Beeper Mini is back (sort of, for now)،
The Beeper Mini vs Apple cat and mouse game continues and the folks at Beeper have responded. Shortly after the Beeper Mini app was blocked by Apple last week, the app is back today with an update that restores functionality – so with one caveat.
Beeper Mini launched last week to much fanfare, as it allowed Android users to use their real phone numbers to send text messages as iMessages to their iPhone counterparts, instead of an email address. mail Apple ID as other solutions have offered in the past. However, this victory was short-lived as Apple effectively blocked the app three days later and issued a response citing significant security and privacy risks for iPhone users.
The Beeper team did not rest on their laurels, however, and worked all weekend to identify the problem and find a solution. In 24 hours they fixed the issue for the Beeper Cloud version, followed by a fix for Beeper Mini today. During the outage, Beeper also took steps to deregister phone numbers associated with the app.
The fix announced today is not yet on the Google Play Store. The Beeper team says they are doing some final testing before officially submitting the update, but those who don't want to wait can download the update directly from the Beeper website. This “fix” does not restore phone number registration, so all users must now sign in with an Apple ID. This means that your iMessages will be sent and received via the email address you have associated with your Apple ID and not your phone number. Beeper states that they are currently working on a fix to restore phone number logging.
Additionally, Beeper Mini has abandoned the subscription model for now. All users had a 7-day free trial when the app was first launched, which would make tomorrow the day the $2 per month subscription went into effect. The Beeper team says that with everything going on, they decided to make the app free until things stabilize, after which they will re-evaluate.
While Apple claimed that Beeper Mini's techniques “exploited false credentials” and “posed significant risks to user security and privacy,” the Beeper team strongly refuted these claims, saying that the The app “actually made communication between Android and iPhone users more secure.” What is abundantly clear, however, is that Apple will continue to try to stop all efforts by the Beeper team to relaunch the app and restore the phone number record.
