The saga of Beeper Mini continues as the iMessage workaround for Android devices has seemingly gone offline for the second time in the space of a week. Apparently this new wave of connectivity issues has affected around 5% of users, and Beeper Mini itself has been quick to pin the blame on Apple.
The app claims that Apple is “deliberately blocking iMessage from being delivered." The Beeper X account has also been complaining about Apple’s efforts to block the services, stating that “it’s super annoying that Apple is penalizing their own customers and Android users who just want secure and encrypted chats.“ Adding, “we understand if you choose to uninstall Beeper Mini at this time."
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 uninstall Beeper Mini at this time. Hope to have you back soon.December 14, 2023
But let’s be honest here; this doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Apple has already blocked the first loophole Beeper Mini utilized to access iMessage, and it was only a matter of time before the current workaround got targeted as well. It’s just surprising that this issue is only affecting a handful of users, rather than Beeper Mini as a whole.
Not to mention the fact that this service is primarily aimed at Android users, and Apple has a long history of trying to pretend they don’t exist. So the comments about penalizing Apple’s own customers don’t make a lot of sense.
It’s true that Apple has effectively crippled inter-platform communication up to this point by defaulting back to SMS and MMS when communicating with non-Apple devices. Both those systems are ancient from a tech standpoint, and have problems and restrictions that make the user experience less than ideal. Like character limits, file size limits and the lack of any kind of encryption.
But this criticism has been leveled at Apple for years, and might finally be solved with the adoption of RCS in 2024. The current system is still in use, and rather a bad look for Apple, but at least we know it’s on the way out.
Apple has also claimed that apps trying to reverse engineer their way into iMessage pose a threat to user security and privacy. Beeper Mini denies this, claiming that it actually increases security, but after the allegations leveled against Songbird and Nothing Chats, it’s clear we shouldn’t take these sorts of claims at face value.
Beeper Mini claims that it will continue working to get its Android app working with iMessage again, with particular emphasis on restoring phone number support — something Apple managed to block late last week.
In the meantime, if you’re that concerned about the state of inter-platform communications, you can always try and convince your iPhone-toting friend to sign up for one of the best encrypted messaging apps. You know, the ones that have been around for quite some time and are typically free of controversy.
