7 ms·

Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

117 points by lnguyen 3y ago

rustcleaner 3y ago
Never would have happened if instead users relied on Briar/Jami/Session/Tox on a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS. This is an important lesson, take it to heart!
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
  Thus completely missing the point of this product’s entire existence and value proposition. This is not helpful and bordering on snarky. ‘Take note’ that people are well aware of the existence of other messaging services. They don’t want them. They want iMessage. The kid saying that they’re using “Tox on a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS” is sitting by themselves during recess whether you like it or not.
  - rustcleaner 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - dghlsakjg 3y ago
      In all honesty, this kind of discourse is insulting to the target audience, and not going to win over anyone to your cause. If you call the people you are trying to convince "idiots, rubes, and otherwise "consumer"-personality types" then they stop listening after that point. Which is probably fortunate since you called for a "digital 9/11". Call me crazy, but I don't want a repeat of an event where thousands of people died, leading to two wars where hundreds of thousands or millions died just so I can get more open computing. You know who hasn't called me an idiot or a rube? The makers of iMessage. In fact, they offer free lessons on how their products can be used to make my life better. I can buy grandma an iPad, and for no extra charge, they will spend hours with her to get her set up and seamlessly sending me messages. They won't talk down to her, they won't lecture her in internet slang, they won't compare her to moths drawn to a bug zapper for using an alternative. I-devices are expensive, sure, and there is a mild lock-in effect with iMessage/cloud, but most people are pretty happy to be locked in. If iMessage goes away, I still buy an iPhone and use a Mac, because the hardware works for me. Truth be told you aren't using mimetic warfare to plant ideas (or at least not the ideas you think you are planting). You are associating your cause with superior attitudes, insults, and unfriendliness.
      - rustcleaner 3y ago
        >You are associating your cause with superior attitudes, insults, and unfriendliness. Pent up frustration at the hidden injustice of the whole thing and the apathy I am constantly met with; sue me. >You know who hasn't called me an idiot or a rube? The makers of iMessage. Their marketing methods are way more pernicious, but one example among myriad: https://www.reddit.com/r/datingoverthirty/comments/b6w9iu/oh_youre_a_green_text/ https://www.reddit.com/r/datingoverthirty/comments/b6w9iu/oh... Social shame is very powerful. (addendum: my google searches for green vs blue bubble today seemed to filter examples like there's a blanket tossed on it, duckduckgo showed examples more readily.)
        redserk 3y ago
        Are you implying that by iMessage being available on Android will solve the ridiculous association filtering some people engage in? It's a common practice. It ranges from sports teams, to geography (living on the other side of highways/rivers), to even OSes -- like the weird attitude some Linux folks have about Windows not being a proper OS to develop in.
      - rustcleaner 3y ago
        Also I get to be mad. I get to show that frustration. Other people who feel as I do see me get mad and maybe they get mad too. Maybe I flutter my wings and some storm clouds appear over Redmond down the line.
        danaris 3y ago
        ...What does Microsoft's headquarters have to do with this?
        dghlsakjg 3y ago
        I wasn't saying you can't be mad. I was saying that getting mad at people won't convince them that you have a point. I've never heard of Briar. But now my only interaction with it is with someone who wants a "digital 9/11" and hopes that a quarter of our digital systems get hacked by an adversarial state. No offense, but I don't want to be part of a communications network with users that advocate extremism and terrorism as a conversion method. Edit: I just looked into Briar, and it is ironically, only available on certain platforms. If you have an iPhone you cannot use it. How is this any better?
  - noman-land 3y ago
    They don't want iMessage. They want what their friends have. If their friends used something else they would use something else.
    - ultrarunner 3y ago
      Eh, many of my friends have WhatsApp, and I don't really like it. Almost all of them "have" Facebook messenger, but again, no one wants to use it. Maybe I'm biased because it's true for me, but I don't really buy this "nothing's special about iMessage" claim. Which sucks, because Apple's approach here (while not unexpected) is very disappointing.
pram 3y ago
Yeah this isn’t surprising, I’ve had this happen to hackintoshes over the years. Apple has always had the ability to ban serials from iMessage afaict, and it also (seemed) to be some automated process. It was frankly pretty risky to tell people to use their real machines for this.
- eek2121 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - ShamelessC 3y ago
    That’s a pretty stupid plan in my opinion.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - CubsFan1060 3y ago
    That’s awful.
