Their “how it works” blog article is worth a read - they’re using a blackbox reverse engineering of the protocol (called PyPush) and re-implementing it natively in an android app, so there are no man-in-the-middle servers. It's pretty bonkers given how difficult Apple's spec-less tech can be to work with.
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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And Apple will work tirelessly, and litigate endlessly, to stop this from happening.
I’ve been using Beeper for almost two years now on desktop to view my iMessages, discord, and slack all in one app, and Apple hasn’t said or done shit about it yet
WOOOO! Great to know.
That’s not the same. Beeper mini uses reverse engineering, beeper just uses Mac minis sitting in a datacenter somewhere.
Per the Beeper CTO, evidently Beeper (cloud) isn't using the Mac minis anymore for anyone who migrated to their latest bridge. It's using the same solution, they just didn't make a big deal out of it at the time. I've actually been on the new bridge since early November and haven't had any issues. In my case the new bridge fixed an issue I was having with SMS forwarding from my iPhone.
thanks for the correction!
I read somewhere that RE for the sake of improving communications is allowed, or something along those lines.
Reverse engineering for the sake of ensuring compatibility. It’s not limited to communication.
$2 a month subscription? They want people to pay for this? That’s gonna be a problem for Apple, this is going to get shut down by the end of the week.
Edit: seems I was right 😂 https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/08/beeper-mini-imessage-for-android-shutdown/
If I understand correctly, there’s some server usage implicated in the delivering of notifications, so it makes sense that it costs.
That and the fact that it’s a for-profit company expecting to be paid for their product.
I get why they want to charge money, that’s obvious. But they are charging money for another companies service - that’s not a good business plan. Especially when that other company is one of the largest in the world.
even if it was free apple would probably find a way to break it.
great, now we need an open source implementation
It is open source surprisingly!
https://github.com/beeper https://github.com/mautrix/imessage
[edit] I'm kinda wrong, see below
The iMessage bridge you linked isn’t the same as this new app I don’t think. Doesn’t that bridge require a Mac computer where this new app doesn’t?
My understanding is that when you use their app you also use bridge that they host which happens on something that runs Mac OS.
That was their old model, but this is a complete reimplementation of iMessage and requires no Apple ID, login details, etc. It's E2E encrypted like all iMessage texts, and Beeper only knows that you have a message waiting, not the contents.
I stand corrected, thanks!
So, question of if they’re safe or not will come down to HOW they did the reverse engineering. If the same engineers that delved into the jailbroken iOS devices are the ones that wrote the code (which seems likely given the prototype came from a single person), they’re going to be in trouble. If they implemented a “clean room” reverse engineering though, then they’re likely safe from being sued over copyright violations. See Wiki
This seemed exciting to me, so I just downloaded it. The only thing you can do when you open it is sign in with Google, which throws an error:null message. Oh well! Better luck next time.
Give it another try. I just signed in and I have already sent blue bubbles to my iOS friends!
Okay, I went through the troubleshooting and got it working. It's pretty cool. I can edit, see iPhoners typing, reply directly to a text, add reactions to images, and edit a text. No fancy effects though, like the laser beams. I guess this is a pretty good solution until things become standardized. Thanks!
I was interested in Beeper until I saw that it was run by the guy who ran Pebble.
Massive red flag for me. This'll be abandoned just like he did Pebble...
Although, what’s the worst that happens if Beeper dies in a couple months? Your bubbles turn green on iOS.
Media quality between platforms is finally getting addressed with Apple adopting RCS.
Only real gap is cross-messaging-platform end to end encryption, which is also on the roadmap for RCS. And if you’re really worried about security, handing over your iCloud credentials to a third party probably isn’t a great idea anyway.
Am I the only one who can't get into this app right now? when I click the Continue with Google button I get a toast saying "google sign in error.null"
I had to search it up in the Google Play store "Beeper: Mini" is the name
Just a heads up though it's a paid service for $2 USD a month (7 day free trial)
This is game changing.