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I don’t want iMessage for Android – I just want everyone to use good messaging apps

Over the past several weeks, iMessage for Android has been a big topic of discussion and, for many, it comes back to why Android users seem to want iMessage so much. Personally, I don’t. iMessage for Android just happens to, somehow, be the path of least resistance when it comes to using a decent messaging app with people.

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Hands-on: Beeper Mini might be even better than an actual iMessage app for Android

beeper mini

The idea of an iMessage app for Android has been a dream for years, but with Apple now adopting RCS, it also feels like something we’ll never see happen. But the folks over at Beeper have been working on a wild new app that brings iMessage to Android and, after trying it out, this feels like what we’ve all been waiting for.

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‘Beeper Mini’ brings native iMessage support to Android, no Apple sign-in required

beeper mini

iMessage for Android. Even in this new reality where Apple intends to adopt RCS, it’s still something that people want because, after all, iMessage is very popular. And while Apple will probably never do it, the folks at Beeper are launching a new app, “Beeper Mini,” which brings iMessage support to Android that closely mimics the experience on iPhone, and does so in a way that’s “native.”

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Nothing Chats, the Sunbird-based iMessage app, is a privacy nightmare with unencrypted messages and images

nothing chats app play store

Sunbird has been promising iMessage support on Android for about a year now, but the company has always seemed rather sketchy. Now, as Nothing Chats, built on Sunbird, has launched, the privacy nightmare is coming true – not only is the app not end-to-end encrypted as promised, but image files from other users are pretty easy to access in plain text.

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Beeper adds support for Google Messages RCS alongside iMessage, works on Android and iPhone

google messages delivered read icons

RCS is available to every Android user at this point, but that hasn’t ended the messaging headaches that come from iMessage and the lack of RCS on iPhone. But now, the third-party app Beeper can support both Google Messages RCS and Apple iMessage on both Android and iPhone, all within the same app.

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Messaging is no longer Android’s mess, it’s an iPhone problem: Talking RCS with Hiroshi Lockheimer

Picture of phone with Google Messages in front of iPhone

A few weeks ago, at MWC 2023, I had an opportunity to sit down with Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president of Platforms and Ecosystems at Google, to talk about RCS messaging. While there was not a lot into the future of what Google is planning with Google Messages and RCS as a protocol, I did get a good look into how RCS came to be and how Google sees it.

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iMessage RCS

Apple ‘not currently considering’ adopting RCS, despite EU law requiring iMessage interoperability

A new report from Bloomberg today says that Apple is planning to open the iPhone up to third-party app stores for the first time. The report, however, also says that Apple hasn’t made a decision on “how it may open iMessage and its Messages app to third-party services.”

Like the App Store changes, this is something that would be required under the new Digital Markets Act in the European Union.

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Apple’s Craig Federighi says iMessage for Android would have ‘held us back in innovating’

craig federighi imessage wsj event

iMessage is a powerful messaging platform for iPhone users that changed the game for messaging, but over the years, it has also served as a lock-in tactic and even developed a prejudice between Android and iPhone users. In an interview this week, Apple’s Craig Federighi said that iMessage for Android would have been a “throwaway” effort that would have “held [Apple] back in innovating.”

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