Bringing iMessage support to Android phones has been a rocky road for Android with Apple keeping it exclusive to iPhones and Android apps using shifty methods to work around the limitations. But a new app has finally managed to pull it off in a secure way.
Meet Beeper Mini, which brings iMessage support to Android phones, sending messages directly from an Android phone to Apple servers. It can scan through your text messages and figure out which ones came from iPhones and turn them blue while Android messages will be kept green. Once you message an iPhone user through Beeper Mini, it will look like you are using iMessage too.
Group chats will also automatically sort between blue and green messages and send them over to the iPhone side seamlessly. The app comes with all your standard messaging app features such as reactions, threads, photos, and stickers, and it sends and receives all messages without any compression too.
Beeper Mini is the latest addition to the series of apps aiming to integrate the iMessage experience with Android. Unlike similar services, Beeper Mini’s approach is unique, as it directly sends messages, according to Migicovsky.
This contrasts with other methods, including Beeper’s earlier version, which transmitted messages via a cloud-hosted Mac, raising significant security concerns. This issue was recently highlighted by the quick launch and withdrawal of Nothing’s app, Nothing Chats, and its related service, Sunbird. Both apps faced serious security flaws, leading to Nothing Chats being discontinued within four days of its release, followed by Sunbird’s app removal.
How Did They Do It?
Beeper Mini sets itself apart by employing a fundamentally different approach, sidestepping some of the issues faced by its predecessors. The development team behind Beeper Mini innovatively devised a method to register a phone number with iMessage, enabling direct message sending to and from Apple’s servers within the app.
This achievement required a thorough analysis and reconstruction of Apple’s messaging system. The Beeper team meticulously determined the appropriate message format, the necessary destination for message delivery, and the process for retrieving messages from the cloud. According to Migicovsky, the most challenging aspect was overcoming Apple’s stringent verification process, which is designed to ensure that only genuine Apple devices can use the service.
Migicovsky said:
We jailbroke iPhones then dove deep into the OS to see how everything worked. Then wrote new code from scratch to reproduce everything inside our Android app.
Migicovsky asserts that the outcome is a secure third-party version of iMessage: Beeper Mini. This implementation ensures privacy, as Beeper doesn’t access users’ messages, contacts, or Apple ID passwords. It doesn’t even require users to log in. Essentially, he explains, it connects to Apple’s servers like how an iPhone would.
Pricing and Future Updates
Upon its debut, the service, priced at $2 monthly, will initially provide iMessage access exclusively. Migicovsky indicates that Beeper Mini plans to expand its scope, shedding the “Mini” label and incorporating the full range of chat services currently available on the main Beeper app. This expansion will include popular platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, and others, all unified in a single, user-friendly interface.
Additionally, Migicovsky notes that integration of SMS and RCS (Rich Communication Services) is on the horizon. However, the inclusion of these additional services might slightly increase the pricing.
