Founder of Pebble brings iMessage to Android with some ’trickery’

Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced some changes to its privacy policy Sent users They are scrambling to transfer their social life via mobile phone to a new network. Signal obtained a file flow Richly Eligible new users, Android users have bemoaned the fact that they cannot switch to iMessage from Apple. All this is a long way to say the time is right for a career in messaging solutions–And the Pebble founder claims he has a strange new solution.

Pepper It is an upcoming app that sells itself as a hub for all of your messaging services. Instead of managing half a dozen apps to keep in touch with friends, family, and co-workers, Beeper lets you turn everything into a single interface. According to its website, the app supports 14 external messaging platforms in addition to its own Beeper network. But the company’s claim that it brings iMessage to Android, Windows, or Linux devices could be a fatal feature for anyone who has experienced The embarrassment of the green bubble.

Apple likes to keep its in-house products exclusive to its own devices, so this claim is a bit surprising. But Beeper says he has come up with an alternative solution. On its website, This is explained:

Beeper has two ways to enable Android, Windows, and Linux users to use iMessage: We send each user a Jailbroken iPhone with the Beeper app installed that links to iMessage, or if they have a Mac always connected to the Internet, they can install the Beeper Mac app that acts as a bridge. This is no joke, it really works!

Well, the part about using a Mac always plugged in as a bridge is Not unprecedented, But the idea of ​​sending recycled iPhones that have been jailbroken is a little crazy.

Eric Migikowski, founder of the Pebble smartwatch and partner at Beeper, Twitter took over To insist that the jailbreak plan is legitimate and that he currently has 50 iPhone 4s ready for the job.

Everyone needs a gimmick, and we’ll award Beeper points for authenticity. But it’s hard to imagine that there will be much demand for this jailbreak solution. Then againAnd the It is a big world and there is definitely a market for these old devices if they are not very expensive. But an old, broken iPhone is a security risk that only increases over time because you cannot apply security updates without putting the unit back in jail.

Another privacy concern is encryption. Pepper Privacy policy It is fairly simple and does not contain any stark red marks. But it also doesn’t mention encryption. Many of the bundled services use some level of end-to-end encryption, Beeper must be able to ensure that users expect the same level of security they would receive when using any of the standalone services. Beeper did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment on its encryption policy. We will update this post when we receive a response.

Below is a list of messaging services compatible with Beeper:

• The WhatsApp
• Facebook Messenger
• iMessage
• Android Messages (SMS)
• cable
• Twitter
• slack
• Hangouts
• Instagram
• Skype
• IRC
• Matrix
• Disagreement
• Signal
• Bieber Network

I will convey some practical impressions, But the app has yet to be released and at the moment, all you can do is Subscribe to be notified When it is launched.

Beeper raises a lot of questions that may turn out to be the most important of them is whether or not people are willing to pay $ 10 a month subscription fee. Everyone is ready for monthly subscriptions at this stage, And it’s unclear if reaching their eyeballs in messaging apps is a bigger pain in the back.