Apple has taken swift action to shut down the Beeper Mini app — a service that allowed Android users to access and send iMessage. This happened just a few days after Beeper launched the app on December 5th.
Beeper Mini: Apple Shuts Down App Bringing iMessage to Android
Beeper’s original app, now known as Beeper Cloud, worked by routing iMessage messages through a remote Mac computer. However, Beeper Mini took a different approach by connecting directly to Apple’s servers, bypassing Beeper’s own servers altogether.
This process even eliminated the need for Apple ID logins in the app, offering a seamless iMessage experience for Android users. Unsurprisingly, Apple wasn’t thrilled. Citing potential security risks like metadata exposure and spam, they shut down Beeper Mini.
Apple confirmed the shutdown in a statement saying, “At Apple, we build our products and services with industry-leading privacy and security technologies designed to give users control of their data and keep personal information safe. We took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage. 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.”
Beeper, on the other hand, maintains that Beeper Mini is secure and offers better privacy than unencrypted SMS. The company has even offered to share its entire source code with a third party for independent security evaluation.
While Beeper Cloud remains operational, Beeper Mini is currently down. Beeper has deregistered all Android phone numbers on behalf of its users and has extended the free trial period by another week to compensate for the downtime.
Apple has also announced plans to introduce further security measures in the upcoming iOS 17.2 update, including iMessage Contact Key Verification.
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