access to third party clients, cool, that can be your position, but it would be an incoherent position to claim that only OS developers should have that right.

        •  zeze   ( @zeze@lemm.ee ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          2 years ago

          deleted by creator

  •  AutoTL;DR   ( @autotldr@lemmings.world ) B
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 years ago

    🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

    Click here to see the summary

    Beeper, the startup that reverse-engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users, is experiencing an outage, the company reported via a post on X on Friday.

    Asked if possibly Apple found a way to cut off Beeper Mini’s ability to function, he replied, “Yes, all data indicates that.”

    Migicovsky, who previously founded the smartwatch Pebble, has argued that Beeper Mini wasn’t just beneficial for Android users who wanted to finally join their iMessage friends’ group chats, but that it increased security for iPhone users, too.

    In an interview ahead of Beeper Mini’s launch, the founder explained that green bubble texts were unencrypted.

    Why force iPhone users back to sending unencrypted SMS when they chat with friends on Android?,” he asked.

    Because the startup was no longer using a middleman — like a Mac server relaying messages, as other iMessage-to-Android apps employ — it would essentially appear to Apple’s servers that Beeper Mini’s messages were coming from a device that runs iMessage natively.


    Saved 75% of original text.

    •  helenslunch   ( @helenslunch@feddit.nl ) 
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

      •  JakenVeina   ( @JakenVeina@lemm.ee ) 
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        2 years ago

        He knows the answer. It’s a rhetorical question, meant to piss off iPhone users.

        •  helenslunch   ( @helenslunch@feddit.nl ) 
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          deleted by creator

Technology

technology

Subscribe from Remote Instance

Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@beehaw.org

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

  • Free and Open Source Software
  • Programming
  • Operating Systems

This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Visibility: Public
globe

This community can be federated to other instances and be posted/commented in by their users.

  • 48 users / day
  • 1.08K users / week
  • 2.87K users / month
  • 6.37K users / 6 months
  • 5.07K local subscribers
  • 41.1K subscribers
  • 5.51K Posts
  • 98.3K Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  •  Chris Remington   ( @remington@beehaw.org ) 
  •  alyaza [they/she]   ( @alyaza@beehaw.org ) 
  •  TheRtRevKaiser   ( @TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org ) 
  •  gyrfalcon   ( @gyrfalcon@beehaw.org ) 
  •  rs5th   ( @rs5th@beehaw.org ) 
  •  coldredlight   ( @coldredlight@beehaw.org ) 
  •  Leigh   ( @SemioticStandard@beehaw.org ) 
  •  TheRtRevKaiser   ( @TheRtRevKaiser@kbin.social ) 
  • BE: 0.19.13
  • Modlog
  • Legal
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code