  - pythonaut_16 3y ago
    So that project's plan is to distribute malware then?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - threeseed 3y ago
    So the thought process is to break Messages for innocent parties. That sounds like a great way to get people on your side.
  - nulld3v 3y ago
    I actually think this is a decent idea. Worst case it causes global service disruption which would reveal some pretty serious security flaws with iMessage. All the hackers have to do is make sure they don't get arrested under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and get thrown in jail for 20 years!
clay_the_ripper 3y ago
My take on this whole thing is that this is basically an elaborate plan to eventually use this in court against Apple to prove its anti-competitive practices. If not for court, then at the least this is a press strategy orchestrated by someone with an interest in opening up the iMessage monopoly. I’m sure the founder realized early on that the prospects of this becoming a valuable company on its own merits were slim - the vulnerability to Apple shutting them down was obvious. Which leads me to conclude he saw value to be created in just basically messing with Apple and forcing them to ban him.
- realusername 3y ago
  That's definitely possible, the beeper mini case will be used in courts against Apple, that's for sure.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
  I’m genuinely surprised that this theory isn’t more pervasive. I seldom buy into conspiracy theories but in this case I’d go a step further and suggest that Beeper Mini was secretly enabled in some way by other commercial entities incentivised to dismantle Apple’s walled garden. Maybe not from the start, but much more likely when the public game of cat and mouse kicked off.
- pxeboot 3y ago
  I agree. There have always been highly skilled programmers capable of reverse engineering imessage, but everybody knew it would immediately get shutdown and not be worth the effort.
- ccamrobertson 3y ago
  > I’m sure the founder realized early on that the prospects of this becoming a valuable company on its own merits were slim If you actually knew Eric and the history of Beeper you would understand how hilariously false, absurd and revisionist such a statement is. Eric only started Beeper after validating massive interest from Hacker News for a paid app that would unify disparate communication channels.
kayodelycaon 3y ago
Calling this “retaliation” is rather dramatic. There are a number of communication platforms that don’t allow 3rd party apps to access their networks and will ban people who attempt it.
- kevingadd 3y ago
  What would you call it other than retaliation? Punishment? Surprise behavior?
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    It's just banning. It's no different than if you get caught running cheat software in an online game. The company isn't "retaliating" against you, or even "punishing" you -- they're just banning you. You broke the rules and that's what happens.
    - bscphil 3y ago
      This site rightly has a different attitude when, say, HP remotely bricks working printers because someone used unauthorized ink. We don't sit back and say "you broke the rules and that's what happens."
      - dmz73 3y ago
        You cannot argue with Apple users on any topic that is critical of Apple. For them, Apple can do no wrong. If Apple hardware breaks due to manufacturing fault, they will criticize the person for not buying Apple-care and then suggest just buying another Apple device. Apple is their identify. In this case iMessage is the safe haven that they can trust and allowing external (non-Apple) users would violate that feeling of safety.
        ok_dad 3y ago
        Jeez, you’re painting with a broad brush here. I use Apple products and like them but I think they should open stuff up more. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time I used to for dealing with tech issues on Linux or the other open source stuff, so I buy Apple which is certainly better to customers than Microsoft, for example. I don’t get where the idea that Apple users are zombies came from. Apple users like the products and services Apple provides, nothing else, there’s no ulterior motive there.
kevingadd 3y ago
This further undermines the "are they supposed to let Android users use iMessage for free?" defense, given that these users already bought a Mac. And now those paying customers eat hardware bans for using their own hardware in a way Apple doesn't like.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
ericzawo 3y ago
Went from "Here's to the crazy ones" to "we'll punish our customers for not jumping how we say" in 30 years.
- redserk 3y ago
  Completely disagree on this. This is Beeper, a for-profit company, throwing a tantrum, violating the ToS of Apple but leaving Beeper's users and their friends holding the bag.
  - bensecure 3y ago
    Beeper would have to have agreed to the ToS for them to have broken it. It's apple's users who agreed to a ToS, and apple users who got the boot. The lesson is that apple doesn't treat their users very well, not that some no name company who's fifteen minutes of fame are done isn't responsible enough.
    - redserk 3y ago
