Beeper Mini made Android users blue bubbles. Apple shut it down after only a few days.

Apple responds to the Beeper iMessage saga: ‘We took steps to protect our users’::Beeper, like Sunbird and Texts, sought to find a way to bring iMessage to Android users. Its app, Beeper Mini, worked well. But a few days after it launched, Apple took steps to shut it down.

  • habanhero@lemmy.caEnglish
    1513·
    11 months ago

    I’m not sure why so many are rooting for Beeper. Apple’s response is 100% reasonable - you have a 3rd party service that’s making money by impersonating iOS devices in order to access Apple services. Apple has no way of controlling how many devices will use Beeper and if their system can maintain a good level of service, how these Beeper devices are interacting with iMessage, and whether Beeper is actually keeping iMessage metadata private or just giving lip service.

    An analogy would be like Apple is throwing this awesome concert event and Beeper found out a convincing way to fake the tickets, and are actually actively promoting, registering people and profiting off of it. In any reasonable world outfits like this would be shut down immediately and rightfully so.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      71·
      11 months ago

      I don’t understand why people are rooting for Beeper knowing how badly Eric Migicovsky screwed developers on the way out from Pebble Watch.

      He already sold a failing company once, and he’s already hit a roadblock with his current company. How long until he gets bored and sells this one?

      Also, I was on the waiting list way back when, and declined to sign up for Beeper when I had no indication that my onboarding would be recorded. Then I showed up to the onboarding zoom meeting with a note about it being recorded. No advance notice from a service that claims to respect privacy? You just showed your ass, Beeper. I never signed up, and when I wrote them with follow up questions (“How can I trust that the privacy policy will stay the same if the business is sold to another party?”) they declined to respond to any questions. Months later I would get an automated email reminding me about my place in line like I gave a shit anymore.

      I personally don’t trust this companies promises, period. They’ve made it clear they’re less than honest about the privacy stuff and the founders past doesn’t scream “He will stand by this company when things get hard.”