Beeper Mini, iMessage client for Android, stops working three days after release
Beeper Mini, an iMessage client for Android that does not require an Apple ID, stopped working three days after its release. Users report that messages can no longer be sent and received. Beeper’s CEO suspects that Apple is behind this.
Since Friday many users via Reddit, among others know that you can no longer send and receive iMessages via Beeper Mini. The Verge late Based on our own tests, we know that it is no longer possible to activate the telephone number of an Android device in the app.
It is not yet clear what the exact cause is. Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky, however, is late told TechCrunch that ‘all data points to’ that Apple is behind this. Nevertheless, he cannot confirm this yet. “If it is indeed Apple, the bigger question is: If Apple really cares about the privacy and security of its iPhone users, why is it trying to pull the plug on a service that allows iPhones to send encrypted chats to Android users?” According to him, the tech giant is ‘forcing’ Apple owners to send unencrypted text messages to Androids, just like before. At the time of writing, the problem has not yet been resolved, although Beeper states in a post on X that a fix is coming ‘soon’.
The error message that users have been seeing since Friday when they try to send a message via Beeper Mini. Source: 9to5Google
Beeper Mini was unveiled last Tuesday. The app promises users that they can chat with iPhone users via iMessage, including the blue chat bubbles and support for features like voice messages, group conversations, emoji reactions, stickers and more. The client uses a reverse-engineered iMessage stack to communicate directly with Apple’s servers, allowing it to receive locally encrypted and decrypted iMessage messages. An Apple ID is also not required for this. The service costs $2 per month.
Earlier this week, the app’s CEO stated to The Verge that the initiative is ‘on the right side of the law’. He refers to exceptions in copyright law for reverse engineering and the fact that Beeper Mini does not contain any code from Apple. He also expected that it would be too difficult for Apple to shut down Beeper without affecting ‘legitimate’ iMessage users.