Apple blocking Beeper Mini, not a service unto itself but an unauthorized client for a proprietary platform that costs a lot to run, is not anticompetitive
what a shame! I swear, these companies — Meta, Spotify, and Epic come to mind — are the whiniest bastards ever. In a hypothetical situation where Meta made its own phone and Apple wanted to create an iMessage client for it, do you think Meta would allow users to choose which messaging client they want to use? … Scott Spencer / @lscottspencer : Beeper was a stupid idea. Android users don't really want iMessage. They want Apple to allow modern messaging with Android users. All that takes is adopting RCS. Daniel Kuney / @danielkuney : Would love an API for all messaging services so those of us who want to can consolidate them into apps like Beeper or Texts. @eshumarneedi : I really think I just need to sit down one afternoon before CES — perhaps next week — and write about this Beeper nonsense. The unfettered entitlement and self-labeled righteous indignation exhibited by that company, the Meta/Facebook sheeple on Threads, and the malformed “enthusiasts” all over the net are all just way too much for me to ignore. … Jason Ostrander / @jasonostrander : Mostly agree with @gruber here: https://daringfireball.net/... But this part rankles. None of these alternatives comes preinstalled. Are we really calling that competing? Jonathan Jemson / @jonjesbuzz : “Being really good at competing is not anticompetitive.” Well said. Colin / @batlogic : Because of who frequently makes the argument (smart people in tech that honestly should know better) I'm convinced it's just David vs Goliath. As soon as WhatsApp takes over the conversation will become “Why can't I send messages from <<insert_messaging_app - ironically at that point including iMessage>> to my friends on WhatsApp” @laughing.han : I think this is a reasonable argument for why Apple shouldn't be forced to open up iMessage; but I think Apple SHOULD be forced to support RCS. To use his own analogy, it's as if Apple obstructed improvements to the public lounge in order to make their own lounges more attractive by comparison. … Ben Adida / @ben_adida : This is quite a misguided take. Concluding that Apple iMessage won because it's “really good at competition”? Come on. iMessage is the only app on iOS allowed to access and therefore be backwards compatible with SMS. That's why everyone uses it. … Matt / @mattt__b : The rest of the world outside America seems to get on just fine using WhatsApp for basically everything and the Messages app just for receiving SMS when needed. Colin / @batlogic : I really think people make the iMessage argument because it's an easy one to make (large company makes big phone with a pre installed thing). Love a lot about @gruber's take. I even made that Amex lounge argument yesterday. *pats self on back* Steven Ojo / @darkzuckerberg : The free for all of apps on windows is responsible for billions from various malware and viruses, Apple isn't bad for selling a platform where users don't have to worry about that. It takes nation-state level actors to find and exploit zero days on iOS, whereas script kiddies like myself as a teen could write proof of concept windows viruses lol Brian Ford / @brianericford : “Big Tech” is basically Warren's go-to bogeyman rhetoric and at this point I think these threats and constant demands for dog-and-pony-show congressional hearings is doing more to stifle innovation and competition than the corporations could ever hope to do. Fr. Ron Offringa / @ronoffringa : I don't think Beeper was on the right side of any of this and I don't think the politicians have any idea what they're talking about, but I also think the core concern continues to be lost. No one chooses to use iMessage. It's the default. That's part of what made it succeed. … Craig Mod / @craigmod : with so many (better — so much better) options for messaging, I don't understand why folks would jump through so many hoops for iMessage (I also suspect this is largely a US-only issue? The rest of the world is Whatsapp/Line/Telegram/WeChat?) Or maybe I'm just inured to using six different messaging apps. Adam Mosseri / @mosseri : It an issue that is most accute in the US, Australia, and Canada. My best guess is it has to do with a combination of iPhone market share, the prices local carriers set for SMS years ago, and the local price sensitivity. Free better SMS with anyone is a very compelling value proposition, and was even more so ten years ago in countries where people couldn't afford SMS and had lots of friends without iPhones. Adrian Lee / @adrianlee.xyz : The airport lounge analogy would be more convincing if you didn't also spruik adblockers https://daringfireball.net/... “everyone can see how a premium airport lounge costs a lot of money to run: leasing the space, hiring staff, and all the free food and beverages.” Can't you see the hypocrisy? … Chris Martin / @schrismartin : Love the metaphor. I'm definitely going to use this in conversations among my circles. Someone brought up to me that Apple prevents third-party apps on iOS from implementing SMS. How does the equation change when major airport hubs are only able to provide a default airport experience in terminals with Centurion lounges … Marcus Anthony / @solespire.marcus : I personally like the exclusively of iMessage on iPhone and other Apple devices. It's fast, secure, and reliable. You can literally send any file format, without worrying about any degradation. Our company lives in iMessage group chats, which tie nicely with shared Notes, Calendars, Reminders, and shared iCloud folders. Sol Hedaya / @followsol : I love @onbeeper and really wish it was allowed to work (and rooted for them to win the cat&mouse game), but this is right on every point. Apple has no obligation to allow falsified devices on its network. While there's a great argument for antitrust around the App Store, there really isn't