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

arstechnica.com

421–430 of 665 posts

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

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iMessage is routed through apple's servers over TCP. So this is like saying: sometimes I go to google.com but it randomly loads bing.com... must be related to my group carrier plan What data made you make that association? Seems unlikely. If that happens, then apple would have to be routing messages incorrectly, but that would be a massive bug/security issue... especially considering how E2EE works.

Yeah sounds more like the aunt and uncle once shared an Apple ID and then moved to seperate ones later.

Interesting. Do you know how they could fix it? I will send them this thread. They will love it.

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

#422

Completely uninformed question, doesn't this fight just push people to WhatsApp? I never use SMS, and no one in Mexico does either. My friends in Europe seem to largely use WhatsApp as well. So it really seems like Americans are outliers in their choice for iMessage / SMS. So, wouldn't this push Americans to WhatsApp?

[deleted]

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

#424

As I mentioned in the previous discussion[1], users are going to have to put up with the system going down... and I just don't see that happening. From the article: "It was losing messages during the outage and never being entirely certain they had been sent or received. There was a gathering on Saturday, and she had to double-check with a couple people about the details after showing up inadvertently early at the wr…

Apple's iMessage implementation loses messages all the time. It happens about once every month between my girlfriend and I. I have also had iMesages be sent to the wrong recipient. In one ongoing case, my aunt and uncle frequently receive each other's iMessages, suggesting it's related to their group carrier plan but it's hard to say. The extended family all knows to use SMS instead, which reliably goes to the intend…

Youre being downvoted but I also lose a message every few months between my girlfriend and I. We both have relatively new iPhones and exclusively use iMessage so I do think its some rare protocol bug.

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

#425
post #419

Completely uninformed question, doesn't this fight just push people to WhatsApp? I never use SMS, and no one in Mexico does either. My friends in Europe seem to largely use WhatsApp as well. So it really seems like Americans are outliers in their choice for iMessage / SMS. So, wouldn't this push Americans to WhatsApp?

Most people who use iMessage here have literally no idea this is even happening and would not care if I told them. It's still just as hard as it's always been to get all of your friends/contacts to "just switch to WhatsApp".

Also, pretty sure the overlap of "would ever want to use Whatsapp" and "cares about iMessage at all" is zero. Either you have Apple Status Symbol people, or you have "Meta can die in a fire entirely" or "idk, I just use SMS and some people have iMessage". The first and last groups aren't gonna switch, and the middle are probably only ever going to use Telegram or Signal.

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

#426

This seems to be Beeper's insincere attempt at dressing up their grievances to appear as if they were in advantage of the [Apple's] customer. Apple has made it clear that they won't bring iMessage to Android. People who choose to invest in Android phones know they won't get access to iMessage. It seems a bit entitled behaviour for someone to feel like Apple should be forced to bring iMessage to Android for any reason…

Entitled behavior is Apple dictating what code I can run on my non-Apple servers and devices. They can keep blocking it, and people will keep finding workarounds. That's the nature of DRM. It's not a battle they can win.

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

#427
post #144

A lot of people don’t understand the absolutely insane (and totally stupid) power of “blue text” in social settings, especially among teens. “Green text” is social suicide, largely because a lot of reactions and emojis and stuff don’t work. It’s also a status symbol… even though high end Android phones cost about what higher end iPhones cost and refurb iPhones are cheap. The iMessage platform is probably the stronges…

> A lot of people don’t understand the absolutely insane (and totally stupid) power of “blue text” in social settings In America. The rest of the world doesnt give a shit. > Break that and the phone market gets competitive again. See above.

Most of America also doesn't give a shit. This whole blue/green bubble thing is a story only among nerds and some tech elitists.

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

#428
post #423

This ongoing saga reminds me of that famous story about how Microsoft engineers played a similar cat and mouse game to make MSN messenger interoperate with Yahoo's despite multiple efforts by the latter to block it.

Someone linked to this recently, it's a great read.

https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-19/essays/chat-wars/

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

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The better analogy is using a fake ID to get the locksmith to give you a copy of the house key. The house is Apple’s servers The fake ID is spoofed device serials and UUIDs The copy of the house key is the authentication blob Nobody would blink twice if a prosecutor threw the book at someone like that. Still, somehow, I’m sure many here would complain if the DOJ would prosecute Beeper for violating the CFAA by commit…

The analogy is off in a meaningful way: you're using a "fake ID" to get the locksmith to give you a copy of your own house key because the locksmith won't accept your real ID. No prosecutor is going to throw the book at someone trying to access their own house. Apple claims I'm in control of my messages. They're on my devices. Apple refuses access to Android. Why can't I use technology to make my messages work on And…

We’re talking about accessing Apple’s servers, how would that be your own house?

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

#430
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's iMessage implementation loses messages all the time. It happens about once every month between my girlfriend and I. I have also had iMesages be sent to the wrong recipient. In one ongoing case, my aunt and uncle frequently receive each other's iMessages, suggesting it's related to their group carrier plan but it's hard to say. The extended family all knows to use SMS instead, which reliably goes to the intend…

Youre being downvoted but I also lose a message every few months between my girlfriend and I. We both have relatively new iPhones and exclusively use iMessage so I do think its some rare protocol bug.

I'm surprised so many people claim they haven't experienced it and I wonder how many have and just don't know.
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