https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/apple-partly-halts-beepers-imessage-app-again-suggesting-a-long-fight-ahead/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned
Opinion: Beeper isn't just fighting Apple, it's pushing against human instincts.
I'm going to have to side with Apple here (and I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth). iMessage is a service that they provide, and they're well within their rights to restrict access to paying customers. iPhone users pay for it when they buy their latest shiny object; users of other brand devices don't.
If you really want iMessage that desperately, buy an iPhone. That's not worth it to you? That's fine, but you can't have it both ways.
At this point at the latest it would be much easier (not to mention more reliable) to get your iPhone-owning friends or family to use another messenger that's not restricted to one single manufacturer. There are several apps that offer more features and more privacy than iMessage and are officially supported (not relying on unofficial hacks) on every modern smartphone.
There are several apps that offer more features and more privacy than iMessage and are officially supported (not relying on unofficial hacks) on every modern smartphone.
Like Signal and Element X, right?
I didn't even know about Element X.
Personally I use Threema (one-time app fee) and Signal (effectively donationware).
There's of course also WhatsApp, Telegram, SnapChat, (Facebook) Messenger, Instagram, ... if the size of the user base is more important to you than privacy.
All of these encourage you to use them, as opposed to iMessage that will actively try to keep you away from it unless you buy the right kind of hardware. So why the hassle?
I am SHOCKED that apple isn't playing fair with the app that reverse engineered a backdoor into their system and is now profiting from it. I thought they would have just loved that idea
It's definitely full of sarcasm. But playing fair buried in that sentence is still implying that they don't have an explicit obligation to close the hole.
Yeah I dont understand how people expected this to stay open when apple has to do so little in order to break it.
Like google for whatever reason is thankfully not actively trying to break front ends, but newpipe still breaks every once in a while when they update something. The same goes for a lot of other front end services and third party apps.
Fix for Beeper Cloud is done, rolling out patch to all users now (3.5 hours remaining til everyone is fixed). No need to contact Beeper Help regarding this issue.
Testing fix for Mini now. Will require app update.
We realize how incredibly inconvenient this is for you. It's super annoying that Apple is penalizing their own customers and Android users who just want secure and encrypted chats.
We understand if you choose to disable the iMessage bridge at this time. We'll try to stabilize this and get you back in future.
i've been an android user for years now and have been using beeper for at least a couple of months. people have been asking for imessage on android for years now and i really don't know what the issue is. i can understand apple being wary of beeper accessing the imessage server but if they would do it themselves then there wouldn't be this issue
Apple products are an ecosystem. It's not just the physical devices they're selling. It makes sense from a business perspective to keep iMessage on iOS only, because it keeps people in the ecosystem.
people have been asking for imessage on android for years now and i really don’t know what the issue is.
Apple wont until somebody makes them.
The default text messaging app on ios is also stealthily a fully featured chat app that means that less tech savvy iOS users just think their texting is better.
The blue bubble green bubble issue isnt because ios users hate android users and the color green as much as it's bad, it's because big group MMS chains are TERRIBLE. I remember having a friendgroup in the 2010s that had a big mms group chat before we switched to groupme and then eventually telegram(we would have done google messages if google hadnt abandoned it began its not infamous chat sabotage). It was bad. Low quality media, the protocol updated in batches so sending and receiving wasnt as smooth as a chat app, and also you technically could just leave. We eventually switched to a platorm agnostic solution because we had diverse devices.
Now in the US iphone ownership is like 60 percent. I imagine the ratio is even worse for younger users. So for these users they use default messenger with most people and get feature rich multimedia chat app without even looking for an alternative provider. In some cases I imagine there are users young enough to not even realize what actual text messaging is or if they do there are chunks that think apple just texts better. It gives a perception of quality.
Then they invite Johnny Android and suddenly the chat degrades back to 2005 flip phone quality SMS/MMS. Now this is entirely apple's fault and the inability to chat with android users is technically their problem. Or it would be if iphones werent so popular. From their perspective they were having a good time using their default cell phone messanger and the android user broke it. Likewise unless Johnny android is particularly popular or charismatic it's likely they wont switch to telegram/signal/whatsap/line/etc. They might just leave Johnny Android out of group chats because his presence isnt just green it makes chatting clunkier and worse.
Johnny android might feel left out even if he isnt being outright bullied and may want to switch to an apple device. Likewise the iphone users may not want to leave the ecosystem and then not be able to easily communicate with their friends.
SMS fallback I believe started more or less as a way to deal with inconsistent data in the early smartphone days but the unintended consequence of killing off the appeal of third party chat apps on their platform and creating a weird social bubble was a happy accident and apple is never going to give that up.
Kids beg their parents to buy them iPhones and parents do it so their kids dont get left out or bullied. Even adults are pressured into this and it can be a factor when online dating.
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary It wasn't the resulting lower-quality images, loss of encryption, and strange "Emphasized your message" reaction texts.
There was a gathering on Saturday, and she had to double-check with a couple people about the details after showing up inadvertently early at the wrong spot.
Migicovsky pointed to Epic's victory at trial against Google's Play Store ("big tech") as motivation.
Citing privacy, security, and spam concerns, Apple stated it would "continue to make updates in the future" to protect users.
I asked Migicovsky by direct message if, given Apple's stated plan to continually block it, there could ever be a point at which Beeper's access was "settled," or "back up and running," as he put it in his post on X (formerly Twitter).
"Us," he clarified, meant both Apple's customers using iMessage and Android users trying to chat securely with iPhone friends.
Saved 68% of original text. :::