Beeper Mini lets Android users send messages to their iPhone friends as a blue bubble, with their Android phone numbers also appearing in blue.
The standalone Android app claims to be end-to-end encrypted, with no server, Mac or iPhone required to function. Other solutions like Sunbird that powers Nothing Chats require Apple ID credentials, posing a severe security risk.
As developers have figured out how the iMessage protocol works, the app can register a user’s phone number with Apple’s servers and send messages as a blue bubble. Beeper Mini is available to download today from Google’s Play Store.
Beeper Mini brings native iMessage support to Android
Other iMessage features also seem to work in Beeper Mini. When your iPhone friends text you, your Android phone number will be blue instead of green.
Android users can also group chat with iPhone users without breaking the experience for everyone with their green bubbles. Photo and video attachments are sent in their original size, so no more fuzzy SMS/MMS media like before.
Beeper Mini supports other usual iMessage chatting features such as emoji reactions, Tapbacks, typing indicators and read receipts. Even the latest iMessage features work, like message editing and message retraction.
But because Beeper Mini lacks access to your Apple ID credentials, it cannot import your old iMessage chats from iCloud. For further info, visit beeper.com.
Does Beeper Mini know my Apple ID?
The Beeper team explained in a blog post that their solution does not compromise the privacy of Apple users. With end-to-end encryption implemented natively within the Android app itself, no one can see iMessages and encryption keys never leave the device. The app doesn’t connect to a Mac server in the cloud.
Beeper Mini keeps all messaging credentials, encryption keys, messages and media local to your phone and only sends them directly to Apple’s servers after encrypting them with iMessage’s end-to-end encryption algorithm.
Web reports indicate that Beeper Mini does seem to work as advertised, as people confimr being able to send iMessages directly from their Android phones to Apple’s servers. It can even pass along SMS texts to Apple’s gateway service.
If you do choose to sign in to your Apple ID, which is entirely optional, you’ll be able to use your iMessage email addresses and send/receive messages from other devices. Beware of the risks, though; the app will send your Apple ID credentials and a verification code directly to Apple’s servers (using encrypted HTTPS requests).
How long will this work, actually?
There’s no telling how long before Apple makes changes to iMessage to prevent this. Apple may want to fix this as soon as possible because having the iMessage protocol and encryption reverse-engineered doesn’t look good from a security standpoint.
On the other hand, Apple has pledged to support the RCS protocol in the Messages app. Besides, taking Beeper to court wouldn’t reflect well on Apple’s standing with regulators worldwide.
“We built Beeper Mini by analyzing the traffic sent between the native iMessage app and Apple’s servers, and rebuilding our own app that sends the same requests and understands the same responses,” the team said.
The adventurous types can get the proof-of-concept Python code from Github and tinker with it on their computer. Beeper Mini costs $2/month after a 7-day free trial.