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Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

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Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Beeper will fight it either way. That sounds nice and all, but what happens when the first bill comes due from their legal team?

I have a hard time believing that the folks who were smart enough to do all this work somehow forgot that lawyers cost money

i don't disagree, but nobody can compete with the money Apple can spend. not every David can find a Rainmaker when competing against Goliath. Goliath still wins a lot. He was a champion after all

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would make sense: because Apple have deeply coupled iMessage to the OS they can’t simply roll out a new version of the app with protocol changes that would block Beeper, they’d have to release entire OS updates. No matter the method it would be a scorched earth approach. I suspect the number of people actually using Beeper will be far below a rounding error for Apple.

> because Apple have deeply coupled iMessage to the OS No they haven't. On my Mac it's just an app and a reusable framework. There is nothing stopping them releasing it on the App Store similar to Mail.

> There is nothing stopping them releasing it on the App Store similar to Mail.

In the sense that the app is just a wrapper around a system framework, sure. But changing that framework would be an OS release.

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#563
post #395
post #296

This 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).

On the contrary, the EU law that enforces interoperability should put some wind under this project's wings.

Exactly what I thought

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe Apple needs an even blue-r bubble to set apart the super attested users from the mere blue bubble peasants

they could call it "apple blue" and charge a few bucks a month for it. People love that stuff

They can desaturate the iPhone / MacBook Air users to disambiguate from the MacBook pro / iPhone pro / max users. Also device age in years will add hints of green hue. That way people know they're talking to someone who can afford to spend thousands of dollars on hardware every year.

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#565
The people in control of Apple know their market power, ironically, derives from a closed-garden messaging product. Exactly like Blackberry.

The longer the anti-customer behavior continues the greater the resentment becomes. Customers do not like being treated as captives to Wall Street thinking. Mega-tech will face consequences for the unapologetic greed they exhibit right now.

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#566
post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did google break out Google Play Services as a separate app, was that when they started integrating more with third-party android phone suppliers, and they didn't want to have to wait for OS upgrade cycles from slower-moving companies?

Probably they originally did it because Android has high-assurance embedded use-cases (compare/contrast: Windows IoT Core) where you want to strip out everything possible from the attack surface. But mainly it's because base Android (AOSP) can be arbitrarily modified by the OEM; and Google doesn't want to have to trust installations of Google Play Services that have been arbitrarily modified by OEMs. (Especially beca…

Man, that's contrived. Really its simple: Google seperates out Play Services so they can harvest user data from virtually all Andoid devices. It lets them market Android as OSS while still reaping the benefits of closed source data scraping.

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#567

Dang, I support your efforts but I just don't have any incentive to pay for a texting app. Normal texting and WhatsApp and discord and Instagram and tiktok messages etc etc are all free. So I just don't really have a reason to subscribe to this.

Yeah, the cost is a bummer but if I look at it as spending $2 a month to avoid buying an iPhone, it's worth it.

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d donate to a legal fund on this personally. I think a lot of people and large corporations would like to see Apple have to make concessions here. I think if it comes to it, Apple will wind up looking very bad in a trial. Their behavior here is deeply anticompetitive. iMessage is just too important to modern text communication to be as locked down as it is. If Apple doesn’t want to make an Android app, they should…

> iMessage is just too important to modern text communication to be as locked down as it is. What do you mean; if a private company creates something, and enough people buy/use it, at some point it becomes a common good? I like the idea of iMessage being open, but I don't like the idea of forcing Apple under government threat to open it

I don’t know what you mean by “common good” in this context, but if a company has a dominant market position and uses its power to cripple competition, then it falls within antitrust laws.

iMessage is so important today, especially to young Americans, that its exclusivity to iOS has become a significant barrier to Android or other operating systems from being competitive.

It’s up to regulators and the court system to decide whether that is a violation of antitrust law. But if it is, then yes, the government should force them to open it. That’s what it means to enforce antitrust law.

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d donate to a legal fund on this personally. I think a lot of people and large corporations would like to see Apple have to make concessions here. I think if it comes to it, Apple will wind up looking very bad in a trial. Their behavior here is deeply anticompetitive. iMessage is just too important to modern text communication to be as locked down as it is. If Apple doesn’t want to make an Android app, they should…

> iMessage is just too important to modern text communication to be as locked down as it is. What do you mean; if a private company creates something, and enough people buy/use it, at some point it becomes a common good? I like the idea of iMessage being open, but I don't like the idea of forcing Apple under government threat to open it

Yes, governments can require interoperability and can limit monopolies. That's how antitrust laws work, like it or not. But if you want to get all libertarian, why should companies be able to use government power (as in courts, DMCA and the like) to shut down smaller companies that reverse-engineer their protocols?

Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android

#570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The excitement is because previously it was impossible for Android users to communicate with iPhone users over iMessage. If you're not in the US, you probably won't get this, but in the US it's very easy to be "the odd man out" as the only Android user in a group of friends. Group chats between iMessage and Android users is basically horrible right now - I seriously considered getting an iPhone solely because friends…

What is it about iMessage that breaks group chats? Where I live everyone uses WhatsApp (SMS is for 2fa codes pretty much exclusively for me)

There are tons of interoperability problems. Google put up this website a while back, before Apple announced they would support RCS interoperability with iMessage, that explains a lot of the broken experience: https://www.android.com/get-the-message/
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