Beeper Mini
Consumer and social
messaging app
SHOW HN2023
1,521points
874comments
#2of 3,109 in 2023
Top 1%of 2023 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
46 positive, 122 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 78 critical, out of 249 comments about the project. Thread score -0.12.
Idea: 17 for, 12 againstPrivacy: 4 for, 16 againstPricing: 4 for, 15 againstExecution: 6 for, 10 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Technical achievement of reverse engineering iMessage
From 2 comments
This is an amazing technical achievement and there is no world where it doesn't get banned.
cschep on HNIt's really impressive that a high school student [1] has managed to reverse engineer iMessage. What I'm wondering is: 1. How stable is it; would it be trivial for Apple to patch…
happyhardcore on HN
Brings attention to interoperability and standards
From 1 comment
This seems like it won't last, but it's AWESOME and I really hope you survive Apple's inevitable attempts to kill this. A universal chat application would be amazing, and will…
bogwog on HN
Objections
Subscription fee and signup requirements feel off-putting
From 3 comments
First they require email and personal info. Then they tell you it's a monthly subscription. Felt like a terrible onboarding experience and a bit of a dark pattern.
ddxv on HNThe fee and requiring account signup are a dealbreaker. Hopefully someone will create a FLOSS alternative.
b8 on HNDon't wait until I've given you access to my Google account to tell me that it's a paid service... that's just scummy and a fantastic way to lose me as a customer. Seen a lot of…
satiric on HN
Apple will likely block it or it won't last
From 3 comments
This is an amazing technical achievement and there is no world where it doesn't get banned.
cschep on HNIts awesome to reverse engineer this... but.. At the end of the day, this product is taking money for using Apple Services with no recompense to Apple. It won't last. Apple…
InTheArena on HNFirst... I want to say this is awesome and really really cool. I'm an android user and honestly don't care about blue bubble or iMessage features, but I know A LOT of people care…
itslennysfault on HN
Risk of account bans on other services
From 2 comments
Beeper is a really cool idea by some cool people (people behind the Pebble smartwatch) but I've resisted using it for fear of bans. I don't want my…
joshstrange on HNWhatsapp is known for banning accounts that use any kind of third party clients. For Android users on iMessage (insane achievement!) obviously this isn't such a big issue, as…
keyme on HN
Privacy concerns about phone number and contact handling
From 2 comments
https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works > SMS access is used to send an SMS text message from your number to Apple’s “Gateway” service. The gateway sends a response via…
cbsks on HNHi Eric! Big fan of Beeper, Pebble, and hopefully the yet-to-be small android phone. I had some questions that I was ill-equipped to answer, and hoped I could throw them your…
dabluecaboose on HN
Requests
Local backup option for chats
From 2 comments
Great work, this looks very cool and seems to work well. I hope one day to see a local backup option, as it's important to me that my chats are not lost.
david_van_loon on HNThe biggest question I have is what does the exit story look like? I know it's a common problem for people switching to Android from an iPhone (keeping their phone number) and…
TrueDuality on HN
Open source version
From 2 comments
Do I understand correctly that you charge $8/month for this? I can't wait for an open source version of this app.
KETpXDDzR on HNThe fee and requiring account signup are a dealbreaker. Hopefully someone will create a FLOSS alternative.
b8 on HN
Support for Google Voice numbers
From 2 comments
Can I make this work with my Google Voice number?
sauwan on HNIs there any way to do this on iPhone? I use a Google Voice number since Google Voice came out, and I would love to iMessage from it, but Apple won't let me add it as a number…
benmanns on HN
Questions
What happens to messages if the service ends or Apple blocks it
From 2 comments
The biggest question I have is what does the exit story look like? I know it's a common problem for people switching to Android from an iPhone (keeping their phone number) and…
TrueDuality on HNI'm more interested in the future of now beeper cloud. As I understand it you will deprecate it at some point in the future. Does that mean that you will stop supporting the…
zufallsheld on HN
Whether it is permitted by Apple and Google Play policies
From 2 comments
Did you get permission from Apple to connect to their servers? Google Play does not allow apps to connect to 3rd party APIs without consent. The relevant policy can be found at:…
sprite on HNIt seems that at least the push notification registration part uses a "leaked/extracted" FairPlay private key [1]. As far as I understand, FairPlay certificates/keys should be…
jdiez17 on HN
Alternatives named
RCS messaging
From 2 comments
As Android user, this seems useless to me. What do I get by switching over to this "blue bubble" platform? RCS messaging is pretty good and has most of these advertised features…
tantalor on HNAt this point, why not just wait for Apple to release their RCS implementation? The nicest thing about iMessage (for me, at least) has always been that it was a significant…
rootusrootus on HN