The team behind the Beeper Mini app says it won’t continue to search for ways to workaround Apple’s continuing objections to the app, which brought a version of iMessage to Android users.
Apple has continually worked to work to shut down the application since it launched earlier this month as a simple download from the Google Play store that enabled iMessage use on Android without an Apple ID involved.
However, Apple succeeded in getting that version taken down, while efforts to use Mac computers and jailbroken iPhones as go-betweens have straddled the line between desperate and massively impractical.
Now, if the latest workaround (the jailbroken iPhone one) doesn’t escape Apple’s wrath, that’ll be all she wrote for the company’s efforts to bring iMessage to Android. It did encourage others to pick up that mantle (Beeper’s tech is open source) while it focuses on making the messaging app the best it can be minus iMessage integration.
“With our latest software release, we believe we’ve created something that Apple can tolerate existing,” the company wrote on X.
“We do not have any current plans to respond if this solution is knocked offline. The iMessage connection software that powers Beeper Mini is now 100% open source. Anyone who wants can continue to develop it if they’d like.”
The company said the battles with Apple, which it describes as “interference” have given the app a credibility hit. However, given the the interest in Apple’s “interference” from law enforcement agencies and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s possible Beeper’s actions may yet yield an intended goal – Apple having to open up iMessage to Android users.
“Each time that Beeper Mini goes ‘down’ or is made to be unreliable due to interference by Apple, Beeper’s credibility takes a hit. It’s unsustainable,” Beeper added. “As much as we want to fight for what we believe is a fantastic product that really should exist, the truth is that we can’t win a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company on earth.”