      I'm interpreting this as incredibly pedantic. Just because Beeper is delegating the ToS violation to a bunch of random people doesn't mean they aren't complicit. It appears they are acting in even worse faith than Apple here by suggesting their new mechanism is safe and has no side effects when it actually does. If the cost for me to enjoy a relatively spam-free and stable iMessage experience is to simply not do dumb things, then I will voluntarily not do dumb things (at least not with an account/machine I care about). Don't sacrifice your devices for another company's attempt at 15 minutes of fame.
      - bensecure 3y ago
        These people are customers of both beeper and apple. Both beeper and apple made a set of decision that led to their own customers being hurt. Somehow the resolution is that beeper is uniquely responsible for course correcting. Maybe they should have put language in their ToS to the effect that if your device id is banned, they disclaim all responsibility. Surely that would have smoothed things over?
cosmin800 3y ago
I don't understand the obsession with imessage, what is so special about it?
- aidenn0 3y ago
  It's what 50% of the US population uses for sending short messages.
- troupo 3y ago
  Of all the messengers I have and my friends and family use iMessage is easily the worst designed one (well, Viber is probably worse), and no one I know uses it
  - nurtbo 3y ago
    What are its design problems?
    - troupo 3y ago
      off the top of my head: - all useful interactions are hidden behind useless slow animation and multiple additional clicks - photo selection is an awkward double scroll - stickers are tied to external apps, cannot be searched, take ages to load when you switch between sets - link unfurling and file previews are hit and miss, often take ages to happen - pinned chats are useless awkward circles that take up space instead of being actual pinned chats - continuously broken on MacOS (photo selections, unread status synchronizations, keyboard shortcuts etc.) And it's a key app they have on two platforms. Compare that to Telegram which exists on 5 platforms and web, developed by just a handful of people, and has everything and more.
      - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
        > all useful interactions are hidden Maybe this is why I prefer it. Text is first class on iMessage. WhatsApp and Telegram messages tend to have crud, e.g. stickers and weird shit happening with photos. To each their own.
crimbles 3y ago
I bet if you sign out of iCloud then reinstall the Mac and sign in again it'll work again. This is probably the machine signing key being shot down for using it with an unauthorised client rather than the mac being completely banned itself.
- heyoni 3y ago
  Nope. And they’re not detecting the client but going by usage patterns.
  - crimbles 3y ago
    Is there a reference for this anywhere / secondary confirmation? Would like to understand risk exposure of relying on iMessage going forward.
    - heyoni 3y ago
      This is based on personal experience and user reports where those whose beepers installed displayed errors continued to work, whereas beeper installs configured to refresh registration codes automatically were much more likely to be banned. It’s important to note that an error in the former config could be ignored for like a month without any actual service disruption; it was 100% aesthetic in some cases. A week ago I updated my beeper client and it set itself to automatically refresh registration tokens and got banned. I disabled iMessage on all my devices after that.
      - crimbles 3y ago
        So against the vendor's advice you sort of shot yourself. Appreciate taking one for the team but I don't see any risk to myself here as I have no intention of using Beeper.
        heyoni 3y ago
        Yep. I know I did something that could jeopardize the service but I will never chastise myself for it...and as someone who spends a sizeable sum yearly on Apple product, I'm going to make it my choice to boycott them unless they do a 180. I won't abide a company punishing its users for wanting the convenience of picking up their text message convos from Linux because it's otherwise too distracting to pick up a phone each time. Really happy to take one for the team. I mean that. This was going to happen at some point in the future whether or not I liked it, glad it happened now. I can't live in a world this connected where my linux box and 12 years of texting history is totally cut off from it. No thanks.
altairprime 3y ago
Everyone thinks it’s personal when anti-abuse automation detects token reuse and blocks the hardware ID that issued it. It’s not. It’s just an HSM-secured communications network, same as Xbox consoles use for their player messaging network, complete with the anti-abuse automation that can lead to hardware bans. It’ll be interesting to see how hard Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony fight against any attempt to open up iMessage. They each depend critically on the right to block devices by device identifier using automation, and if a ruling is found against Apple in this matter, all hardware identifier enforcement is now voidable, which will destroy some of the value of their paid subscription services and worsen the safety of those services.
wwalexander 3y ago
The other day I found myself logged out of iMessage for Mac and had to reboot to get it to work; wonder if it was related to this. (Never used Beeper)
nikolay 3y ago
I got similar issues even with Beeper proper.

