The saga between Beeper and Apple seems to be coming to and end as the messaging app is now moving away from its workaround to enable iMessage on Android devices. After a long back and forth of Apple working to block Beeper's solutions, the startup says it can no longer compete with the tech giant's resources and will be shifting focus. In a new blog post, Beeper acknowledged it "can't win a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company on earth." Each time one of its workarounds goes down, Beeper's credibility takes a hit. So the company says it will not respond if its latest method involving crowdsourced jailbroken iPhones and Macs is blocked. Instead, Beeper is looking ahead to 2024, noting it will concentrate efforts on "building the best chat app on earth." The workaround software enabling iMessage on Android through Beeper Mini and Beeper Cloud is now entirely open source. Users can inspect the code themselves to verify Beeper is not stealing data or messages. “It’s straightforward to verify that Beeper Mini is not a malicious app designed to steal your messages and accounts, or harvest your data. If you want, you can inspect the code of our core open source iMessage bridge (which is embedded inside Beeper Mini), and self-host it yourself to prove that it only connects to Apple servers.” Beeper even offered to reimburse Apple for any infrastructure costs incurred by opening iMessage to Android users. But Apple has remained steadfast in defending iMessage as exclusive to its platforms. Earlier, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked the US Department of Justice to investigate if Apple's actions against Beeper constituted anticompetitive behaviour. However, with Beeper moving on, it's uncertain if a probe will still occur. The company says it believes making its iMessage bridge software open source is "something Apple can tolerate existing." But Beeper's tone indicates it sees the writing on the wall. After months of playing cat and mouse, the startup is conceding it cannot compete with Apple's vast resources and control over iMessage.
