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Beeper reverse-engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users (techcrunch.com)

submitted 9 months ago by L4s to c/technology

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Beeper reverse-engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users::The push to bring iMessage to Android users today adds a new contender. A startup called Beeper, which had been working on a multi-platform messaging

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 9 months ago (12 children)

It's not the android side that's failing, it's Apples refusal to implement anything other than SMS for cross ecosystem compatibility.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (9 children)

@Mountaineer @gregorum Apple is going to implement RCS, the EU put pressure on them.

However I am surprised that Beeper was able to do this in software. With everyone else using an Apple device as a proxy, I figured the protocol required a magic handshake from the TPM chip in an Apple device. That would be easy to do.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (5 children)

There's some gotchas in Apples statement:

They have promised to implement "RCS Universal Profile"
This means the bare minimum, not the advanced features implemented by Google and Samsung etc.
An example of a missing feature from Universal Profile is end to end encryption.

They also said: "This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users."
The implication of this is that it won't be in the iMessage app, it will be in a separate but official app, siloing your Android friends from your iPhone friends.

When this comes out, every European is going to shrug and keep using Whatsapp.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

@Mountaineer Encryption needs to be added to the standard, and then Apple will be expected to implement it. Hopefully the EU knocks some heads together and makes this happen.

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and has ads, which is two good reasons not to use it. Europeans are just as "stuck with a bad standard" as Americans are here.

I use RCS quite a bit and like it. Although nothing on a phone should be regarded as truly secure.

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