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Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#91

Post by thisisthenewme »

dann0 wrote: post #71

[flagged]

I find it even more interesting that people are defending either corporation. Neither of them is our friend, and they do what happens to be profitable. The core problem here is that Apple has a significant market share in the US, and for one reason or another, they are inconveniencing a portion of non-iPhone users and/or causing an unnecessary divide. Does it have to be this way? I think the answer would depend on whether or not this form of incompatibility brings them any competitive advantage.

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#92

Post by Youden »

jrflowers wrote: post #73
lapinot wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you have said "compartmentalized", or "dominated by hostile silos" or anything else that doesn't involve comparison of the state of online chatting with wars that have killed humans? I agree things were nice with adium.

[flagged]

I think that's essentially their point. The root of the term "balkanized" is war and the person they're replying to could have used a word with less violent connotations like the ones listed.

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#93

Post by MichaelZuo »

Shawnj2 wrote: post #82
cdme wrote: post #42

I miss the days when chat wasn't fragmented across apps and platforms or could at least be unified in apps like Adium. Having to have a different app installed for myriad different contacts is, at best, irritating.

IIRC that is the original goal of beeper, to act as a universal messenger front end

So the end result will be dozens of 'universal' 'standards'?

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#94

Post by asfasfo »

thot_experiment wrote: post #15

Is it common for people to use texts in 2023 in your social circle? I think I've been texted once this year. I mean obviously people care about this to some extent otherwise this app wouldn't exist but in my experience when I meet someone they'll give me insta or discord, unless they're a tryhard and then it's always signal (blegh). EDIT: not sure i'm being downvoted? i'm genuinely curious because i never use SMS or…

SMS is very popular in the US for historical reasons. Many users in other countries (like India) moved to products like Whatsapp because their cell phone plans charged per message but US phone plans have had free SMS pricing for years so we've never had a push here. iPhone is market leader in the US so iMessageis also heavily used since its default for SMS between iOS users.

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#95

Post by chrisoverzero »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #85

Amazing this same story keeps getting reposted every other day. Slow news week? Great time to announce something you've been working on HNers!

> Amazing this same story keeps getting reposted every other day.

It keeps happening.

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#96

Post by Rebelgecko »

jrflowers wrote: post #73
lapinot wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you have said "compartmentalized", or "dominated by hostile silos" or anything else that doesn't involve comparison of the state of online chatting with wars that have killed humans? I agree things were nice with adium.

[flagged]

FYI "TW" is outdated language and shouldn't be used any more. The phrase can elicit stress about what's to follow, and the t-word is associated with violent imagery.

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#97

Post by tremon »

turquoisevar wrote: post #81
NettleBurr wrote: post #28

>Apple on Wednesday appeared to have blocked what Beeper described as "~5% of Beeper Mini users" from accessing iMessages >Apple previously issued a (somewhat uncommon) statement about Beeper's iMessage access, stating that it "took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage." Citing privacy, security, and spam concerns, Apple stated it would "c…

> Not commenting about the ethics of all this, just wondering why technically Apple can only block ~5% of Beeper Mini users instead of all of them? Could this potentially be tied to the use of an email id as the iMessage handle? Apple could block 100% of the people using Beeper and throw Hackintosh users into that as a bonus as well. The reason they’re not doing that is because it could have unintended consequences a…

[flagged]

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#98

Post by threeseed »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #40
lotsofpulp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apple Music blitzkrieging Spotify is bullshit. What is this referencing? >The lock on subscription payments is bullshit. I pay for app subscriptions outside of the App store, since it is usually cheaper.

> What is this referencing Spotify launched on iOS. Apple saw them competing with iTunes and basically stole their idea to compete with them. That, alone, would be okay. But Apple Music is privileged within iOS and Apple's marketing in a way Spotify cannot be.

None of this is true.

a) Spotify didn't invent music streaming. There were many services e.g. Pandora that were doing in the years before. It was a pretty obvious idea once devices had faster bandwidth.

b) Apple didn't steal their idea. They acquired Beats who had launched a similar service soon after Spotify.

c) Apple Music isn't privileged. It comes pre-installed but otherwise you can delete the app and use Spotify, Youtube Music etc.

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#99

Post by rahimnathwani »

nocoiner wrote: post #4

Beeper CEO, from the article: "If there's enough pressure on Apple, they will have to quit messing with us." "Us," he clarified, meant both Apple's customers using iMessage and Android users trying to chat securely with iPhone friends. "That's who they're penalizing," he wrote. "It's not a Beeper vs. Apple fight, it's Apple versus customers." Not really sure how this is anti-customer. Apple customers have ample acces…

"Apple customers have ample access to iMessage"

I have an iPad Pro, a MBP, a MBA, and an iPhone X. I can send and receive iMessages on those devices.

But I cannot access iMessage on the devices I use most often:

- my main computer (a desktop running Ubuntu)

- my main phone (a Google Pixel)

I don't feel I have 'ample access to iMessage'.

Re: Apple partly halts Beeper's iMessage app again, suggesting a long fight ahead

#100

Post by ewoodrich »

paulmd wrote: post #86
quartesixte wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s also entirely USA centric and a byproduct of everyone sticking to SMS-phone number systems to chat. It drives me nuts. WhatsApp. WeChat. Line. Kakao. Facebook Messenger. Most of the world has switched to these dedicated apps. Only glimmer of hope is that gen-z/gen-alpha is really into Discord (at least all the ones I know). Might finally bring down the iMessage group chats.

Discord is actually an interesting analogy because they share apple’s overall philosophy here. Discord doesn’t absolutely firewall themselves with attestation/etc but they will absolutely ban you for using alternative clients like Discord Advanced if they notice you behaving differently from an official client on the API. Some of the things the discord advanced client can do like animated smilies or cross-server smil…

At least Discord is available on every platform I use regularly (MacOS, Windows, iOS, Android). That alone is a massive step up from iMessage lock-in for me.
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