Beeper Mini looks like an impressive feat of reverse-engineering. Apple will surely try to break this in the future, but if doing so requires an iOS update for iMessage API tweaks, it may take years before they can realistically cut off Beeper along with very old iPhones.

@manton Probably easier to file a DMCA than to do technical changes.

@st3fan I wonder if DMCA covers this? Might need to be a lawsuit. The core problem is Beeper using Apple servers without permission, not sure what covers that. (Or Apple could give up and just make iMessage open and cross-platform and help everyone.)

@manton I hope Beeper releases the source code. The cat will be out of the bag then and there won't be any excuses anymore to justify keeping iMessage Apple-only. Any technical argument can then easily be refuted as the code will speak the truth.

@manton Super interesting approach, really neat reverser engineering. I think this time Apple will be really careful about this, with the DMCA, EU regulations, and the general antitrust vibe Apple will have to be smart about this. Maybe they’ll try to nuke this using “privacy” as an excuse.

@odd I think you may be thinking of RCS, which is like a modernised version of SMS. Apple will now support RCS — typically sent from Android phones — along with iMessage, which is only iPhone. I think this is slightly different. Here is an app which will actually send iMessages from Android.

@lmika Yes! That was it. Ok, so not quite the same.

@manton @st3fan as @pluralistic says "felony contempt of business model" 😉

@mcrocker @manton @st3fan Got it from Jay Freeman of the Cydia project.

@pluralistic @mcrocker @manton I sincerely hope that they open source Beeper Mini as that would probably evaporate any technical arguments Apple has about it being impossible to run on anything but their own platform.

@odd You're probably thinking of Rich Communication Services (RCS) where the message is sent over the Internet rather than squirreled away in the signal path of GSM like it is done for SMS.

Apple have been resisting this because, Apple. I believe they may be relenting on this though.

@manton I use Beeper and I love it, but I can't help feeling it is skating on thin ice wrt ongoing support for protocols like WhatsApp and iMessage. The large vendors won't hesitate to obfuscate their protocols if it is technically feasible and they can get away with it.

Of course, in the meantime, Matrix as a protocol gets out there and perhaps it will worm its way into people's consciousness as the one that doesn't mess you about.

@ianjs Yes, @lmika mentioned this. I think there are many households that need to accommodate both iOS and Android devices, many people who have green bubble friends, and I really wish Apple understood that they can differentiate themselves in other areas, like they already do a lot. Keep people happy, and they’ll keep Apple happy.

@ianjs Yeah, it's almost inevitable to get burned when building an app on private APIs. Just too fragile.