The Beeper Mini app, designed to allow Android users to access iMessage text support, faced trouble as soon as it caught Apple’s attention. Yesterday, the entire Beeper platform seemed to be malfunctioning, sparking speculation that Apple had shut down the iMessage workarounds. This morning, Beeper Mini was still posting on X, indicating that it was working on fixing the outage. However, an announcement from Apple today may render these efforts futile.
Apple stated that they took steps to protect users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials to access iMessage. These techniques posed risks to user security and privacy. Although Apple did not mention Beeper Mini by name, the timing of recent events makes it likely that this refers to the loophole the platform was using.
Beeper’s method involved sending users’ texts to Apple’s servers before forwarding them to the intended recipients. Apple also stated that messages sent through unauthorized means posing as having valid credentials cannot maintain end-to-end encryption. Beeper had anticipated that this workaround might eventually be shut down, and it appears that the Android-iOS messaging divide remains intact for now.
