Well, it works, and works extremely well. I'll be paying for this, simply because group chats are currently hell.
Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
311–320 of 902 posts
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#312Isn’t iMessage, amongst other things, the subject of some upcoming EU reg forcing it to be cross platform (or at least make APIs accessible)? Thus, preceding the need of Beeper Mini.
Proposed EU regs... I'd bet it'll be years till it is truly an open platform, and even then, they may restrict the openness to the EU only.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
They’re gonna break iMessage for the ~50% of population not on the latest version of iOS next week?
...They obviously would do it in a way that doesn't do that? Do you think this company can outsmart them in the long-run?
This is a replay of the Messenger Wars. Yahoo IM, AIM, ICQ, etc played a game of cat and mouse with clients that wanted to get all of the messengers in one spot.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#314This seems like it won't last, but it's AWESOME and I really hope you survive Apple's inevitable attempts to kill this. A universal chat application would be amazing, and will maybe help bring attention to the value of standards and interoperability (hopefully by governments/regulators).
I saw an article on the topic where the reporter spoke with Beeper's CEO, Eric Migicovsky. He seems to believe that blocking Beeper might cause problems for legitimate Apple user's.
Obviously that outcome is something he wants, but I still think its interesting.
[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/5/23987817/beeper-mini-imes...
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
Snazzy Labs did an overview video [1] about this implementation. According to them, reusing a specific hardware token is such s common practice that Apple would need to "redesign their entire authentication and delivery strategy" to mitigate this problem. I guess we'll see how this statement holds up in the coming weeks/months. [1] https://youtu.be/S24TDRxEna4?t=5m38s
This didn’t really say much. Apple definitely knows about Hackintosh users, they mostly just don’t care. The question is whether they will actually do something if made to care.
This is too high profile. Apple is absolutely, 100% going to kill this and it’s gonna screw this over for those of us who leverage iMessage in Hackintosh environments.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#316Can I make this work with my Google Voice number?
They started working on a bridge. I have endlessly begged them to make one.
https://github.com/beeper/googlevoice
If I knew Go I would roll up my shelves and work on this myself.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not even young at this point. I overheard two grown men talking about how much they hate people with green bubbles and purposely skip inviting them into group chats because of it.
I have been a grown man on both sides of that conversation: left out of group chats due to being a green bubble, and now tacitly approving of not including green bubbles in otherwise pristine-seas-of-blue chats. It's less about the background color and more about the endless series of interoperability paper cuts that exist with green bubbles. Will my reaction emoji come through as intended? Will my shared media get d…
As an Android user who texts with other Android users, RCS works just fine. Automatic e2e encryption whenever it's available, reactions work (and support every unicode emoji, not just the 6 Apple supports), threading works perfectly, photos and videos come through in full quality.
Recently Google Messages started automatically translating the shitty little 'So-and-so hearted ""' SMS messages Apple sends out from iMessage into reactions as well.
It's genuinely quite good. I prefer it over Signal when I know the other person has an Android too.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
What problem? Increased compatibility?
From Apple's perspective, yes. Social pressure to buy Apple devices to use Apple's messaging app is part of Apple's marketing strategy. Apple also claims that blocking devices by serial number or similar unique hardware identifiers is a key part of its anti-spam strategy. If true, an end-run around that will likely create problems for users as well.
The creator of this is screwing things up for everyone. If it was an obscure, open source project Apple would probably let it slide and we’d be able to enjoy this indefinitely. This has been the case for Hackintosh stuff and the like.
But no, the author had to make a dumb, flashy looking website that looks like they’re advertising a product built around reverse engineered Apple tech. I bet they get a Cease and Desist by the end of the week and the hole is patched shortly after.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're talking about a company that changes CPU architectures for their ecosystem every few years, completely seamlessly. If redesigning their entire authentication and delivery strategy is what it will take to mitigate this problem, Apple will do it.
What problem? Increased compatibility?
Bridging the blue bubble moat.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#320It's got one of those "We'll charge you if you forget to cancel" subscriptions. Might be google's fault, but I'm not signing up. I remember Meebo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meebo ) tried to do a similar multi-chat client as well, but for the web.
I mean… yes, that is generally how subscriptions work. Google and Apple make it relatively easy to cancel in-app subscriptions.