Despite companies like Nothing failing to do so just last month, one rather clever app has just figured out how to get iMessage running on an Android phone, as long as you are willing to pay the subscription fee.
Entitled ‘Beeper Mini’, Android users can download the app from the Play Store right now, where they are given 7 days for free before the $2 monthly fee kicks in. You’re paying for more than just a blue bubble with this app – you get the ability to join Apple-only chats, can send ‘Full size photos and videos, plus replies and reactions’, and it's end-to-end encrypted, meaning your messages are safe and secure.
As originally reported by The Verge, the basis of this app actually came from a high school student who formed the start of the app at just 16 years old. Beeper CEO, Eric Migicovsky realized his solution worked and decided to turn it into the fully-fledged app that exists now. Unlike the Nothing app and Beeper’s previous attempts, the workaround this app uses is all within the app. Your account is still registered to you and sent from the Android phone to Apple’s servers without Beeper touching it.
A natural workaround — iMore’s take
Just last month, Google wrote to the European Commission, urging them to call iMessage a ‘Gatekeeper’, essentially forcing Apple to make its messaging services available to those outside the ecosystem. For someone buying a new iPhone, it’s one of the little incentives you get for putting all that cash down but Google feels it locks users on both sides from communicating effectively. This is hard to fully believe given the myriad of chat services that many users use simultaneously.
iMessage is effectively an optional service, and apps and settings don’t really push users towards using it. Globally, few will use it as their main messaging service and even fewer will use it exclusively. Besides this, the innovations coming from Android developers prove that, no matter how it happens, Android users will one day get their hands on the service. These kinds of services feel like a much more natural conclusion than heavy-handed wide-scale regulations. At least I can now invite my Android friends to new group chats.
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