If you’ve been on any Android-focused site — or really, any technology website — in the past few weeks,you’ve heard of Beeper. Despite its iMessage app having only arrived in the early days of December, Beeper has gone on an absolute journey this month, fighting a war of attrition with Apple that it was, seemingly, always destined to lose. Despite its best efforts, Beeper’s iMessage service has spent far more timeeither restrictedorentirely offlinethan operating as expected.
Despite raising its profile this week to thelevel of both national newsandUS lawmakers— in a bipartisan effort against Apple, no less! — Beeper is, well, if not throwing in the towel, then certainly waving a white flag. We already covered its latest efforts to get its iMessage bridge back up and running, which involve utilizing your personal Mac’s registration data (or the Mac of a friend) to identify your account as genuine. Today, it’sannouncing an additional methodthat even brings back support for sending messages via your phone number, but it’ll require you to buy — or, potentially, rent — an old iPhone.
Before we take a look at the details of both of these announcements, it’s worth paying attention to theotherblog post the company publishedthis morning. Titled “Moving Forward,” Beeper’s CEO Eric Migicovsky breaks down the frustration he’s felt throughout the month of December, particularly towards Apple’s public statements about its view regarding Beeper as relying on exploits in iMessage to bring the platform to, in its eyes, unauthorized platforms. Migicovsky also breaks down common complaints regarding privacy, monetization, and Apple’s promised support for RCS.
It’s worth reading in its entirety, but it also serves as a farewell for Beeper’s singular goal in bringing a dedicated, reliable iMessage client to Android. It seems like Migicovsky is well aware that most people — certainly not the average Android user — are going to jump through its newest, hardware-dependent hoops just to join blue bubble group chats. And although he signs off hoping that Apple eventually allows iMessage — not RCS, but iMessage — to be interoperable between operating systems, today also represents the company’s last attempt tobridge the messaging divide between Android and iOS.
So, what’s that solution look like? For starters, Beeper Cloud users (that’s the legacy app) can rely on the Mac workaround announced on Tuesday. Those without a Mac will need to find a willing friend to help follow through on the process. Beeper Mini users can also turn to this Mac registration option, but you won’t be able to send messages from your phone number.
Finally, as part of today’s announcement, Beeper has open sourced its Matrix bridges, the final piece of its iMessage puzzle. It’s inviting anyone to inspect its security, along with the option to self-host using the code available on Github. If you’re looking to get started with either of these two solutions, you can get started using the company’srespective MacandiPhone guides.
One way or another, this is the end of the road for Beeper’s iMessage experiment. Either Apple will let this solution live — Migicovsky specifically states he’s hopeful the company is tolerant of its final attempt — or it won’t. If that happens, Beeper’s blue bubble-based future will lie solely in the hands of anyone picking up the code from Github to continue work. Either way, Beeper will continue to exist as a chat app for the rest of your services, though if it loses iMessage entirely, it’ll be hard not to feel like a certain piece is missing.
