Last week, the entire Android community were hit with a surprise app announcement – Beeper Mini. This app brought iMessage support to Android smartphones and many were quick to jump on the bandwagon. The app was working well, but the sceptics asked the question – What happens if Apple finds out about this app?
Well, it looks like Apple did find out about the app, and in an instant, the Beeper Mini Project was blown to bits. It first started as an outage, with the developers putting out a message that they were looking into it and that the app would be up and running soon. However, sometime later, it was reported by Apple that the app had been taken down, and there would be no return for the same.
“We took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials to gain access to iMessage,” Apple said. “These techniques posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks. We will continue to make updates in the future to protect our users.”
The way Beeper Mini achieved this breakthrough was to take text messages from the Android user and route them to the Apple recipient via Apple servers. What’s more, the app even promised end-to-end encryption for both parties. Apple, on the other hand, refused this claim and said that there is no way that end-to-end encryption can be achieved using this exploit and that it could go on to pose bigger threats to both users.
The app, which was cooked up by a high schooler, may not have lasted long but may serve as an inspiration to those who are trying to bridge this gap between iMessage and Android messenger. Apple already announced that it will be supporting RCS in the coming years, so if you were to take our advice, this is worth waiting for, especially if you are an Android user.
