<story><title>Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android</title><url>https://www.beeper.com/</url><text>Hi HN! I’m proud to share that we have built a real 3rd party iMessage client for Android. We did it by reverse engineering the iMessage protocol and encryption system. It&amp;#x27;s available to download today (no waitlist): &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.beeper.ima&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.beeper.ima&lt;/a&gt; and there&amp;#x27;s a technical writeup here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Unlike every other attempt to build an iMessage app for Android (including our first gen app), Beeper Mini does not use a Mac server relay in the cloud. The app connects directly to Apple servers to send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages. Encryption keys never leave your device. No Apple ID is required. Beeper does not have access to your Apple account.&lt;p&gt;With Beeper Mini, your Android phone number is registered on iMessage. You show up as a ‘blue bubble’ when iPhone friends text you, and can join real iMessage group chats. All chat features like typing status, read receipts, full resolution images&amp;#x2F;video, emoji reactions, voice notes, editing&amp;#x2F;unsending, stickers etc are supported.&lt;p&gt;This is all unprecedented, so I imagine you may have a lot of questions. We’ve written a detailed technical blog post about how Beeper Mini works: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&lt;/a&gt;. A team member has published an open source Python iMessage protocol PoC on Github: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;JJTech0130&amp;#x2F;pypush&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;JJTech0130&amp;#x2F;pypush&lt;/a&gt;. You can try it yourself on any Mac&amp;#x2F;Windows&amp;#x2F;Linux computer and see how iMessage works. My cofounder and I are also here to answer questions in the comments.&lt;p&gt;Our long term vision is to build a universal chat app (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;were-building-the-best-chat-app-on&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;were-building-the-best-chat-app-on&lt;/a&gt;). Over the next few months, we will be adding support for SMS&amp;#x2F;RCS, WhatsApp, Signal and 12 other chat networks into Beeper Mini. At that point, we’ll drop the `Mini` postfix. We’re also rebuilding our Beeper Desktop and iOS apps to support our new ‘client-side bridge’ architecture that preserves full end-to-end encryption. We’re also renaming our first gen apps to ‘Beeper Cloud’ to more clearly differentiate them from Beeper Mini.&lt;p&gt;Side note: many people always ask ‘what do you think Apple is going to do about this?’ To be honest, I am shocked that everyone is so shocked by the sheer existence of a 3rd party iMessage client. The internet has always had 3rd party clients! It’s almost like people have forgotten that iChat (the app that iMessage grew out of) was itself a multi-protocol chat app! It supported AIM, Jabber and Google talk. Here’s a blast from the past: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;k6rmOgq.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;k6rmOgq.png&lt;/a&gt;.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>sneak</author><text>What would they demand they cease doing?  Publishing software?&lt;p&gt;If the use of this software is against their rights in some way, the end users running it would be the ones in violation. Publishing original software is protected expression.</text></item><item><author>smashah</author><text>Have you ever received C&amp;amp;D for your work? There&amp;#x27;s a big problem of OSS projects being TOS-trolled by billion dollar companies and having to shut down out of fear.</text></item><item><author>wslh</author><text>One of my companies lives from this kind of things so it would last if someone could fund it. More food for thought: &amp;quot;Reflecting on 16 Years of Work on Adversarial Interoperability&amp;quot; (now, more than 20...) [1]&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.nektra.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;reflecting-on-16-years-of-work-on-adversarial-interoperability&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.nektra.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;reflecting-on-16-years-of...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>bogwog</author><text>This seems like it won&amp;#x27;t last, but it&amp;#x27;s AWESOME and I really hope you survive Apple&amp;#x27;s inevitable attempts to kill this. A universal chat application would be amazing, and will maybe help bring attention to the value of standards and interoperability (hopefully by governments&amp;#x2F;regulators).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lxgr</author><text>One prominent counterexample to this thesis is DRM circumvention software, which regularly gets taken down via DMCA notices. I wouldn&amp;#x27;t be surprised if Apple even invokes that particular law.</text></comment>
