The IT Nerd

From the “this is sketchy AF” department comes this report from MacRumors that Beeper is so desperate to get Beeper Mini working again, that they are turning to using jailbroken iPhones to do it:

The developers of Beeper Mini, the iMessage for Android app, are back with another attempt to keep Apple’s blue bubbles onside, and this time they will ask users to generate their iMessage registration data with the help of jailbroken iPhones, MacRumors has learned.

And:

In its latest effort to keep the service afloat, Beeper will suggest that users get hold of an old iPhone to get iMessage working on their Android phone. Users will then be asked to install a free Beeper tool to generate an iMessage registration code that will reinstate the ability to register phone numbers on the service. The catch is that the iPhone must first be jailbroken, and it must be plugged into power, at home, and connected to Wi-Fi for periodic registration re-requests.

If users don’t have access to an old iPhone for jailbreaking in order to complete the registration process, that’s okay – Beeper will rent them one for a small monthly fee. The developers say this service will be available in the new year, if there is enough interest. The plan was leaked ahead of time when a Beeper blog post was published then swiftly removed, but not before a snapshot was generated by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, as spotted by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris.

The fact that Beeper has to resort to increasingly sketchy methods to get and keep their service working only serves to underline the fact that the company is on the wrong side of this issue. On top of that, you have to wonder how many Android users are going to be willing to hop through these hoops to get that blue bubble experience.

At this point, if Android users really want the blue bubble experience this badly, then they should just buy an iPhone and be done with it. To me it seems far easier than this nonsense.

This entry was posted on December 21, 2023 at 9:14 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.