117 points by lnguyen 3y ago

Never would have happened if instead users relied on Briar/Jami/Session/Tox on a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS. This is an important lesson, take it to heart!

cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
Thus completely missing the point of this product’s entire existence and value proposition. This is not helpful and bordering on snarky. ‘Take note’ that people are well aware of the existence of other messaging services. They don’t want them. They want iMessage. The kid saying that they’re using “Tox on a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS” is sitting by themselves during recess whether you like it or not.
- rustcleaner 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - dghlsakjg 3y ago
    In all honesty, this kind of discourse is insulting to the target audience, and not going to win over anyone to your cause. If you call the people you are trying to convince "idiots, rubes, and otherwise "consumer"-personality types" then they stop listening after that point. Which is probably fortunate since you called for a "digital 9/11". Call me crazy, but I don't want a repeat of an event where thousands of people died, leading to two wars where hundreds of thousands or millions died just so I can get more open computing. You know who hasn't called me an idiot or a rube? The makers of iMessage. In fact, they offer free lessons on how their products can be used to make my life better. I can buy grandma an iPad, and for no extra charge, they will spend hours with her to get her set up and seamlessly sending me messages. They won't talk down to her, they won't lecture her in internet slang, they won't compare her to moths drawn to a bug zapper for using an alternative. I-devices are expensive, sure, and there is a mild lock-in effect with iMessage/cloud, but most people are pretty happy to be locked in. If iMessage goes away, I still buy an iPhone and use a Mac, because the hardware works for me. Truth be told you aren't using mimetic warfare to plant ideas (or at least not the ideas you think you are planting). You are associating your cause with superior attitudes, insults, and unfriendliness.
    - rustcleaner 3y ago
      >You are associating your cause with superior attitudes, insults, and unfriendliness. Pent up frustration at the hidden injustice of the whole thing and the apathy I am constantly met with; sue me. >You know who hasn't called me an idiot or a rube? The makers of iMessage. Their marketing methods are way more pernicious, but one example among myriad: https://www.reddit.com/r/datingoverthirty/comments/b6w9iu/oh_youre_a_green_text/ https://www.reddit.com/r/datingoverthirty/comments/b6w9iu/oh... Social shame is very powerful. (addendum: my google searches for green vs blue bubble today seemed to filter examples like there's a blanket tossed on it, duckduckgo showed examples more readily.)
      - redserk 3y ago
        Are you implying that by iMessage being available on Android will solve the ridiculous association filtering some people engage in? It's a common practice. It ranges from sports teams, to geography (living on the other side of highways/rivers), to even OSes -- like the weird attitude some Linux folks have about Windows not being a proper OS to develop in.
    - rustcleaner 3y ago
      Also I get to be mad. I get to show that frustration. Other people who feel as I do see me get mad and maybe they get mad too. Maybe I flutter my wings and some storm clouds appear over Redmond down the line.
      - danaris 3y ago
        ...What does Microsoft's headquarters have to do with this?
      - dghlsakjg 3y ago
        I wasn't saying you can't be mad. I was saying that getting mad at people won't convince them that you have a point. I've never heard of Briar. But now my only interaction with it is with someone who wants a "digital 9/11" and hopes that a quarter of our digital systems get hacked by an adversarial state. No offense, but I don't want to be part of a communications network with users that advocate extremism and terrorism as a conversion method. Edit: I just looked into Briar, and it is ironically, only available on certain platforms. If you have an iPhone you cannot use it. How is this any better?
- noman-land 3y ago
  They don't want iMessage. They want what their friends have. If their friends used something else they would use something else.
  - ultrarunner 3y ago
    Eh, many of my friends have WhatsApp, and I don't really like it. Almost all of them "have" Facebook messenger, but again, no one wants to use it. Maybe I'm biased because it's true for me, but I don't really buy this "nothing's special about iMessage" claim. Which sucks, because Apple's approach here (while not unexpected) is very disappointing.

pram 3y ago

Yeah this isn’t surprising, I’ve had this happen to hackintoshes over the years. Apple has always had the ability to ban serials from iMessage afaict, and it also (seemed) to be some automated process. It was frankly pretty risky to tell people to use their real machines for this.

