iMessage on Android (For Real this Time)

[mr fobs]

Summary

 

An app called Beeper Mini is now available that uses a reverse engineered version of iMessage to send real EE2E messages from Android phones to Apple's iMessage on iPhones. It connects directly to Apples servers and does not need a Mac Farm. It costs $2 a month, but I suppose they have to pay their devs somehow. Apple releasing updates in attempts to break this could also break some of its older devices.

 

It doesn't even require an Apple ID.

 

Quotes

Quote

In fact, Beeper Mini even works if you don’t sign into an Apple ID, which is crazy. -9to5Google

 

My thoughts

Sad that it has to come to this, however I love power moves like this. I personally have no reason to use it, but this could be incredibly useful for people  with lots of friends since it supports both RCS and iMessage.

 

Sources

https://9to5google.com/2023/12/05/beeper-mini-imessage-android-app/

https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/05/imessage-on-android-oneplus-open/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/beeper-mini-on-android-claims-to-have-reverse-engineered-imessage-compatibility/

[GuiltySpark_]

I wonder how long until that mysteriously disappears. 

[whispous]

35 minutes ago, mr fobs said:

Summary

 

An app called Beeper Mini is not available

A typo that will soon be correct without you having to edit it!

[mr fobs]

9 minutes ago, whispous said:

A typo that will soon be correct without you having to edit it!

Fixed! lol yea I can't imagine Apple is going to take this lying down

[williamcll]

No security concerns this time?

[StDragon]

 

[mr fobs]

9 hours ago, williamcll said:

No security concerns this time?

None that I'm Aware of. Not using a Mac farm and E2EE from your device to the other are great steps.

[linkboy]

Well, it was good while it last, but Apple (not surprisingly), killed it.

 

Apple killed Beeper Mini

 

 

[Commodus]

5 hours ago, linkboy said:

Well, it was good while it last, but Apple (not surprisingly), killed it.

 

Apple killed Beeper Mini

 

 

I can't really be mad at Apple over this particular response. So long as iMessage is proprietary, Apple will want to crack down on uses that are built on reverse engineering. I'd like Apple to open things up, to be clear, but I'm not going to complain that it did what it's practically obligated to do with iMessage in its current state.

[GuiltySpark_]

5 hours ago, linkboy said:

Well, it was good while it last, but Apple (not surprisingly), killed it.

 

Apple killed Beeper Mini

 

 

 

On 12/5/2023 at 3:23 PM, GuiltySpark_ said:

I wonder how long until that mysteriously disappears. 

Three days.

[thevictor390]

Somewhat surprisingly, it's back!

https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-mini-is-back

Start the countdown again.

[cooky560]

Isn't Apple supposed to be opening iMessage due to stuff in the EU?

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, cooky560 said:

Isn't Apple supposed to be opening iMessage due to stuff in the EU?

No, they are just going to support baseline RCS instead. Which is the bare minimum and doesn't even include end to end encryption. So, basically SMS with benefits. Then again, RCS is a mess even on Android as most people don't even have it enabled, so you're still just sending SMS and MMS instead.

 

I've pushed my sister to use Signal and we've been using it for ages now to chat to each other and especially for sending images as MMS is just crap and while Signal still compresses them, it's not significantly worse.

[cooky560]

So basically, iphone to iphone remains e2e, but nothing else does?

[Obioban]

2 hours ago, cooky560 said:

So basically, iphone to iphone remains e2e, but nothing else does?

Apple is also working with whatever the body behind RCS is to add e2e to the official RCS standard, at which point they will presumably support it.

[LAwLz]

3 hours ago, cooky560 said:

So basically, iphone to iphone remains e2e, but nothing else does?

In which scenario are you talking about specifically?

 

Someone on an iPhone using the iMessage app to send an RCS message to someone with an Android phone? Then no, it won't be end-to-end encrypted.

End-to-end encrypted RCS messages only work if you use Google's RCS client and Google's RCS servers. 

 

Hopefully Apple will manage to make it a part of the standard though.

[cooky560]

I'm thinking about 2 scenarios here:

 

1.) Alice messages Bob, who both have iphones

2.) Carl messages Debbie, one has iphone and one has android.

 

I assume that scenario 1 remains e2e as it does now, but 2 doesn't.

[linkboy]

10 hours ago, cooky560 said:

I'm thinking about 2 scenarios here:

 

1.) Alice messages Bob, who both have iphones

2.) Carl messages Debbie, one has iphone and one has android.

