Beeper abandons support for iMessage and app is removed from the Play Store
After a long fight with Apple, Beeper abandoned support for conversations via iMessage. Last Friday (26), the company announced that the Beeper Mini app was removed from the Play Store and the resource was relocated to Beeper Cloud's “Labs”.
The change is a consequence of a series of measures implemented by Apple to prevent messenger interoperability. First, the manufacturer blocked native access to Android cell phones and, later, conversations mediated by a Mac were also blocked.
- We've been a bit busy, haven't tweeted too much. Here's the update we sent to Beeper Cloud users on Jan 11 pic.twitter.com/QwXGFZENUH
— Beeper (@onbeeper) January 26, 2024
Now, within Beeper Cloud, some users are still able to send and receive messages via iMessage. “Please be aware that we will no longer provide support or troubleshooting for any iMessage-related issues,” the company explains.
However, only old users will be able to continue using iMessage through Beeper Cloud. Now, Beeper focuses on its own goal of building a “universal chat platform.”
The platform has open sourced the iMessage bridge on GitHub. Curious users can take advantage of the structure to host iMessage communication through their own Mac computer.
The saga between Apple and Beeper began in December, when the platform announced that it used reverse engineering to make iMessage run natively on Android. Using this method, communication took place directly with Maçã's servers, without the use of any device.
However, it didn't take long for Apple to recognize forged access and completely block it. After that, Beeper reactivated communication via Mac computers — a method also blocked by the manufacturer. Finally, the company's latest attempt required consumers to buy an old iPhone to continue chats.
