Senator Warren calls out Apple for shutting down Beeper's 'iMessage to Android' solution

Permanently Deleted

What's the point of asking questions when this community just downvotes? Why even have a forum if it's only use is to.upvote things that agree with your pre established opinions?

Honestly it's hard to see how messages don't fall under the protection of net neutrality.

If it accessed the message system directly then it makes sense. They're was one just before it that ran on Mac mini farms.

I have such a love/hate relationship with my senator.

• She basically brought the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau into existence, which helps TONS of people not get fucked over by banks and stuff
• Simultaneously, she tends to support corporatist stuff a frustrating amount of the time, and (similar to how Feinstein was, but not quite as bad) doesn’t really know what she’s talking about when it comes to tech and the nuances involved

Edit: to be clear, this isn’t me doing a “hail corporate” and saying Apple is categorically in the right here - simply that there are a LOT more technical complexities going on here than the (reductive) statement Warren made seems to indicate

If this sparks an interoperability discussion (and actions) in the USA, it'll be ironic for Apple who might escape interoperability in the EU.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Warren, an advocate for stricter antitrust enforcement, posted her support for Beeper on X (formerly Twitter) and questioned why Apple would restrict a competitor.

In explaining its decision to cut off Beeper’s access to its servers, Apple said that it took “steps to steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage.” It also suggested that Beeper’s techniques “posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks.”

In addition, Cupertino-based tech giant argued against Beeper’s security, saying it was not able to verify that messages sent through unauthorized means were able to maintain the end-to-end encryption iMessage offers.

Beeper, however, claims it was able to offer the same level of encryption as iMessage uses, but did not put its app through a third-party security audit prior to its launch, which would have strengthened its argument.

As of its most recent update on Sunday, the startup posted that work continues on the outage and it hopes to “have good news to share soon.”

Beeper Mini, then, became an app that focused solely on bringing iMessage to Android for $1.99/month, with the intention of expanding its capabilities over time.

The original article contains 474 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Did Beeper clear its usage of the iMessage platform with Apple? Sign a contract? Get an SLA agreement with Apple in writing?

I was under the impression that they found essentially a back door/work around to latch into the iMessage platform… in that case this is no different than Cisco patching some routers or MS fixing a security hole. If anything I’d be more annoyed that Apple didn’t patch it quicker.

I’d love to be able to use iMessage with my android friends, but Beeper’s methods seemed sketchy as hell.

Permanently Deleted

Why should our government care about this? I've been on android for over a decade now, I have 0 interest in this imessage bullshit and I don't understand why our government representatives care

What benefits are there to expanding this system? Why should they waste resources spending time on this?

Also this community would rather just downvote than actually have a discussion. Engage with me instead of downvoting me this time, stop downvoting things you disagree with, this isn't reddit. I'm contributing to the conversation and you have an opportunity to explain the reasons behind this

Edit: thank you to all the people who took the time to answer my question

iPhones have the largest share of the US smartphone market. iMessage is the default messaging app on every iPhone, and cannot be changed. Ergo, iMessage is one of the top 5 largest messaging apps in the US. I believe it’s number 3 or 4 behind FB Messenger, WhatsApp, and FaceTime (also an Apple product). sims freeplay mod apk unlocked everything level 99

Who the hell uses iMessage? Do some people really only have friends with apple phones?

Apple is a private company what business does the gov have here?

Mass murdering brown kids? Go ahead champ, here are a few more billions so you can keep doing and it's antisemitic to call me out for it.

Cant get my blue bubble???????? Now wait a fucking minute champ 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

Sit down and shut up Pocahontas. Uggh, garbage like this is what is so detestable about 98% of politicians.

If there's a legal issue here, it's for the courts to decide.

And I've tested Beeper Mini, I find it an interesting idea. Whether it's legal for them to do is an interesting question. My guess is "possibly/probably", but lawyers are good at arguing arcane points.