One week later, Apple discontinued the Beeper Mini which brought iMessage to Android smartphones

Startup Beeper aspired to integrate encrypted iMessage functionality into an Android app called Beeper Mini, eventually allowing Android users to send group messages to their friends on iPhone and iMessage. However, just one week after launch, the fledgling service suddenly stopped working due to apparent sabotage. . By Apple.

On Friday, Beeper CEO Eric Migicowski He confirmed via tweet The app doesn’t work, which implies that Apple’s intervention stopped the interoperability bypass. Meanwhile, Beeper Mini users encountered error messages when trying to send messages, with unclear time limits to summarily end each attempt.

Migicowski has previously touted the security benefits of his innovation, ironically even for iPhone users. Android SMS messages remain unencrypted, giving Apple itself access to communications with non-iOS devices, he said. Instead, Beeper bypassed the intermediaries entirely, passing off text messages issued by Beeper as genuine iMessage data. This way, Apple’s servers will theoretically not be able to detect any spoofing between different platforms.

Realistically, Apple is keen to ensure iMessage’s commitment to the iOS platform, which is one of the key elements through which a user “commits” to the company’s ecosystem. In fact, regulatory delays have diminished Apple’s already bleak prospects for voluntarily allowing interoperability. . She certainly didn’t appreciate an indie developer poking holes in her barriers, no matter how smart he was. However, at the moment, the exact mechanism by which Apple excludes the Beeper Mini from its network has not been revealed.

Justifiably angry, Migicowski said that Apple was putting the security of iPhone users at risk just to enforce the exclusivity of using the service only through its devices. While Apple itself supports the adoption of RCS, it claims that deliberately refusing to encrypt SMS amounts to unreasonable hostage-taking. However, Beeper’s fate hangs precariously on whether its engineering team can somehow overcome Apple’s hurdles, a somewhat lopsided battle. However, in his most recent tweet a few hours ago, he indicated that an alternative had been found, and urged app users to “stay close to their smartphones.”