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Beeper Mini is back

blog.beeper.com

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Re: Beeper Mini is back

#921

Post by nikolay »

quantumsequoia wrote: post #796
nikolay wrote: post #716

No, it's not. I don't get the 2FA code. It never worked before for me. Never worked with Beeper proper either.

Do you get 2FA codes when logging in from am actual Apple device? Because it might be an issue with how your apple account is set up to do 2FA that has nothing to do with beeper

Yes, I do. I only have issues with Beeper and Beeper Mini. In fact, months ago, when I tried to set up Beeper, my Apple ID got into an "account lock" endless loop for over a month - every few minutes, I would get a popup that my account is locked, I go through the unlocking process, and a few minutes later, the whole thing repeats meanwhile asking me to rest my password.

In the past, I tried creating an app password as well, but it didn't work either. Now, it fails to create an app password, but you still can't log in with an app password.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#922

Post by upon_drumhead »

barnabee wrote: post #223
CharlesW wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple given their scale and position in the market should be forced to operate and interoperate with an open standard for messaging. You mean like SMS and MMS right now, and RCS next year? https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-rcs-coming-to-iphone/

If RCS goes live on all Apple devices in all jurisdictions and that solves the problem then great!

It still won't solve the root of the issue. Android bubbles will still be green.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#923

Post by jetpackjoe »

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #915
lallysingh wrote: post #884

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shh don't mention Voice. Google obviously forgot that they still had it turned on. If they remember it'll get killed.

Google voice has a paid version via Google Workspace, so I doubt the service will go away. But I wouldn't bet on the free version staying free, or not losing features forever.

Google domains was baked into GCP and had "enterprise" users.

A service having a paid version doesn't mean anything.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#924

Post by cortesoft »

lxgr wrote: post #815
wharvle wrote: post #756

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From everything I've read on the matter, I believe that the UX nightmare when you include a non-apple user is an intentional design choice, rather than an engineering problem that hasn't been solved. I'd be sure this was why, if Google hadn't once tried to get me to use a combo SMS/MMS + some-other-Google-messaging-service app on my phone (by replacing the normal SMS app on OS upgrade—this was on a Nexus phone) tha…

> iMessage is easily good enough that I haven't had to go find some alternative SMS app (Almost) nobody here is challenging that it is, under the condition that you communicate exclusively with iPhone users . MMS group chats are an absolute dumpster fire from an UX point of view. In some countries, a single MMS costs about half an USD as well (per recipient)!

Wait, there are still places that charge per MMS?

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#925

Post by ehsankia »

jcheng wrote: post #859
sneak wrote: post #669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beeper isn’t using Apple services (at least not in Beeper Mini, their new e2ee iMessage client), and thus is not subject to any Terms of Service from Apple. They’re publishing client software, which is protected expression provided it’s original and doesn’t infringe any trademarks or copyrights. The end users are the ones potentially violating the ToS by connecting to Apple APIs. Apple has no basis to tell Beeper to…

That sounds a lot like the P2P file sharing companies' argument that didn't hold up in court: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM_Studios,_Inc._v._Grokster,... .

I believe that reverse engineering for the purpose of interop is different and has been found to be fair use by the courts.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#926

Post by ehsankia »

LordKeren wrote: post #26

I think one of the underlying issues is that many are now going to be hesitant to even bother with Beeper Mini anymore. I don’t think there is going to be a high tolerance for this game of cat and mouse from the end user perspective I also don’t think goading apple is going to do much here either. Regardless of the current feelings around apple’s walled garden, they are not going to suddenly keel over and give up on…

I agree that right now, most people shouldn't give this a try. But at some point it will reach a steady state.

Either Beeper manages to make a client that is truly indistinguishable from old iPhones, and gets to exist for a few years, or Apple somehow manages to patch all existing iPhones in a way that makes it impossible to spoof (not sure if that's possible with old hardware that don't have a secure enclave).

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#927

Post by oefrha »

venusenvy47 wrote: post #896
quantumsequoia wrote: post #766

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the existing chat apps have established themselves as viable alternatives Meta has trashed their privacy image so FB Messenger/WhatsApp non-starters for lots of Americans. Signal, telegram don't have enough PR, 90% of Americans have never heard of them. Kik was popular but died due to their financial trouble. Discord/Groupme have found success by marketing themselves towards particular niches, but people don'…

I'm curious why privacy issues of WhatsApp and Facebook are only a concern for Americans. Does the rest of the world know that WhatsApp has been owned by Facebook for 10 years?

Americans use Facebook, Google, etc. as much as anyone else. Claiming that the mythical “privacy” is a meaningful factor in iMessage’s adoption over Facebook properties is delusional.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#928

Post by stavros »

clwg wrote: post #801
chankstein38 wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, what? I grew up (in the same era) using AIM and Yahoo, ICQ was a little before my prime. Everyone I talk to about those days used them as well. MSN was fine but AIM and Yahoo were where it was at for the bulk of my early years of instant messaging with friends. At one point a friend even made me an AIM account because I was using MSN and they wanted to chat with me but didn't want to do it through MSN. Obviousl…

Back then the networks weren't so locked down to the clients, so it wasn't as big of an issue to have friends on various networks either. I have to call out IRC too. I definitely look back on those as the "good old days" of chat.

Especially with software like Miranda IM or Trillian, you didn't have to care which network your friends were on, you just had the one client.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#929

Post by makeitdouble »

mike_d wrote: post #370
radlad wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems clear to me that Beeper is playing a game of chicken with Apple. If Apple continues to cut off Beeper's access, it makes an antitrust argument stronger (a la https://9to5mac.com/2023/12/06/eus-imessage-antitrust-invest... )

> If Apple continues to cut off Beeper's access, it makes an antitrust argument stronger I'm not sure why everyone thinks it is an antitrust issue when it isn't. There is no legal obligation to support your services and software on third party platforms.

Antitrust is not about legal obligations though, it's about competion and user harm.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#930

Post by shaklee3 »

marwis wrote: post #856
TheKarateKid wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ironic part of all of this is that while the EU may be forcing Apple into supporting RCS to fix the situation, Google has resisted every effort to extend RCS to their own Voice platform. Google Voice has been in maintenance mode for years. It's unlikely that Google resisted adding RCS, but rather there's been no effort to actually do it.

That might be true but they're also dragging their feet with RCS in Google Fi (still only partial support - have to disable Fi cloud sync).

Google fi works fine on messages and uses rcs.
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