for iMessage, particularly in light of RCS coming. Adam Mosseri / @mosseri : Overall I think your take is fair, but I would personally be more sympathetic to the “iMessage is an option” argument if Apple didn't use its position as a platform to advantage iMessage over alternates like WhatsApp and Signal with the combination of pre-installing and not asking for notification permissions like they (reasonably) require of every other app. Mastodon: Ernie Smith / @ernie@writing.exchange : Half of Americans use an iPhone. — Comparing it to the digital version of a fancy airport lounge is not the flex that you think it is. It also highlights a lot of the classism/social ostracism at play in this whole debate. — It's not 2001 and Apple's devices aren't for the exclusive few anymore. … X: Luther Lowe / @lutherlowe : Not surprising but still lame of @gruber to launder Apple PR here: https://daringfireball.net/... I suspect a week FTC/Congress/DOJ simultaneously took interest in the Beeper issue will be looked back as major inflection point. Apple is hemorrhaging its significant Biden juice. [image] Antonio García Martínez / @antoniogm : Of all big-company products where I think “damn, this sucks given all the resources behind it,” Messages from Apple tops the list. Never have I seen a consumer app fail more at concurrency and replication across devices. It's not even a fast or high-throughput problem. Antonio García Martínez / @antoniogm : @nicholasadeleon Yes, it is better. Americans are non-WA users (despite it being an American company) because it was originally designed for the non-US where texting was still expensive (but data was cheap). In the US, carriers offered free texts as a teaser, so there was no reason to use it. Nicholas De Leon / @nicholasadeleon : @antoniogm Honestly WhatsApp is so much better I don't understand why more folks in the US don't use it. Galen Panger / @gpanger : Watching my mom try (and fail) to use Siri over the holidays to do simple things makes me think that iMessage is Apple's best hope to hold off the competition from Android until they can get Siri's act together. 😏 https://daringfireball.net/... Parker Ortolani / @parkerortolani : this is the right take
Daring FireballJohn Gruber
Context & Ripple Effects
The Beeper Mini dispute moved from an initial shutdown to a limited return that required an Apple ID after phone-number registration failed, underscoring how dependent the client was on access to iMessage’s underlying system. Beeper’s Apple-ID-dependent relaunch did not resolve that dependency.
The fight also arrived while the DOJ’s long-running examination of Apple reportedly took interest in the block. That makes the practical access dispute relevant to a broader question: when a proprietary communications platform must accommodate third-party clients, if at all. DOJ interest in Apple’s Beeper block
First-order effects
Apple retains control over which clients can connect to iMessage, leaving Beeper Mini unable to offer independent, reliable phone-number-based access.
Beeper users face a less direct product experience where use depends on Apple credentials rather than Beeper’s own registration path.
Second-order effects
Third-party messaging developers have a clearer incentive to avoid products that rely on undocumented access to proprietary messaging infrastructure, or to seek formal APIs instead.
The dispute sharpens scrutiny of Apple’s rationale for limiting interoperability, particularly because iMessage had previously been described as a strategic product for competing with other messaging networks. iMessage’s planned expansion toward social features
Third-order effects
If platform owners continue to treat messaging access as a controlled layer rather than an interoperable one, competition will concentrate around owning the endpoint and user identity instead of building alternative clients.
Regulatory and antitrust debates may increasingly distinguish between opening interfaces for interoperability and requiring a platform to support services that depend on unauthorized access; the record here does not settle where that line should fall.
The trend: The Beeper episode is part of a wider contest over access-layer power: whether dominant consumer platforms can reserve core network functions for their own clients.
And then conversely, Apple has *advantaged* third-party messaging apps by refusing to ship an iMessage client for Android. I think it's completely unknowable what the messaging world would look like today if Apple had shipped iMessage for Android around, say, 2013, but surely th…
Apple is generally pretty good about subjecting its own apps to the same permission prompts as everyone else's, but Messages is an obvious exemption. I'd argue the advantage isn't notification permissions, though, but the truly seamless upgrading of iPhone-to-iPhone SMS chats to…
I'm not an Apple fan boy but I agree with @gruber they were completely within their rights in blocking Beeper Mini. iMessage is a service that Apple provides to people who buy Apple devices just like iCloud. Both cost money to run and maintain. Android users have no legal or mo…
ultimately I don't see how iMessage is all that dissimilar from BlackBerry Messenger. It's a dedicated messaging service for the users of a particular OS that takes full advantage of the system's capabilities to deliver more value to its users. It's free, it's built in, and it'…
The inherent issue with this take (and I'll try to be nice here)... is that of fucking course the default doesn't ask for notification permissions, just like the messaging client on Android doesn't. Yeah, the dialer should also be muted by default so when you get your first call…
This message was delivered on a platform that leveraged the position of Instagram to bootstrap its social graph. Instagram has never allowed third party clients, and Facebook pulled Twitter's API access when it launched a “Find My Facebook Friends” feature.
