Beeper’s iMessage for Android solution is cut off by Apple and Senator Warren is not happy

We have had an interesting few weeks to say the least when it comes to iMessage and the whole blue bubble vs green bubble saga on iMessage where Android users have a green bubble next to their name if the message is not sent from an iPhone. Apple says that this is because the messages sent from outside iOS devices are not end-to-end encrypted and they don’t allow iMessage outside of iOS device so we don’t know if they will be encrypted. But first Nothing, and now Beeper, found their own solutions to allow Android users to send messages with their bubbles being blue same as iOS devices. Apple’s response to this was blocking Beeper Mini from access to its iMessage platform so they can’t send messages to iPhone users from their Android phones. Obviously, Apple sees this as faking the green bubble as sending the message from an iPhone and wants to differentiate between Android and iOS users.

After reading this report, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote, “Green bubble texts are less secure. So why would Apple block a new app allowing Android users to chat with iPhone users on iMessage?”. She added, “Big Tech executives are protecting profits by squashing competitors. Chatting between different platforms should be easy and secure”. After this, Apple had to give a statement which did confirm that they blocked Beeper Mini’s access to iMessage and said that it took “steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage.” It also suggested that Beeper’s techniques “posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks.”

What we can add to this story is that the Senator might be misguided here because making the bubble blue for Android users does not mean that it is safer than earlier because it is just a way to prevent users from having the green bubble and only Apple can officially make these chats safer with end-to-end encryption. Beeper, however, claims it was able to offer the same level of encryption as iMessage uses, but did not put its app through a third-party security audit prior to its launch, which would have strengthened its argument.