 

I assume that scenario 1 remains e2e as it does now, but 2 doesn't.

 

Yes, but that's exactly how it is right now with the SMS/MMS fallback that Apple's messages app has. 

 

10 hours ago, LAwLz said:

In which scenario are you talking about specifically?

 

Someone on an iPhone using the iMessage app to send an RCS message to someone with an Android phone? Then no, it won't be end-to-end encrypted.

End-to-end encrypted RCS messages only work if you use Google's RCS client and Google's RCS servers. 

 

Hopefully Apple will manage to make it a part of the standard though.

 

They did say they were going to work with Google and the GSMA to get encryption added to the base standard. 

 

I do think Apple will. They have more pull then Google does. Companies go out of their way to placate Apple. 

[LAwLz]

15 hours ago, cooky560 said:

I'm thinking about 2 scenarios here:

 

1.) Alice messages Bob, who both have iphones

2.) Carl messages Debbie, one has iphone and one has android.

 

I assume that scenario 1 remains e2e as it does now, but 2 doesn't.

Correct.

[Touch My Hamm]

I use beeper and its kinda cool. Its missing ALOT of features you get from each messaging app. My main complaint was all the different chat apps and having them in one place which is great with Beeper. Imessage, sms, fbchat, insta, discord, whatsapp, telegram all in one place. So instead of having to open 6 different chat apps where someone sends a link or chats I simply have it all in one place. Havnt used the mini yet.

[Avaviel]

They're DONE.

https://www.engadget.com/beeper-says-its-done-playing-cat-and-mouse-with-apple-over-its-imessage-for-android-app-182213320.html

Done with cat and mouse... If you have a jailbroken iPhone you can keep iMessage on android.

This is one of my frustrations: I OWN an iPhone. Why can't I have iMessage on PC? Google has a great 'mirroring' messages feature. Even works with SMS. Everything over the internet to the phone and back to my PC.

[ShardsSuperior]

3 hours ago, Avaviel said:

Why can't I have iMessage on PC? Google has a great 'mirroring' messages feature. Even works with SMS. Everything over the internet to the phone and back to my PC.

The answer is unfortunately obvious: Apple wants you to buy a Mac to go with your iPhone (as well as browbeat all your friends into buying iPhones, but that's a different thing).

[Avaviel]

On 12/21/2023 at 7:56 PM, ShardsSuperior said:

The answer is unfortunately obvious: Apple wants you to buy a Mac to go with your iPhone (as well as browbeat all your friends into buying iPhones, but that's a different thing).

I have a separate plan to install a Mac Mini's mainboard into my Corsair 500D... This is mostly so I can have some of the various encoding it can do, but part of the purpose was to get imessage at my desk. I'll still do it. (It would be a fun thing to bring the tower to an Apple Store asking for 'service'.)

[RejZoR]

On 12/13/2023 at 4:48 PM, LAwLz said:

In which scenario are you talking about specifically?

 

Someone on an iPhone using the iMessage app to send an RCS message to someone with an Android phone? Then no, it won't be end-to-end encrypted.

End-to-end encrypted RCS messages only work if you use Google's RCS client and Google's RCS servers. 

 

Hopefully Apple will manage to make it a part of the standard though.

The fact that RCS isn't E2EE by default is just baffling. Literally the main issue of SMS along with multimedia limitations is its interception. And the fact that banks often use SMS for 2FA, it's even more baffling when on the other end entire internet is now HTTPS pretty much by default. Are they really so afraid of terrorists sending their evil plans through encrypted RCS that they want it in plain text?

[LAwLz]

4 hours ago, RejZoR said:

The fact that RCS isn't E2EE by default is just baffling. Literally the main issue of SMS along with multimedia limitations is its interception. And the fact that banks often use SMS for 2FA, it's even more baffling when on the other end entire internet is now HTTPS pretty much by default. Are they really so afraid of terrorists sending their evil plans through encrypted RCS that they want it in plain text?

Just to be clear, RCS messages are encrypted. It's just not end-to-end encrypted. 

From what I know, Google Messages (the app) will always use Google's RCS servers, so neither your carrier nor other people can see the content of your messages. Google can however see it. If you used an RCS server that was hosted by your carrier, then Google wouldn't be able to see it, but your carrier would have been able to. But as we know, barely anyone adopted RCS so now we're kind of stuck using Google's servers.