People like to use messaging apps and that’s a given. You have WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and even Instagram to some extent. But when you talk about closed platform apps, you can count on iMessage for iPhones and RCS for Android devices. Apple’s history and strategy means iMessage was never going to come to Android.
So, it was always going to be a third-party hand that could bring iMessage to Android users which happened through Sunbird and now Beeper Mini. Latest updates point to the basic problem of trying to bring a closed platform to Android, which Apple clearly doesn’t like.
Beeper Mini claims it has written the code for iMessage from scratch which allows it to run on Android, but Apple has the actual rights to transmit iMessage content, which the Beeper Mini was using to fool. So it was obvious that when the iMessage for Android app got so much attention, Apple would quickly plug the holes and block access for Android users.
But here’s the thing, how many Android users actually want iMessage? If you go through the data, WhatsApp is the clear winner, which is compatible with both Android and iOS. Then you also have the likes of Signal, Telegram and a few more. We have been hearing about RCS chats from Google lately, which Apple is going to bring to iPhone in 2024 after regulatory pressure.
So, if someone says that iMessage on Android is a big miss, they are not part of the majority. Now, when you consider the user base in the US, most of them use iPhones, which means iMessage comes to them by default. Are they unable to chat with their friends who use Android? Not at all, and that’s where apps like WhatsApp come into the picture. Some of you are right to talk about Apple’s apparent push to block the service but when it is done without consent from Apple, these events were bound to happen.
After tracking the Beeper Mini episode in the past few weeks, where the app was blocked from running through iMessage server, it has become apparent that this Android app for iMessage is not worth the time and effort, especially when you have better options that work across both the platforms.
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