There’s a new iMessage for Android app — and it actually works
There’s a new iMessage for Android app — and it actually works
The question is how long Apple will let it.
Beeper Mini avoids some of those problems because it’s operating in a fundamentally different way. Its developers figured out how to register a phone number with iMessage, send messages directly to Apple’s servers, and have messages sent back to your phone natively inside the app. It was a tricky process that involved deconstructing Apple’s messaging pipeline from start to finish. Beeper’s team had to figure out where to send the messages, what the messages needed to look like, and how to pull them back down from the cloud. The hardest part, Migicovsky said, was cracking what is essentially Apple’s padlock on the whole system: a check to see whether the connected device is a genuine Apple product.
yeah, I give it until Thursday.
It’s been out for a long time with limited access and nothing yet. Maybe Apple will change their mind toward it when it’s being used by a large group of people finally. Hopefully not.
Edit: I was wrong. See below.
Aged like wine!
Okay I'm out of the loop, why is iMessage on Android such a big deal? I know that images get compressed but it sounds like Google and Apple are finally working together to draw up a spec there. Besides that it's... A color difference?
There's a massive cultural thing in the US about the iPhone being the preferred phone and if you don't have one it must be because you're too poor to afford one. Obviously this is a result of marketing and isn't universal but it is a surprisingly widely held view.
Given that, showing up in a group chat as a lone blue bubble marks you out as the inferior group member (in some people's eyes). It doesn't matter so much 1:1 but if there are 10 people the odd one out stands out.
The real issue here is that people in the US are tied to using SMS for real-time chat groups when so many better (and private, and well known) alternatives exist. Thankfully, in Europe, nobody so far as I know ever really uses SMS anymore – whether for single or group chats.
why is iMessage on Android such a big deal?
Being able to use rich chat features.
it sounds like Google and Apple are finally working together
Not at all. Apple was forced to support RCS by the digital markets act. While Google uses RCS, there's a ton of functionality they build on top of it. Apple will likely implement the absolute bare minimum that they're required to, which likely won't include E2EE.
Google and Apple are finally working together
I think this is the primary reason. Apple only announced working on RCS support very recently. Once that’s out, I don’t really see a place in the market for this.
And it isn’t just compressed images. MMS doesn’t support reactions, replies, typing indicators, or read receipts because it’s ancient. A proper, standardized replacement has been long overdue.
Granted, I’ve heard that RCS is currently heavily reliant on Google’s own servers, so it could be argued as to how “open” this really is.
It's not as big of a deal as people like to pretend it is
The messages app also supports forwarding text messages to other devices.
We can even ignore the other features of iMessage. This adds a layer of convenience to those who use both iOS and Android.
It requires a google account though so I can't use it :(
I don't really understand why they insist on that as it doesn't seem to use google otherwise. I do have google play services, just no account logged in (which is not necessary for things like push to work!)
Because they get your profile picture, name, and email address when you click accept. I went through with it just to test, but definitely getting some data from its users.
Yeah it annoyed me that you have to use google contacts
I was told "Beeper Mini relies on Google for some features: for example, notifications. - Abdullah"
Weird, I have a thousand other apps where my notifications work just fine without being signed into Google. Makes no sense to me.
Beeper was pretty dang hyped for its universal chat, I kept seeing it mentioned a while ago while it was in a closed beta.
Because I participated in the closed beta I get Beeper free for life. I've been using Beeper now for almost 3.5 years and I love it.
What is your stance on being able to give encryption keys to a third party without the other participants of a chat consenting, let alone knowing about it?
If someone in my contacts used bridges, effectively breaking e2ee, I'd want to know about it.
Ideally, people should not be allowed to do that without informing their contacts, at the very least.
why is iMessage on Android such a big deal?
Being able to use rich chat features.
Like what? I know there is a difference in how group chats are handled, but thats a compatibility issue, not a rich chat feature. The only thing I can think of is Apples stupid push for more emojis and even worse Memojis. Otherwise, pics, gifs, emojis work between Apple and Android. Seems like its the green v blue and group chat edits that are the differences.
But maybe I dont know.
Being able to send videos that don't look godawful would be nice
That's just apple refusing to use rcs, so it changes to sms, which uses the phone connection, not the data connection.
I can send them fine on Verizon SMS, from Android to Apple. Apple decided that sending via SMS, regardless of carrier limit, they get wrecked. When I send the same video back to Android from my iPhone, the video is shit.
I've tested this repeatedly across carriers. Since Verizon doesn't seem to have an MMS size limit, it makes it pretty clear what's going on.
Blame carriers for limiting MMS sizes.
They look just fine over RCS. Which everyone else supports and apple could even integrate support for into iMessage.
Even straight up MMS on most carriers has no limit or a generous enough one that a short clip comes through just fine.
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Earlier this year, a developer slid into Eric Migicovsky’s DMs with a spectacular claim: that he had reverse engineered Apple’s iMessage, allowing any device — Android, Windows, whatever — to send messages as a blue bubble.
The result, according to Migicovsky, is a third-party implementation of iMessage that is actually secure: Beeper doesn’t see your messages, your contacts, or your Apple ID password.
Beeper’s CTO, Brad Murray, also spent some time trying to break open the system as if he were an attacker and is publishing his findings.
At the very least, Beeper has been operating the less secure kind of iMessage relay for nearly three years, and Migicovsky says he hasn’t heard a word from Apple yet.
The 16-year-old developer who reverse engineered iMessage is now working for Beeper as a contractor; Migicovsky declined to share further details about the student, citing privacy concerns.
My biggest complaint at the moment is that Beeper Mini doesn’t support SMS and RCS, so this one-day all-in-one app is currently dividing my texting experience in two.
Saved 85% of original text.
It'd be nice if apple wasn't so petty.