Apple's iMessage actions in North America are clear monopoly abuse. The problem is we have no current legal structure in place to curtail it. There are no antitrust laws that necessarily give us leeway into making a more competitive messaging market in North America. …
Oh no, Meta doesn't get to free-load on Apple's platform — what a shame! I swear, these companies — Meta, Spotify, and Epic come to mind — are the whiniest bastards ever. In a hypothetical situation where Meta made its own phone and Apple wanted to create an iMessage client for…
Beeper was a stupid idea. Android users don't really want iMessage. They want Apple to allow modern messaging with Android users. All that takes is adopting RCS.
I really think I just need to sit down one afternoon before CES — perhaps next week — and write about this Beeper nonsense. The unfettered entitlement and self-labeled righteous indignation exhibited by that company, the Meta/Facebook sheeple on Threads, and the malformed “enthu…
Mostly agree with @gruber here: https://daringfireball.net/... But this part rankles. None of these alternatives comes preinstalled. Are we really calling that competing?
Because of who frequently makes the argument (smart people in tech that honestly should know better) I'm convinced it's just David vs Goliath. As soon as WhatsApp takes over the conversation will become “Why can't I send messages from <<insert_messaging_app - ironically at that …
I think this is a reasonable argument for why Apple shouldn't be forced to open up iMessage; but I think Apple SHOULD be forced to support RCS. To use his own analogy, it's as if Apple obstructed improvements to the public lounge in order to make their own lounges more attractiv…
This is quite a misguided take. Concluding that Apple iMessage won because it's “really good at competition”? Come on. iMessage is the only app on iOS allowed to access and therefore be backwards compatible with SMS. That's why everyone uses it. …
The rest of the world outside America seems to get on just fine using WhatsApp for basically everything and the Messages app just for receiving SMS when needed.
I really think people make the iMessage argument because it's an easy one to make (large company makes big phone with a pre installed thing). Love a lot about @gruber's take. I even made that Amex lounge argument yesterday. *pats self on back*
The free for all of apps on windows is responsible for billions from various malware and viruses, Apple isn't bad for selling a platform where users don't have to worry about that. It takes nation-state level actors to find and exploit zero days on iOS, whereas script kiddies li…
“Big Tech” is basically Warren's go-to bogeyman rhetoric and at this point I think these threats and constant demands for dog-and-pony-show congressional hearings is doing more to stifle innovation and competition than the corporations could ever hope to do.
I don't think Beeper was on the right side of any of this and I don't think the politicians have any idea what they're talking about, but I also think the core concern continues to be lost. No one chooses to use iMessage. It's the default. That's part of what made it succeed. …
with so many (better — so much better) options for messaging, I don't understand why folks would jump through so many hoops for iMessage (I also suspect this is largely a US-only issue? The rest of the world is Whatsapp/Line/Telegram/WeChat?) Or maybe I'm just inured to using s…
It an issue that is most accute in the US, Australia, and Canada. My best guess is it has to do with a combination of iPhone market share, the prices local carriers set for SMS years ago, and the local price sensitivity. Free better SMS with anyone is a very compelling value pr…
The airport lounge analogy would be more convincing if you didn't also spruik adblockers https://daringfireball.net/... “everyone can see how a premium airport lounge costs a lot of money to run: leasing the space, hiring staff, and all the free food and beverages.” Can't you se…
Love the metaphor. I'm definitely going to use this in conversations among my circles. Someone brought up to me that Apple prevents third-party apps on iOS from implementing SMS. How does the equation change when major airport hubs are only able to provide a default airport ex…
I personally like the exclusively of iMessage on iPhone and other Apple devices. It's fast, secure, and reliable. You can literally send any file format, without worrying about any degradation. Our company lives in iMessage group chats, which tie nicely with shared Notes, Cale…
I love @onbeeper and really wish it was allowed to work (and rooted for them to win the cat&mouse game), but this is right on every point. Apple has no obligation to allow falsified devices on its network. While there's a great argument for antitrust around the App Store, there…
Overall I think your take is fair, but I would personally be more sympathetic to the “iMessage is an option” argument if Apple didn't use its position as a platform to advantage iMessage over alternates like WhatsApp and Signal with the combination of pre-installing and not askin…
Not surprising but still lame of @gruber to launder Apple PR here: https://daringfireball.net/... I suspect a week FTC/Congress/DOJ simultaneously took interest in the Beeper issue will be looked back as major inflection point. Apple is hemorrhaging its significant Biden juice. […
Watching my mom try (and fail) to use Siri over the holidays to do simple things makes me think that iMessage is Apple's best hope to hold off the competition from Android until they can get Siri's act together. 😏 https://daringfireball.net/...
Of all big-company products where I think “damn, this sucks given all the resources behind it,” Messages from Apple tops the list. Never have I seen a consumer app fail more at concurrency and replication across devices. It's not even a fast or high-throughput problem.
@nicholasadeleon Yes, it is better. Americans are non-WA users (despite it being an American company) because it was originally designed for the non-US where texting was still expensive (but data was cheap). In the US, carriers offered free texts as a teaser, so there was no reas…