eek2121 3y ago
[flagged]
- ShamelessC 3y ago
  That’s a pretty stupid plan in my opinion.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- CubsFan1060 3y ago
  That’s awful.
- pythonaut_16 3y ago
  So that project's plan is to distribute malware then?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- threeseed 3y ago
  So the thought process is to break Messages for innocent parties. That sounds like a great way to get people on your side.
- nulld3v 3y ago
  I actually think this is a decent idea. Worst case it causes global service disruption which would reveal some pretty serious security flaws with iMessage. All the hackers have to do is make sure they don't get arrested under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and get thrown in jail for 20 years!

clay_the_ripper 3y ago

My take on this whole thing is that this is basically an elaborate plan to eventually use this in court against Apple to prove its anti-competitive practices. If not for court, then at the least this is a press strategy orchestrated by someone with an interest in opening up the iMessage monopoly. I’m sure the founder realized early on that the prospects of this becoming a valuable company on its own merits were slim - the vulnerability to Apple shutting them down was obvious. Which leads me to conclude he saw value to be created in just basically messing with Apple and forcing them to ban him.

realusername 3y ago
That's definitely possible, the beeper mini case will be used in courts against Apple, that's for sure.
cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
I’m genuinely surprised that this theory isn’t more pervasive. I seldom buy into conspiracy theories but in this case I’d go a step further and suggest that Beeper Mini was secretly enabled in some way by other commercial entities incentivised to dismantle Apple’s walled garden. Maybe not from the start, but much more likely when the public game of cat and mouse kicked off.
pxeboot 3y ago
I agree. There have always been highly skilled programmers capable of reverse engineering imessage, but everybody knew it would immediately get shutdown and not be worth the effort.
ccamrobertson 3y ago
> I’m sure the founder realized early on that the prospects of this becoming a valuable company on its own merits were slim If you actually knew Eric and the history of Beeper you would understand how hilariously false, absurd and revisionist such a statement is. Eric only started Beeper after validating massive interest from Hacker News for a paid app that would unify disparate communication channels.

kayodelycaon 3y ago

Calling this “retaliation” is rather dramatic. There are a number of communication platforms that don’t allow 3rd party apps to access their networks and will ban people who attempt it.

kevingadd 3y ago
What would you call it other than retaliation? Punishment? Surprise behavior?
- crazygringo 3y ago
  It's just banning. It's no different than if you get caught running cheat software in an online game. The company isn't "retaliating" against you, or even "punishing" you -- they're just banning you. You broke the rules and that's what happens.
  - bscphil 3y ago
    This site rightly has a different attitude when, say, HP remotely bricks working printers because someone used unauthorized ink. We don't sit back and say "you broke the rules and that's what happens."
    - dmz73 3y ago
      You cannot argue with Apple users on any topic that is critical of Apple. For them, Apple can do no wrong. If Apple hardware breaks due to manufacturing fault, they will criticize the person for not buying Apple-care and then suggest just buying another Apple device. Apple is their identify. In this case iMessage is the safe haven that they can trust and allowing external (non-Apple) users would violate that feeling of safety.
      - ok_dad 3y ago
        Jeez, you’re painting with a broad brush here. I use Apple products and like them but I think they should open stuff up more. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time I used to for dealing with tech issues on Linux or the other open source stuff, so I buy Apple which is certainly better to customers than Microsoft, for example. I don’t get where the idea that Apple users are zombies came from. Apple users like the products and services Apple provides, nothing else, there’s no ulterior motive there.

kevingadd 3y ago

This further undermines the "are they supposed to let Android users use iMessage for free?" defense, given that these users already bought a Mac. And now those paying customers eat hardware bans for using their own hardware in a way Apple doesn't like.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

ericzawo 3y ago

Went from "Here's to the crazy ones" to "we'll punish our customers for not jumping how we say" in 30 years.

