Beeper introduces iMessage client for Android that works without an Apple ID

Beeper, the company of Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, introduces Beeper Mini. That’s an iMessage client for Android that works without an Apple ID. The app uses a reverse-engineered iMessage stack and thus communicates directly with Apple’s servers.

Beeper Mini is now available as a standalone app, writes the company in a blog post. The service costs $2 per month. The app promises users will be able to chat with iPhone users via iMessage, including “blue chat bubbles” and support for features like voice messaging, group conversations, emoji reactions, stickers and more. The service must communicate directly with Apple’s servers and receive locally encrypted and decrypted iMessage messages, the company claims.

Unlike existing iMessage clients for Android, Beeper Mini does not require an Apple ID from the user. Other iMessage Android apps such as Sunbird and Nothing Chats, which recently received negative press due to privacy concerns, use Mac PCs in a data center. This also applies to Beeper’s previous chat service. Android users can log in with an Apple ID. The messages are forwarded via those services to those Macs, converted to iMessage and then forwarded to the recipient with an iPhone.

However, Beeper Mini uses techniques from jjtech, a security researcher and high school student who recreated the iMessage protocol and iMessage encryption. According to the maker, this makes it possible to communicate directly from an Android phone via Apple’s iMessage servers. Pebble founder and Beeper CEO Migicovsky claims that this prevents Beeper from accessing users’ messages, contacts and Apple ID accounts. The top man says to The Verge that Beeper Mini’s code will be open sourced so that others can verify the app’s functionality.

Users can install Beeper Mini and then log in via Google. According to Migicovsky, the Google account is only used to verify that the user has an active subscription to the service and to provide the Beeper support team with information for debugging issues. Users can then optionally log in with their Apple ID, but that is not necessary. Users who do so will be able to receive iMessage messages from Apple devices other than just iPhones, such as iPads and Macs. According to the service, logging in with an Apple ID is done directly on the Apple servers with end-to-end encryption, without the intervention of Beeper Mini.

The Beeper Mini app for Android. Source: Beeper

Beeper Mini uses the Apple Push Notification service, also known as APNs, the company writes a technical blog post. All communications via Apple iMessage are encrypted with locally generated keys and then routed over APNs. Beeper Mini is connected to that service via TCP. It uses credentials that are generated during the login process and stored locally on the Android device. Normally iMessage must be continuously connected to APNs to receive notifications, but with Beeper Mini this is only possible when the app is in use.

As a workaround, Beeper uses its own Beeper Push Notification service, or BPNs. This connects to the Apple servers when the app is not in use. According to Beeper, this is possible while maintaining privacy, because Apple keeps the push credentials for messages and the identity keys for encryption and decryption separate. When BPNs receives a message, it sends a push notification to the Android phone. The phone is then ‘woken up’, after which it can connect to APNs to decrypt the message. BPNs can only see that a message has been received, but not what the content is, the service claims.

Apple has not yet responded to the arrival of Beeper Mini. It is therefore unknown whether the tech giant wants to take action against the service. Migicovsky says to The Verge that, in his opinion, 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 expects that it will be too difficult for Apple to shut down Beeper without having consequences for ‘legitimate’ iMessage users.

Beeper is the new start-up of Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky. The company already offered an Android chat service with support for iMessage, among other things. However, it worked via Macs in a data center and required users’ existing Apple IDs. Beeper Mini is from now on available on the Play Store. Researcher jjtech previously published a proof of concept of its iMessage stackwhich runs on Python.

The Beeper Mini via APNs. Source: Beeper