Beeper Mini has had a busy two weeks. The messaging app first introduced iMessage support on Android phones without the need for an Apple ID earlier this month. Then, Apple sprang into action and blocked the company’s iMessage service citing security concerns. Beeper scrambled to get iMessages working on Android, eventually resuming service with some restrictions. The Apple ID requirement, for once, was back. Now, the messaging app has provided another update on its iMessage service. Beeper now requires Android phone users to have access to a Mac for the service to work reliably.
In a reddit post Tuesday, the Beeper team provided a status update for an iMessages fix on Android devices. “We’ve found a solution to stabilize the iMessage situation for Beeper Cloud and Mini,” the company said in the post. The solution is that Android users must have access to a Mac computer for iMessages to work with blue text bubbles on an Android phone.
“When you connect iMessage on Beeper, we need to send identification information called ‘registration data’ from a real Mac,” the Beeper team explained in the post. “We have, up until now, we been using our own fleet of Mac servers to provide this. Unfortunately, this has proven to be an easy target for Apple because thousands of Beeper users were using the same registration data.”
Beeper Mini announced that it will publish an update for Beeper Cloud (Mac version) on Wednesday that would generate unique registration data for each user. “This 1:1 mapping of registration data to individual user—in our testing—makes the connection very reliable,” the post said. It’s also worth noting that the Mac registration isn’t a one-time thing; Beeper users would need to have continued access to a Mac for iMessage to work. Beeper Mini needs to regenerate Mac registration data once every week or every month even after initial connection, in which case a Mac computer must be switched on regularly.
The company also mentioned that users without a Mac could ask a friend on Beeper with a Mac for their registration data. According to Beeper, their testing showed that up to 20 iMessage users could safely use the same registration data.
While Beeper’s latest update enables stable iMessages with Apple ID for Android users, it certainly presents hurdles by requiring continued access to a Mac computer.
Released December 5, Beeper Mini promised iMessage service to Android users without requiring an Apple ID. The standalone Android app connects directly to Apple’s servers, allowing users to send messages that appear as blue bubbles to iMessage users — as if sent from an iPhone. The messaging app also supports features like read receipts, typing indicators, high quality media sharing, stickers, reactions, voice notes, and GIFs.
Apple, however, quickly blocked the app soon after its launch citing privacy and security concerns. The iPhone maker said in a statement that it acted against Beeper Mini’s iMessage service as it exploited “fake credentials.” Apple said that the techniques used by Beeper “posed significant risks to user security and privacy.”
Beeper Mini restored its iMessage service on December 11, but required users to users to log in using an Apple ID since phone number registration was unavailable. The company said that it had deregistered all phone numbers from the platform and all messages would be sent and received via the email address used in the user’s Apple ID.
