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Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

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Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#101

Post by dghlsakjg »

larubbio wrote: post #52
dghlsakjg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an average consumer perspective (not a HN user perspective): It just works. As soon as I log into my Apple account on any Apple device I can access all of my messages, and seamlessly carry on a conversation on whatever device is at hand. It works with SMS as well, and I just don't have to think about it. I know that WhatsApp is similar, but their desktop app, especially authentication, kinda sucks (I need my pho…

> It works with SMS as well, and I just don't have to think about it. I have a mac laptop and an android phone. My son has an iphone. Half of his responses to my text messages go to my phone, the other half go to my laptop and I miss them. This is a major problem, imessage shouldn't be greedy about grabbing messages, especially when replying to an SMS. I've missed picking him up from places because I didn't get the r…

That truly sucks.

I was speaking to my own experience. Across an iPhone, Watch, two laptops (one corporate managed), and an iPad, it all 'just works' so to speak.

I've seen your issue before and it usually is because your non-iMessage phone number is associated with the same contact record as your iMessage computer account (probably your email). The iPhone will preference sending an iMessage over a text, so if your computer is on, you won't get a text. Sadly there is no 'force-sms' setting so the (admittedly awful) workaround is to create a second contact in your son's phone that is just your phone number.

It is indeed bullshit that it doesn't work for you.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#102

Post by bscphil »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #79
bscphil wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site rightly has a different attitude when, say, HP remotely bricks working printers because someone used unauthorized ink. We don't sit back and say "you broke the rules and that's what happens."

> when, say, HP remotely bricks working printers because someone used unauthorized ink There is evidence of intent and immutability, i.e. nobody has shown Apple won’t reverse the ban when shown the device is legitimately accessing iMessage.

Kinda like how HP will make your printer work again if you simply buy and install approved ink?

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#103

Post by voakbasda »

clay_the_ripper wrote: post #27
ccamrobertson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m sure the founder realized early on that the prospects of this becoming a valuable company on its own merits were slim If you actually knew Eric and the history of Beeper you would understand how hilariously false, absurd and revisionist such a statement is. Eric only started Beeper after validating massive interest from Hacker News for a paid app that would unify disparate communication channels.

I have no personal information on this matter, this is pure speculation. I agree that the original intent was to do as you say. But the recent actions suggest that new motives may be in play. Clearly Eric is a very intelligent person. I find it hard to believe that he believed that reverse engineering such an elaborate workaround would work after Apple had already proven that they were willing to shut him down. If Er…

I would not be surprised if it comes out that he has some backing from other companies that want to disrupt Apples monopoly on their service endpoints.

Collectively, there are many businesses that just need some precedent to give them ammunition to open up the App Store, iCloud, and more. It would not cost them much to back this kind of effort.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#104

Post by wkat4242 »

Krasnol wrote: post #94
zer00eyz wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> MMS were not encrypted a iChat and signal had parity at that intersection. The color of the bubbles means something in ichat, there was a known ui component to convey that message... Signal went from being mms + encrypted side channel to ... another messaging app adding social media features.

No it didn't. It is and always wanted to be a secure messenger which does not share your data with some big company. Providing an insecure feature within the app was stupid. People didn't even realize that this was an issue, and those who ran away now never even cared about the core features of Signal. They just wanted to have another SMS client. https://www.signal.org/blog/sms-removal-android/

It actually started as an encrypted messenger on top of SMS, TextSecure. From that perspective the inclusion of SMS made a lot of sense.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#105

Post by wkat4242 »

troupo wrote: post #59
nurtbo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are its design problems?

off the top of my head: - all useful interactions are hidden behind useless slow animation and multiple additional clicks - photo selection is an awkward double scroll - stickers are tied to external apps, cannot be searched, take ages to load when you switch between sets - link unfurling and file previews are hit and miss, often take ages to happen - pinned chats are useless awkward circles that take up space instea…

Telegram is my favourite messenger indeed.

I don't care much for its stickers but it has a ton of quality of life features. Group chats with topics. Built in translation. Fully supported bots that can add tons of functionality. Voice message transcription. Full access to everything on the web. No problems with bridges (eg to matrix). I'm happily paying the premium fee too which is only 30€ a year. It provides even more quality of life stuff like fully automatic translations (my Spanish isn't the best yet)

Here in Spain it's used a lot especially for groups. WhatsApp is still #1 for 1:1 chats but all the groups (eg associations) i know use telegram.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#106

Post by heyoni »

eddieroger wrote: post #39
kevingadd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you call it other than retaliation? Punishment? Surprise behavior?

Consequence for acting against Apple's terms of service.

Everybody be on the lookout for ToS breakers! The scum must be outed, shamed and alienated. No one should feel sorry for them and we should all compare their actions to piracy or cheating in a video game. Clearly these “beeper” using are infiltrating the platform so they can spam our legitimate users by purchasing $3000 laptops and claiming that they’re only using said app for convenience!

Round them up boys!

PS: my iMessage account was flagged for sending spam (never happened) and unsolicited messages from a legit device. Apple can’t tell where the messages are coming from is what that means.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#107

Post by heyoni »

troupo wrote: post #95
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all useful interactions are hidden Maybe this is why I prefer it. Text is first class on iMessage. WhatsApp and Telegram messages tend to have crud, e.g. stickers and weird shit happening with photos. To each their own.

Text is first class in all messages. You don't have to add photos, or stickers, or anything. But when you need to, it's there at your fingertips, not hidden behind laggy animations, seconds of loading, and awkward interactions

I think being presented with these options on every line of text is the crud. It’s exhausting and cluttered.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#108

Post by heyoni »

crimbles wrote: post #38

I bet if you sign out of iCloud then reinstall the Mac and sign in again it'll work again. This is probably the machine signing key being shot down for using it with an unauthorised client rather than the mac being completely banned itself.

Nope. And they’re not detecting the client but going by usage patterns.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#109

Post by crimbles »

heyoni wrote: post #108
crimbles wrote: post #38

I bet if you sign out of iCloud then reinstall the Mac and sign in again it'll work again. This is probably the machine signing key being shot down for using it with an unauthorised client rather than the mac being completely banned itself.

Nope. And they’re not detecting the client but going by usage patterns.

Is there a reference for this anywhere / secondary confirmation? Would like to understand risk exposure of relying on iMessage going forward.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#110

Post by heyoni »

crimbles wrote: post #109
heyoni wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. And they’re not detecting the client but going by usage patterns.

Is there a reference for this anywhere / secondary confirmation? Would like to understand risk exposure of relying on iMessage going forward.

This is based on personal experience and user reports where those whose beepers installed displayed errors continued to work, whereas beeper installs configured to refresh registration codes automatically were much more likely to be banned.

It’s important to note that an error in the former config could be ignored for like a month without any actual service disruption; it was 100% aesthetic in some cases.

A week ago I updated my beeper client and it set itself to automatically refresh registration tokens and got banned. I disabled iMessage on all my devices after that.

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