redserk 3y ago
Completely disagree on this. This is Beeper, a for-profit company, throwing a tantrum, violating the ToS of Apple but leaving Beeper's users and their friends holding the bag.
- bensecure 3y ago
  Beeper would have to have agreed to the ToS for them to have broken it. It's apple's users who agreed to a ToS, and apple users who got the boot. The lesson is that apple doesn't treat their users very well, not that some no name company who's fifteen minutes of fame are done isn't responsible enough.
  - redserk 3y ago
    I'm interpreting this as incredibly pedantic. Just because Beeper is delegating the ToS violation to a bunch of random people doesn't mean they aren't complicit. It appears they are acting in even worse faith than Apple here by suggesting their new mechanism is safe and has no side effects when it actually does. If the cost for me to enjoy a relatively spam-free and stable iMessage experience is to simply not do dumb things, then I will voluntarily not do dumb things (at least not with an account/machine I care about). Don't sacrifice your devices for another company's attempt at 15 minutes of fame.
    - bensecure 3y ago
      These people are customers of both beeper and apple. Both beeper and apple made a set of decision that led to their own customers being hurt. Somehow the resolution is that beeper is uniquely responsible for course correcting. Maybe they should have put language in their ToS to the effect that if your device id is banned, they disclaim all responsibility. Surely that would have smoothed things over?

cosmin800 3y ago

I don't understand the obsession with imessage, what is so special about it?

aidenn0 3y ago
It's what 50% of the US population uses for sending short messages.
troupo 3y ago
Of all the messengers I have and my friends and family use iMessage is easily the worst designed one (well, Viber is probably worse), and no one I know uses it
- nurtbo 3y ago
  What are its design problems?
  - troupo 3y ago
    off the top of my head: - all useful interactions are hidden behind useless slow animation and multiple additional clicks - photo selection is an awkward double scroll - stickers are tied to external apps, cannot be searched, take ages to load when you switch between sets - link unfurling and file previews are hit and miss, often take ages to happen - pinned chats are useless awkward circles that take up space instead of being actual pinned chats - continuously broken on MacOS (photo selections, unread status synchronizations, keyboard shortcuts etc.) And it's a key app they have on two platforms. Compare that to Telegram which exists on 5 platforms and web, developed by just a handful of people, and has everything and more.
    - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
      > all useful interactions are hidden Maybe this is why I prefer it. Text is first class on iMessage. WhatsApp and Telegram messages tend to have crud, e.g. stickers and weird shit happening with photos. To each their own.

crimbles 3y ago

I bet if you sign out of iCloud then reinstall the Mac and sign in again it'll work again. This is probably the machine signing key being shot down for using it with an unauthorised client rather than the mac being completely banned itself.

heyoni 3y ago
Nope. And they’re not detecting the client but going by usage patterns.
- crimbles 3y ago
  Is there a reference for this anywhere / secondary confirmation? Would like to understand risk exposure of relying on iMessage going forward.
  - heyoni 3y ago
    This is based on personal experience and user reports where those whose beepers installed displayed errors continued to work, whereas beeper installs configured to refresh registration codes automatically were much more likely to be banned. It’s important to note that an error in the former config could be ignored for like a month without any actual service disruption; it was 100% aesthetic in some cases. A week ago I updated my beeper client and it set itself to automatically refresh registration tokens and got banned. I disabled iMessage on all my devices after that.
    - crimbles 3y ago
      So against the vendor's advice you sort of shot yourself. Appreciate taking one for the team but I don't see any risk to myself here as I have no intention of using Beeper.
      - heyoni 3y ago
        Yep. I know I did something that could jeopardize the service but I will never chastise myself for it...and as someone who spends a sizeable sum yearly on Apple product, I'm going to make it my choice to boycott them unless they do a 180. I won't abide a company punishing its users for wanting the convenience of picking up their text message convos from Linux because it's otherwise too distracting to pick up a phone each time. Really happy to take one for the team. I mean that. This was going to happen at some point in the future whether or not I liked it, glad it happened now. I can't live in a world this connected where my linux box and 12 years of texting history is totally cut off from it. No thanks.

altairprime 3y ago

Everyone thinks it’s personal when anti-abuse automation detects token reuse and blocks the hardware ID that issued it. It’s not. It’s just an HSM-secured communications network, same as Xbox consoles use for their player messaging network, complete with the anti-abuse automation that can lead to hardware bans. It’ll be interesting to see how hard Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony fight against any attempt to open up iMessage. They each depend critically on the right to block devices by device identifier using automation, and if a ruling is found against Apple in this matter, all hardware identifier enforcement is now voidable, which will destroy some of the value of their paid subscription services and worsen the safety of those services.

wwalexander 3y ago

The other day I found myself logged out of iMessage for Mac and had to reboot to get it to work; wonder if it was related to this. (Never used Beeper)

nikolay 3y ago

I got similar issues even with Beeper proper.