Beeper Concedes Defeat To Crabby Apple In Blue Bubble Messaging War On Android

Beeper is throwing in the towel in its attempt to create a more seamless messaging experience between Android and Apple users. It simply became too difficult to continue to offer the service to users with Apple breaking the app’s functionality after every update. The company states that “each time that Beeper Mini goes ‘down’ or is made to be unreliable due to interference by Apple, Beeper’s credibility takes a hit. It’s unsustainable.”

Beeper did release one last update that it feels can be tolerated by Apple, although it’s highly unlikely after the Cupertino giant knocked down all prior solutions. In a final move, Beeper is opting to release the source code to its iMessage connection software that Beeper Mini and Beeper Cloud rely on. Meaning that anyone else looking to attempt a similar service can use this as a head start.


The blog post also served as a way to respond to the critics of the service. It refutes the claims that it’s a malicious app that poses as a threat to users by pointing to the release of the source code, so that others can look through it themselves. It also tackles the claims it’s abusing credentials to gain access to iMessage by pointing to an earlier post with an explanation of how that particular part of the service works.

Creating a service such as Beeper without an agreement in place with Apple was always going to be an uphill battle. However, there might be another chance for something better with Apple’s upcoming support of RCS, at least in terms of expanded feature support when messaging between platforms. As it pertains to Apple's grip on blue bubbles, the Cupertino outfit previously said it intends to continue color coding Android messages in green even after it rolls out RCS support.