<story><title>Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android</title><url>https://www.beeper.com/</url><text>Hi HN! I’m proud to share that we have built a real 3rd party iMessage client for Android. We did it by reverse engineering the iMessage protocol and encryption system. It&amp;#x27;s available to download today (no waitlist): &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.beeper.ima&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.beeper.ima&lt;/a&gt; and there&amp;#x27;s a technical writeup here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Unlike every other attempt to build an iMessage app for Android (including our first gen app), Beeper Mini does not use a Mac server relay in the cloud. The app connects directly to Apple servers to send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages. Encryption keys never leave your device. No Apple ID is required. Beeper does not have access to your Apple account.&lt;p&gt;With Beeper Mini, your Android phone number is registered on iMessage. You show up as a ‘blue bubble’ when iPhone friends text you, and can join real iMessage group chats. All chat features like typing status, read receipts, full resolution images&amp;#x2F;video, emoji reactions, voice notes, editing&amp;#x2F;unsending, stickers etc are supported.&lt;p&gt;This is all unprecedented, so I imagine you may have a lot of questions. We’ve written a detailed technical blog post about how Beeper Mini works: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-beeper-mini-works&lt;/a&gt;. A team member has published an open source Python iMessage protocol PoC on Github: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;JJTech0130&amp;#x2F;pypush&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;JJTech0130&amp;#x2F;pypush&lt;/a&gt;. You can try it yourself on any Mac&amp;#x2F;Windows&amp;#x2F;Linux computer and see how iMessage works. My cofounder and I are also here to answer questions in the comments.&lt;p&gt;Our long term vision is to build a universal chat app (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;were-building-the-best-chat-app-on&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.beeper.com&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;were-building-the-best-chat-app-on&lt;/a&gt;). Over the next few months, we will be adding support for SMS&amp;#x2F;RCS, WhatsApp, Signal and 12 other chat networks into Beeper Mini. At that point, we’ll drop the `Mini` postfix. We’re also rebuilding our Beeper Desktop and iOS apps to support our new ‘client-side bridge’ architecture that preserves full end-to-end encryption. We’re also renaming our first gen apps to ‘Beeper Cloud’ to more clearly differentiate them from Beeper Mini.&lt;p&gt;Side note: many people always ask ‘what do you think Apple is going to do about this?’ To be honest, I am shocked that everyone is so shocked by the sheer existence of a 3rd party iMessage client. The internet has always had 3rd party clients! It’s almost like people have forgotten that iChat (the app that iMessage grew out of) was itself a multi-protocol chat app! It supported AIM, Jabber and Google talk. Here’s a blast from the past: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;k6rmOgq.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;k6rmOgq.png&lt;/a&gt;.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>sneak</author><text>What would they demand they cease doing?  Publishing software?&lt;p&gt;If the use of this software is against their rights in some way, the end users running it would be the ones in violation. Publishing original software is protected expression.</text></item><item><author>smashah</author><text>Have you ever received C&amp;amp;D for your work? There&amp;#x27;s a big problem of OSS projects being TOS-trolled by billion dollar companies and having to shut down out of fear.</text></item><item><author>wslh</author><text>One of my companies lives from this kind of things so it would last if someone could fund it. More food for thought: &amp;quot;Reflecting on 16 Years of Work on Adversarial Interoperability&amp;quot; (now, more than 20...) [1]&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.nektra.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;reflecting-on-16-years-of-work-on-adversarial-interoperability&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.nektra.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;reflecting-on-16-years-of...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>bogwog</author><text>This seems like it won&amp;#x27;t last, but it&amp;#x27;s AWESOME and I really hope you survive Apple&amp;#x27;s inevitable attempts to kill this. A universal chat application would be amazing, and will maybe help bring attention to the value of standards and interoperability (hopefully by governments&amp;#x2F;regulators).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>graphe</author><text>This was tried by apple. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.engadget.com&amp;#x2F;apple-drops-its-lawsuit-against-a-manufacturer-of-i-phone-emulators-082100357.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.engadget.com&amp;#x2F;apple-drops-its-lawsuit-against-a-m...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>