The developers of Beeper Mini, the Android app that allows Android users to have the coveted blue bubble in iMessage conversations, are back with a new version of the app. This time around, the developers are asking users to generate their iMessage registration data with the help of jailbroken iPhones.
As reported by MacRumors, Beeper Mini identifies text message conversations from iMessage, converting them to the blue bubbles associated with Apple’s messaging service. The allows Android users access to several iMessage features, such as reactions, threads, high-quality media sharing, and group chats, without the iPhone users on the other end being none the wiser.
The reverse-engineered Beeper Mini app originally launched earlier this month and promised to provide Android users with a full iMessage experience. The app registered Android users’ phone numbers with Apple’s iMessage servers.
The app did bring the much-desired “blue bubbles” to text conversations between iPhone and Android users, allowing iMessage features to work as they should. However, Apple quickly put a stop to it, as three days after the Beeper Mini launch, the app stopped working. Apple confirmed that it had slammed the brakes on the app.
The app soon came back from the dead, as developers made changes so that Beeper Mini now only works with an Apple ID email address. Android users have required access to a Mac with Beeper Cloud installed to generate their iMessage registration data and get Beeper back up and working on Android, but the service has seen reports of poor reliability, leading to the developers current solution, which requires a jailbroken iPhone.
Beeper users will now need to get their hands on a jailbroken iPhone, on which a free Beeper tool is installed, which can then generate an iMessage registration code that will reinstate the ability to register phone numbers on the service. The iPhone must be jailbroken, kept plugged into power, at home, and connected to Wi-Fi for periodic registration re-requests.
Beeper developers say that in the new year, Beeper will make available iPhone “rentals” to complete the registration process, if there is enough interest.
The plan was leaked ahead of time when a Beeper blog post was published late Wednesday and then quickly removed, but not before a snapshot was generated by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
We can expect Apple to figure out a way to shoot down this latest attempt at allowing Android users access to the coveted blue bubbles. Apple has made it quite clear that it views Beeper Mini as a security risk, and that it will continue to block the app from using iMessage in any capacity.