tbh, I don’t like where this new product seems to be taking Beeper. I was a giant fan of Beeper because they were a huge contributor to the matrix project. But with them creating an entirely new app that doesn’t rely on matrix at all, it looks like they may be looking to pivot away and create their own client-side implementations rather than use matrix bridges. It would be sad to lose a contributor to the matrix space.
Yes. Hopefully they’ll continue to maintain the mautrix bridges they already have.
Also it’s sad to see Beeper misusing the term open source for the source available SSPL [1]. Beeper is free not to use an open source license. But an open source “license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor” [2], so it’s misleading to call their demo [3] open source.
I do believe supporting the different messaging services client side could be a better experience than relying on a server to translate between different protocols.
In the future, we are planning to add Matrix network support back in, along with support for the 15 other chat networks in Beeper Cloud. Read more about our roadmap.
But why the obsession with iMessage and apple product?!? Cannot every people at least send a SMS to others and that’s it? We don’t care about the colour of the bubble!!!
It basically copies the best of every other messaging platform. I was at my in-laws where everyone on my wife’s side has an iPhone and we’re talking about a LOT of the features.
can tell if notifications are turned off on phone
read receipts
higher quality limit on video/pictures sent
messaging that can be done in wifi-only areas (imagine having a few group threads/people you CANT talk to while at home because you live in a dead zone)
Any other big feature of any other messaging app I was able to think of (Signal/Whatsapp, discord, slack) is all there (except public chatrooms and private servers obvs), WITH OS integration
I still like my pixel, but I get it now.
Still holding out hope that Google allows for RCS features to come to Google voice.
Definitely going to look into this when I have the time. If it’s not using your Apple ID for authentication (like the article says), what’s to stop anyone from spoofing anyone else’s phone number?
The pypush readme doesn’t have a lot of details so I guess I’ll just need to try it to see.
Edit: Looks like he’s distributing “a framework from an old version of macOS, in order to call some obfuscated functions”, which the script pulls from his GitHub. This is likely a copyright violation. If Beeper Mini is doing the same thing, I’d expect them to get sued into oblivion the second Apple takes notice.
It’s not clear which version of macOS he pulled this from. There’s always the risk that Apple will simply axe support for it. I don’t recall them breaking support for older OSes with iMessage in the past but I haven’t followed that closely so I’m not sure.
Update:
Just ran it on my desktop. It immediately prompts for a username and password, presumably for an Apple ID. I didn’t continue because I don’t want to use my real Apple ID. The article says Beeper Mini doesn’t need an Apple ID at any point. After a little searching, it looks like iPhones actually don’t need an Apple ID to use iMessage. I was not aware of that. So I guess Beeper is not using the exact same mechanism as pypush.
Beeper has been working in this space for awhile - there’s no way they would publish an app with a copyright violation. I assume they have a workaround for that aspect.
Eh, imessage isn’t worth paying a subscription for. Not a monthly one for sure. Like, I’m glad people have the option now, but I just don’t see the benefit being high enough to warrant a subscription.
If it’s that Beeper then it’s not just about imessage, but facebook messenger, whatsapp, instagram, telegram, viber and a few others too. Beeper supports all that, by using Matrix bridges.
Interesting. I just checked and found the information. It sounds like they want to rebuild the whole app and just add one service at a time. They are starting with just iMessage.
Edit: I wonder how long this will last. They aren’t using a Mac to log you into your iCloud account with this. They have found a workaround.
“This is now possible because the iMessage protocol and encryption have been reverse engineered by jjtech, a security researcher.”
Edit 2: I’m really curious about this. The researcher has some Python that can run anywhere and let you send iMessages. It seems like something the Apple would shutdown, but, on the other hand, I wouldn’t expect Beeper to introduce an app that might get disabled.
Its a new version they called Mini because it only supports iMessage natively. There is a research who reverse engineered how iMessage works that’s how they manage to make it work without an Apple account and just your phone number.
Add comment