Today, the effort to bring iMessage to Android users has added a new contender. Beeper, a startup that has been developing a multi-platform message aggregator, has launched a new app called BeeperMini that allows Android users to send and receive end-to-end encrypted iMessages for just $1.99 per month. BeeperMini was only possible because the team behind the app successfully reverse-engineered the iMessage protocol.
"This is a major breakthrough," explained Beeper co-founder and CEO Eric Migicovsky. "We're actually no longer a middleman. What we've done is reverse-engineered the iMessage protocol down to the very bottom of the protocol. So BeeperMini doesn't use a Mac server as a relay like other apps do (he noted) Sunbird, which had previously been involved in security breaches, also brought the mobile phone manufacturer Nothing into the trap) - they just have a MacMini in a certain data center. "When you send a message, you actually send the message to the MacMini, and then it forwards it to iMessage," he said.
The company claims that Beeper cannot access users' information content. And, unlike Sunbird's recently suspended efforts to try to solve the same problem, Beeper doesn't send messages in the clear.
Messages sent from Android phones using BeeperMini are end-to-end encrypted for recipients, the company said. Information is encrypted on the device before it leaves the app. Encryption keys are only stored in the phone's Android file system, similar to other apps like Signal and WhatsApp. The app does not connect to any of Beeper's own servers, only Apple servers, just like "real" iMessage texts.
This means BeeperMini can run as a true iMessage client, with support for high-resolution photos and videos, threads, replies, read receipts, direct messages and group chats, click-back emoji reactions, editing and unsending messages, as well as support for stickers, GIFs, voice notes, and more. Features not yet supported include real-time location sharing, message effects, and support for FaceTime audio and video calls. Users do not need an AppleID to use BeeperMini.
"This is a full-featured iMessage app," Migicovsky said. "For all intents and purposes, BeeperMini looks like what an iPhone could do."
So if Apple wanted to take action against BeeperMini, it might not be able to simply automatically block BeeperMini's text messages, though the co-founder acknowledged that it's uncertain how Apple would react.
However, he pointed out that a provision in copyright law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA 1201F), stipulates that reverse engineering for interoperability purposes is protected. Of course, this doesn't necessarily stop Apple from issuing a "cease and desist" notice to Beeperlegal. Apple has sued spyware maker NSOGroup to prevent it from using Apple services, and Apple could pursue legal action here if it wanted to. What may be stopping it is the Digital Marketplace Application (DMA), a European law that requires big tech companies to provide interoperable interfaces for their chat networks. Antitrust concerns are also emerging in the United States, and Apple is under federal scrutiny, which may also be a bad time to target Beeper.
However, to be fully trusted, BeeperMini would also need to be audited by a third party, which it has not yet done. Additionally, Beeper uses certificate sockets, which makes network traffic analysis more difficult to verify its claims. The company said its external audit was still "ongoing" but that it had conducted an internal audit. The company announced the results on its blog, along with a detailed, more technical description of how the BeeperMini works.
For example, the team explains here how a new service, BeeperPushNotificationservice (BPNs), needs to be set up to make it work:
"A persistent connection to APNs is required to receive new information in real time. On the iPhone, the APNs connection is maintained by the operating system and is always connected. In BeeperMini, the connection is only maintained while the app is running because Android does not natively support APNs."
To get around this limitation, the team built a BPN to connect to Apple servers on the user's behalf when the app is not running.
In testing, the Beeper Mini worked as described, sending iMessages from an older Android phone on the Google Fi wireless network to an iPhone 15 Pro Max whose phone number had nothing to do with an Apple ID. Full-resolution photos and other features like tap back and typing indicators also work. However, when an Android phone's battery runs out, text messages turn into green bubbles and fail to enter the Beeper app, instead going to Google Messages.
The company also hopes to earn trust by building openly, publishing more than 50 projects on GitHub and incorporating open source code into its applications. In addition, the company’s founder is a well-known figure himself, having built promising technology products including the Pebble smart watch.
Beeper was founded in 2020 by former Y Combinator partner Eric Migicovsky and chief technology officer Brad Murray, who previously worked at wholesale market startups Faire and Fitbit. The two co-founders met at Pebble, the smartwatch company founded by Migicovsky, and worked together to build the hardware brand that was later acquired by Fitbit.
Mijikovsky said that as a lifelong Android user, he was inspired to create Beeper by personal needs. Initially, Beeper launched a multi-network chat app that supports about 15 different networks, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, Signal, Slack, Instagram, LinkedIn, Discord, GoogleChat, AndroidSMS, iMessage, etc.
"Before I started using Beeper, I didn't really know much about iMessage. I didn't understand why people loved it so much," Migicovsky said. "I think one of the reasons is that iMessage is so ingrained into iOS that as an iPhone user it's second nature to you. When you want to get in touch with someone, you open the Messages app."
However, he has lived in Europe and Asia, where he gathered friends through a wider network of apps. He didn't understand the appeal of iMessage in the United States because he was simply excluded from the green bubble in his friends' iMessage chats.
The original Beeper app had 50,000 people sign up in its first week and now has about 100,000 testers in closed beta. The app spans mobile and desktop and supports RCS (via Beeper's open source bridge). BeeperMini will soon be able to send and receive SMS and RCS. With the launch of BeeperMini, which only supports iMessage, early Beeper will now be transformed into "BeeperCloud". Over time, BeeperMini will add other networks as well as SMS and RCS back to the platform, and BeeperClould will end its mission. By then, BeeperMini will once again be called Beeper.
BeeperMini is priced competitively at $2.99 per month with a seven-day free trial, compared with $15 per month for competitor Texts.com, which was recently acquired by Automattic. The startup says it's able to keep costs down because it's targeting a broader market that includes Android, iPhone, Mac, Windows and Linux.
Beeper also has venture capital backing, having raised $16 million in Series A funding to date, led by Initialized Capital’s Garry Tan, who is now president and CEO of YCombinator. Other backers include SVAngel, SamsungNext, Liquid2Ventures, Shrug Capital’s NivDror, Kevin Mahaffey, and others. Beeper is a distributed team of 25 people, while Migicovsky is based in Palo Alto.
Asked whether Samsung's investment meant the company might be interested in making acquisitions down the road, Mickikovsky simply replied, "No comment." "They've been very supportive of us."
BeeperMini is available for public download today on the Google Play Store.