Apple responds to the Beeper iMessage saga: ‘We took steps to protect our users’::Beeper, like Sunbird and Texts, sought to find a way to bring iMessage to Android users. Its app, Beeper Mini, worked well. But a few days after it launched, Apple took steps to shut it down.
The default OS text messaging apps dominate the messaging space in certain markets - most notably the US. Moreover, Apple has over 50% of the smartphone market in the US.
Sending media from Android to iOS looks like flip-phone trash right now. It’s done via MMS. It’s also not secure.
This will change when Apple starts implementing RCS, but Beeper was a way to start having high quality messaging now.
Sending media from Android to iOS only looks like trash on all carriers except Verizon. You can send high quality TO iOS if the network supports it.
You can never send high quality MMS from an iPhone, even on Verizon.
I’ve tested this many times. I’ve sent 50mb video from a Verizon Android to a Verizon iPhone, it receives a 50mb video. Send the same video back from the iPhone to Android, and iPhone butchers the quality.
What about the other way around?