Beeper Takes Down Beeper Mini App From Google Play Store After iMessage Saga: Report

The Beeper team reportedly announced the app's removal from the Play Store officially Thursday via a message to Beeper Cloud users.

Written by Manas Mitul, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 12 January 2024 16:34 IST

Beeper Takes Down Beeper Mini App From Google Play Store After iMessage Saga: Report

Photo Credit: Beeper

The Beeper Mini Android app remains a priority, the Beeper team said

Highlights

The iMessage service has been moved to the 'Labs' section in Beeper Cloud
Beeper Mini app can still be sideloaded via its apk
Apple claims Beeper poses risks to user privacy and security

Beeper Mini has been involved in a long-running saga of promising to facilitate iMessage to Android users, getting blocked by Apple, and finding repeated workarounds to make the service work. The messaging platform seems to be running out of options now, as the Beeper Mini app has reportedly been removed from Google Play Store. The latest development follows an announcement from the Beeper team last month that said the app had received its final update, pretty much giving up the fight to make iMessages reliably work on Android phones.

According to a report from 9to5Google, the standalone Beeper Mini app, which enables blue bubbles iMessage texting on Android phones, has been removed from the Play Store. The Beeper team announced the decision officially Thursday via a message to Beeper Cloud users.

The iMessage feature from Beeper Mini has also been moved to the ‘Labs' section in the Beeper Cloud app. “We have moved iMessage to ‘Labs' in Beeper Cloud and removed Beeper Mini from the Play Store,” the message to Beeper Cloud users reportedly said. While the Beeper Mini app is no longer available to download from Google's storefront, it can still be sideloaded via the apk file available on the Beeper website. Beeper Cloud is still available on the Play Store.

Beeper Mini Now Lets You Send an iMessage From Android, but There’s a Catch

Additionally, Eric Migicovsky, the cofounder of Beeper also provided further update on the company's roadmap in the announcement message. According to the report, the company is working to add 14 other chat networks to the Beeper Mini Android app, which it calls its number 1 priority. “It's a completely new app, with a new design, built for top speed and performance,” the message reportedly added. The company also said that improvements to the Beeper desktop app are on the way, including a performance boost.

Last month, Beeper announced a final update for the Mini app on its blog. After multiple workarounds and fixes to get iMessage working stably on Android phones, the company admitted that its efforts were “unsustainable” in the long term. The company said it was no longer going to issue fixes for its app if Apple were to disrupt the service. “As much as we want to fight for what we believe is a fantastic product that really should exist, the truth is that we can't win a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company on earth,” the Beeper team said.

Apple, which has constantly blocked Beeper's efforts to run iMessage on Android phones, has claimed that the Beeper Mini app poses “significant risks to user security and privacy.” The Beeper team, however, denies that claim, accusing Apple instead of monopolising the iMessage service to sell more iPhone.

Beeper Says It Can’t Win Against Apple in iMessage Fight in Final Update

Earlier in December 2023, Beeper Mini, after launching, getting blocked by Apple, and finding a workaround, announced that its new fix to run iMessage on Android phones would require Beeper users to access a Mac for registration.

Will the Nothing Phone 2 serve as the successor to the Phone 1, or will the two co-exist? We discuss the company's recently launched handset and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Beeper, Beeper Mini, Beeper Cloud, Android, iOS, iMessage, iPhone, Apple

Manas Mitul

Email Manas Mitul

In his time as a journalist, Manas Mitul has written on a wide spectrum of beats including politics, culture and sports. He enjoys reading, walking around in museums and rewatching films. Talk to Manas about football and tennis, but maybe don’t bring up his video game backlog. More