Last week, a new Android app called Beeper Mini appeared and instantly made headlines. His intention was to make iMessage work on Android without routing Apple IDs through insecure third-party servers – and it worked. Android users were suddenly able to text their iPhone friends and appear in blue bubbles as if they had changed phones.
Almost immediately, Apple shut it down in the most user-friendly way possible. The company did not send a cease and desist letter or publicly threaten Beeper with legal action. This simply closed the loophole that Beeper was exploiting. Then, when asked about it, she explained why she had acted so quickly:
We’ve taken steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit false credentials to gain access to iMessage. These techniques posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential to expose metadata and enable spam, spam, and phishing attacks. We will continue to make updates in the future to protect our users.
Cut and dried, yes? Not really. The reaction was swift and took a surprising tone: Most people were angry not at Beeper for exploiting a security flaw in someone else’s platform, but at Apple for have closed. Among those voices was Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who wrote on the network formerly known as Twitter: “So why would Apple block a new app that lets Android users chat with iPhone users? on iMessage? Executives of big tech companies protect their profits by crushing their competitors.
Nobody likes it when an Android phone blows up a group chat.
Michael Simon/IDG
Really? Even if we ignore the fact that Beeper was charging people to use a service they didn’t create, let’s imagine that they were two different companies: what if one company developed a way to make Halo work on PlayStation and charged users a monthly fee. to play it, would anyone be surprised if Microsoft blocked it? The message would be simple: if you want to play Halo on console, you need to buy an Xbox.
Look, we all know that text messages aren’t encrypted. It’s not Apple’s fault. Apple deserves some blame for waiting so long to support RCS, but let’s be clear: it’s not encrypted either. RCS allows end-to-end encryption, but it is not actually supported by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association. Unless you use Google Messages and send a message to someone else using Google Messages and a carrier that supports RCS, you don’t get end-to-end encryption . (Beeper claims its iMessage knockoff offered the same encryption as iMessage in Apple’s Messages app, but provided no proof.)
In its RCS support announcement, Apple said it would work with the GSMA to integrate end-to-end encryption into the RCS standard instead of supporting piecemeal encryption in first-party applications. I’m willing to bet the GSMA will find out before RCS launches on iPhone.
In the meantime, the saga seems destined to continue. On Monday, Beeper announced that the service was back, with two major changes. Firstly, it is free to use and secondly, phone number registration no longer works. While Beeper is working on a fix, all users must sign up for an Apple ID to use the service. And it’s unclear how long this iteration will last until Apple “fixes” it again.
Like most people, I’m eagerly awaiting Apple’s implementation of RCS in Messages. We all hate the way Android users manipulate iMessage features in group texts and don’t want to worry about which of our friends have iPhones. But Apple shouldn’t be expected to sit idly by while someone usurps its technology and profits from it.
