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Beeper Mini is back

blog.beeper.com

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Re: Beeper Mini is back

#501

Post by haswell »

Nextgrid wrote: post #219
madeofpalk wrote: post #98

> Messages App is the default chat app for all iPhone customers. Not only is it the default, iOS makes it impossible to change the default chat app. In the US, where the majority of people have iPhones, this means that the easiest way to chat is by tapping on your friend’s name in your contact list and hitting the ‘message’ button. This is not true. On iOS - iOS has APIs for third party messaging and voip apps to int…

Default option is still usual phone call/iMessage in a lot of places - in some you can long press and select another option, but not all. Also, merely opening a separate app doesn't really help. How about instead of having 5 different apps (that the system one sometimes generously allows you to open), you had one app that can seamlessly speak all protocols? You can add multiple e-mail or contacts accounts (even from…

> You can add multiple e-mail or contacts accounts (even from different providers) and it'll seamlessly merge them in the system Mail/Contacts apps - why can't we have the same for messages?

And on top of this, other voice apps are merged with the list of incoming calls, e.g. discord calls show up in the same list as phone calls.

This really highlights the intentional degradation of chat behavior. From a pure user experience standpoint, Apple’s own product does not meet their own philosophy and guidelines applied to other categories of app.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#502

Post by threeseed »

cmiles74 wrote: post #440
Xenoamorphous wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the US is it dwarfed by at least three other platforms Maybe because it comes preinstalled?

I am very curious what three other messaging application are available on iOS and have more market share than Apple Messages! Nearly every member of my family has an iPhone and they all use Apple Messages.

WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger, Telegram, Snapchat, QQ:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/258749/most-popular-glob...

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#503

Post by lambda »

dlivingston wrote: post #486

> From what we can tell, Beeper Mini was the fastest growing paid Android application launch in history. In the first 48 hours, it was downloaded by more than 100,000 people. These numbers seem very low. I would have expected numbers in the millions.

Note: "paid."

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#504

Post by orliesaurus »

erohead wrote: post #498
shmatt wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every consumer facing tech company with a paid product (physical or digital) I've worked at had Android as Unless they're trying to join iOS group messages I guess

Our conversion from download to paid subscription is hovering around 50% fwiw

congrats eric, that's HUGE! A real pain point y'all are solving - long live Beeper!

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#505

Post by I_Am_Nous »

Nextgrid wrote: post #196
I_Am_Nous wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is more like a 3rd party releasing a tool that unlocks a proprietary security shroud so you can plug in a wireless router to an ISP POP. You aren't authorized to unlock that shroud or rebroadcast that internet, just like Beeper Mini is not authorized by Apple to use their authorization-required iMessage service. If I sold internet off that wireless router and the next OSP tech that gets into that POP (rightfully…

> that unlocks a proprietary security Beeper Mini is not "unlocking" anything more than a real iPhone does. It's not exploiting anything, it's following exactly the same protocol and registration flow as the real thing (that's why it works in the first place). No security is being broken here. You could argue that it's using an (insignificant) amount of resources on Apple's side without having paid for it (since most…

You can't use iMessage without authenticating, and Apple didn't provide a way for Android devices to authenticate. Beeper Mini, while it may be using the APIs through a questionably obtained binary, is handling authentication for you so a non-approved device can become authorized to send/receive iMessage data. A non-authorized device is gaining access to an authorization-required service in a way the service provider is not happy about. If it isn't technically unlocking something Apple doesn't want unlocked, it's realistically gaining access to a restricted service. Just because I can make a key that unlocks my neighbors door doesn't mean I have the right to use it without his permission.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#506

Post by tedivm »

dlivingston wrote: post #486

> From what we can tell, Beeper Mini was the fastest growing paid Android application launch in history. In the first 48 hours, it was downloaded by more than 100,000 people. These numbers seem very low. I would have expected numbers in the millions.

If it was a free app sure, but in the paid category those numbers drop quite a bit.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#508

Post by Miner49er »

snakeyjake wrote: post #374
tapoxi wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't 70% of American teenagers on iPhone because of the iMessage network effects? The whole "green bubble" shaming issue.

>The whole "green bubble" shaming issue. Even if that's a real thing and not an imaginary or minor phenomenon hyped up for clicks, it is hardly anti-trust-worthy. 70% of American teenagers may have access to iMessage due to it being on their phones but there is a 0.0% chance that, in aggregate, iMessage is in their top five most-used messaging apps.

Do you have data to back this up? I would be shocked if iMessage wasn't the most used messaging app by US teens or consumers in general.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#509

Post by standardUser »

SpaceManNabs wrote: post #53
oefrha wrote: post #15

> Android and iPhone customers desperately want to be able to chat together with high quality images/video, encryption, emojis, typing status, read receipts, and all modern chat features. There are numerous chat apps with those features, so I can’t see why people were “desperate” about it at all. Better yet, those existing chat apps aren’t likely to stop working tomorrow.

> iPhone customers desperately want to be able to chat together is also laughably false lol. iPhone users just want android users to get an iphone.

Yes, because Apple has very successfully manipulated iPhone users into thinking this. It's both impressive and depressing how effectively Apple has achieved this marketing goal.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#510

Post by ethanbond »

gkbrk wrote: post #390
ethanbond wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"No reverse engineering" is a pretty standard TOS item.

Reverse engineering for the purpose of interoperability is explicitly allowed. Also, breaking the TOS is usually not illegal. TOS of a random company is not the law, otherwise you would get into trouble non-stop from random websites and apps making you "agree" to things.

> Reverse engineering for the purpose of interoperability is explicitly allowed.

In Apple's iMessage TOS? I don't find that likely but open to being wrong.

> Also, breaking the TOS is usually not illegal

In general, contracts are legally binding, therefore breaking them is illegal. Sometimes contracts include clauses that can't be legally binding, but I don't think a TOS forbidding this type of behavior would be questionable in the slightest. Apple obviously has no obligation to allow anyone to use its platform as a backend for their own (previously commercialized) product.

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