Apple criticized for blocking Beeper Mini iMessage on Android app - 9to5Mac
Apple criticized for blocking Beeper Mini iMessage on Android app - 9to5Mac
Last week, Beeper Mini debuted as a way to bring iMessage to Android without having to hand over your Apple...
I absolutely am not an iPhone or iMessage fan, but criticizing a company for blocking someone who reverse engineered they platform to gain access isn't right in my opinion.
If a 3rd party app is allowed to utilise Apple's iMessage protocol/network, then every other messaging provider (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc) will be required to open up their platforms.
I cant wait to see the day where WhatsApp allows 3rd party apps to use their messaging network.
It's very right. All messaging platforms should be open or interoperable.
Imagine if from Hotmail you could only email others on Hotmail. Or the same with Gmail. Or not being able to SMS anyone on at&t from any other telco. There's no good reason to limit it like that.
Also consider that they were charging for the service. The only part of the deal I wasn't keen on. 1 because again, messaging should be open and interoperable. 2 they were basically charging a recurring fee for access to Apple's service, not specifically theirs in this instance. Which seems bad on Beeper, until you realize that Apple is basically refusing to make money from their service. And they're not doing it out of principle, ideology, or good will. They're doing it because they don't want to compete. Not with regards to iMessage, or anything else.
Apple already publicly announced they’re working on both implementing RCS to (Apple) Messages and working to get E2EE into the RCS Universal Profile, so this whole “anti-competitive, anti-interoperability” argument falls flat.
At the end of the day, this app was an attempt to commercialize a high-profile exploit which threatened the security of iMessage. Politicians like Senator Warren making these criticisms of “monopolistic behavior” are, as usual, being tech-illiterate buffoons.
Maybe we wouldn’t have the spam ridden hellscape that is modern email if it worked more like current messaging platforms
Yawn snooze. Nothing to see here. Hackers complaining their exploit got blocked.
I just fine it odd that people are unhappy with Apple. Beeper was spoofing Apple’s servers to make it look like an iMac was requesting the ping. Apple isn’t a charity they do not have to allow unauthorised third party access. I would hope none of us would allow unauthorised access to our servers.
I feel like if they initially didn’t try to force people to pay a subscription for a free service, Apple wouldn’t have closed the issue.
That being said, they fixed what was inarguably an exploit that could have led to scammers using Bluestacks to run iMessage spam campaigns. (These exist now, but would be amplified)
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