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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

#571

Post by halfblindsalt »

brailsafe wrote: post #521

This is really cool, at least in theory. I keep hearing from only iPhone users on podcasts that they find it annoying to message amyone not on iOS. As an Android user, I couldn't imagine this being a concern to me; have any of you Android users even had the passing thought that you're missing out on hypothetical conversations between people who only use iMessage? I use Messenger for the gen x people in my life, Signa…

Every single person I message regularly uses iMessage. As far as I know none of them are “iPhone users” in the sense that they particularly care, they just use ‘the normal thing’ (which is iPhone).

So for the opposite question, I’ve never had the passing thought of missing out on what Android users do either.

I wonder if people just sort of mostly self select into mostly non-overlapping groups?

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

#572

Post by RulerOf »

freedomben wrote: post #288
RulerOf wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have also made that assumption, but I have to admit I'm not surprised it doesn't. IIRC, iMessage was introduced with iOS 5, which supported iPhone 3GS. The secure enclave didn't show up until iPhone 5S which shipped with iOS 7.

ah interesting, so Beeper's days may be numbered by when Apple drops support for older devices. But if they can grow quick enough then they'll have enough users that Apple can't quietly nail them and stuff their body into a dumpster.

Blocking it might be a cat-and-mouse thing that works with heuristics, which would of course be unreliable in both directions.

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

#573

Post by gadders »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #320
gadders wrote: post #216

It'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.

Yeah. It's pretty shitty. You should get cut off after a week with a positive opt-in to continue.

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

#574

Post by bigallen »

This is the coolest thing I have seen all day! I’ve been using Jared [1] running on a Mac VM to send and receive iMessages from my locally hosted AI. If I could just use a python library that would make my life significantly easier

[1] https://github.com/ZekeSnider/Jared

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

#575

Post by nani8ot »

SpencerOMG wrote: post #424

I remember Nothing tech did something similar-ish not too long ago, but I can't find their announcement of it. But then I stumbled upon a video talking about privacy concerns[0]. What's the difference between what they did and what Beeper is doing? Sounds cool though, impressive work! (also, "hacker"-news needs to be more embracing of their name lol) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMdj8RyMb64

Nothing/Sunbird lied about how their bridge worked, while Beeper has an open source matrix imessage bridge implementation with docs.

Technically they are similar with both using macs in a server farm for their hosted offers.

[0] https://github.com/mautrix/imessage

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

#576

Post by JimDabell »

stefan_ wrote: post #335
dadoum wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not the developer but I also looked at that binary to help the project at some point. It's taken straight from OS X 10.8 (more precisely from an Update Combo on their download portal). It's calling NACInit, NACKeyEstablishment and NACSign functions from it (which have no entry points but with reverse engineering the offsets have been figured out). They are themselves relying on OS X system functions to get devic…

That seems like a problem. Emulating the protocol is okayish-to-gray but having the binary there will just be a straight DMCA. Wonder what the actual app is doing since this is just the PoC.

Doesn’t this already have precedent? Nintendo used to check for the existence of their logo in cartridges before loading them so that anybody who wanted to create an unauthorised cartridge for a Nintendo system would have to reproduce their logo and infringe on their copyright. I’m pretty sure the court ruled that reproducing the logo for the purpose of interoperability was fair use.

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

#577

Post by tibbydudeza »

rpmisms wrote: post #559
tibbydudeza wrote: post #504

Good luck with this one - dunno how Apple is going to react - a Steve Jobs nuking upon from high via API changes or Tim Cook ignoring it and just disgruntled acceptance that it exists but not care why folks in the US choose Apple.

There is probably a tense debate happening internally right now about how they want to respond. PR says no, Product says nuke it, Legal is stretching their fingers, and Engineering just finished reproducing the issue.

My understanding is that they are re-using a device serial number but they imply that changing this means a major change to how iMessage works so they banking on Apple inertia.

Charging $2 before the horse has bolted seems a bit ... would have preferred that Apple was involved.

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

#578

Post by LesZedCB »

Domenic_S wrote: post #550
brokencode wrote: post #536

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

coughs in AT&T

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

#579

Post by nani8ot »

mikae1 wrote: post #274

Will this be available from F-Droid or as an APK? I'm using a deGoogled device. Too cool!

Beeper's clients never were open source. They were based on Apache 2 licensed Element. The new client won't be open source either, given how they don't even open source their server part (contrary to their matrix bridges).

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

#580

Post by sprite »

Did you get permission from Apple to connect to their servers? Google Play does not allow apps to connect to 3rd party APIs without consent.

The relevant policy can be found at: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...

"We don’t allow apps that interfere with, disrupt, damage, or access in an unauthorized manner the user’s device, other devices or computers, servers, networks, application programming interfaces (APIs), or services, including but not limited to other apps on the device, any Google service, or an authorized carrier’s network."

From what I understand your app connects to APNS without permission from Apple.

I have personally had my Google Play Developer account banned for making an app that connected to a 3rd party service

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