this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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[–] Stillhart@lemm.ee 58 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I am Jack's COMPLETE lack of surprise.

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 5 points 9 months ago

Right? I tried it out with a friend of mine that has an Apple device, I have Android, and we were joking about Apple shutting it down within a few days. Lo and behold it took only 3 days.

[–] I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This was predicted on the post about Beeper

[–] admin@beehaw.org 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm just curious as to what Beeper's response will be.

[–] MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Something something monopoly, something something gatekeepers. They don’t need a war chest big enough to sue Apple, they just need to convince the EU to do it. I’m sure they saw this coming from the start.

[–] sanzky@beehaw.org 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The status of Apple as gatekeeper in the messaging app ecosystem is not yet clear. Remember that iMessages is not really popular in Europe, and Europe wont name Apple as a gatekeeper because of imessage's popularity in the U.S. The EU does seem to be inclined to define them as gatekeeper, but that is not yet final. and if Apple implements RCS that might get them out of the hook. see section 5.4 of this document https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/202344/DMA_100013_215.pdf

[–] MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com 1 points 7 months ago

You were absolutely right! It’s been a while, huh? WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are gatekeepers and WhatsApp is supposed to open up based on the Signal Protocol. I guess we’re settling on that.

[–] jaschen@lemmynsfw.com 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Fucking apple and it's greedy service.

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 5 points 9 months ago

At this point it's not even just that, it's actually very petty and childish.

[–] Michal@programming.dev 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'd like to see a game of cat and mouse until Apple fucks up and breaks their own imessage app

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If Bleeper were opensource, I imagine there'd be more contributors willing to reverse engineer iMessage.

[–] spikespaz@programming.dev 3 points 9 months ago

I thought it was. What a missed opportunity.

[–] fixmycode@feddit.cl 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

https://github.com/mautrix/imessage https://github.com/beeper/barcelona these are the core processes used to connect to the iMessage service

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] allywilson@sopuli.xyz 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Why? As the article states this actually lessens security for everyone (including iPhone users).

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Imagine that! The founder of the company that was denied access to Apple for creating an app that essentially copped an app that is part of their proprietary OS, says it would have increased their security!

Well gosh!!!! let them in then!

[–] detalferous@lemm.ee 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't really understand your argument.

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago
[–] allywilson@sopuli.xyz 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is nothing to do with the OS.

He has a point though, you haven't refuted that.

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

iMessages is part of iOS. How is this not common knowledge?

[–] allywilson@sopuli.xyz 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because you're confusing the difference between an OS, an application and a protocol.

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t say it WAS the OS, I said it is part of it. Stop arguing semantics. We’re done here.

[–] allywilson@sopuli.xyz 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

creating an app that essentially copped their proprietary OS

The OS hasn't been 'copped'. They emulated the protocol, and your lack of understanding and confusing the two has led us to having this conversation.

[–] shreddy_scientist@lemmy.ml 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

With the original Beeper app you made an Apple ID through Apples website to use for setting up iMessage. This does require folks having the email in order to use iMessage, so definetly worth setting up an alias. It still works, while Beeper Mini doesn't apparently.

[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It still works

Yes and allowing beeper to MaInTheMiddle your messages does not present any security issues at all.

[–] floridaman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Their Matrix bridge is open source, and (at least they claim) everything is E2E encrypted. I love Beeper, and as unstable of a service as it is, it's still really great and I fully trust it with my messages. Waited 2 years for this service and I'm gonna use it lol.

[–] vfosnar@beehaw.org 8 points 9 months ago

It is end to bridge encrypted. I trust them too but I still prefer to self-host this stuff.

https://www.beeper.com/faq#how-does-beeper-connect-to-encrypted-chat-networks-like-imessage-signal-whatsapp

[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

everything is E2E encrypted

not really. an E2E encrypted message is decrypted on their server, and then reencrypted before they sent it to the recipient.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summaryBeeper, the startup that reverse-engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users, is experiencing an outage, the company reported via a post on X on Friday.

Asked if possibly Apple found a way to cut off Beeper Mini’s ability to function, he replied, “Yes, all data indicates that.”

Migicovsky, who previously founded the smartwatch Pebble, has argued that Beeper Mini wasn’t just beneficial for Android users who wanted to finally join their iMessage friends’ group chats, but that it increased security for iPhone users, too.

In an interview ahead of Beeper Mini’s launch, the founder explained that green bubble texts were unencrypted.

Why force iPhone users back to sending unencrypted SMS when they chat with friends on Android?,” he asked.

Because the startup was no longer using a middleman — like a Mac server relaying messages, as other iMessage-to-Android apps employ — it would essentially appear to Apple’s servers that Beeper Mini’s messages were coming from a device that runs iMessage natively.


Saved 75% of original text.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Why force iPhone users back to sending unencrypted SMS when they chat with friends on Android?,” he asked.

If he legitimately doesn't know the answer to that question, he's exceptionally stupid.

"Money" is the answer.

[–] JakenVeina@lemm.ee 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

He knows the answer. It's a rhetorical question, meant to piss off iPhone users.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Apple sheep are not that smart. They'd probably attack him for trying to hack their security or something.