The quest to bring iMessage access to Android continues, even after Apple recently closed a loophole that appeared to enable Beeper and other third-party apps to connect to the service. The latest iteration of the Beeper Mini app for Android once again enables users to send and receive messages.
Despite Apple cutting off the app’s access to the service, Beeper’s team, led by cofounders Eric Migicovsky and Brad Murray, has been diligently working to restore iMessage functionality. They now claim to have found a solution with one crucial caveat: phone number registration is currently unavailable, and users must sign in with an Apple ID. Consequently, iMessages will be sent and received through email addresses rather than phone numbers. The Beeper team acknowledges this limitation and assures users that they are actively working on a fix for phone number registration.
During this period of service adjustment, Beeper has decided not to charge users and is offering its services for free. The team expressed its intent to reevaluate subscriptions once the service stabilizes, as mentioned in a blog post: “As soon as things stabilize (we hope they will), we’ll look at turning on subscriptions again.”
Migicovsky and Murray emphasized that, contrary to Apple’s statements, messages transmitted via Beeper Mini maintain end-to-end encryption and are secure. They go on to suggest that Beeper provides a more secure means for iOS and Android communication compared to regular SMS. Apple is yet to support the more secure RCS standard embraced by Google, but it plans to incorporate it in 2024.
