iMessage

Our sister site 9to5Google yesterday reported that Beeper Mini is now broken for most users – no longer allowing Android users to send and receive iMessages – after Apple took further steps to block the app.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is now calling on the Department of Justice to look into whether Apple’s action against the app amounts to “potentially anticompetitive conduct” …

Last week, Beeper Mini debuted as a way to bring iMessage to Android without having to hand over your Apple ID credentials. A few days later, Apple made a change that stopped Beeper Mini from working – and it promised to continue doing so.

Apple’s decision has already attracted attention from at least one lawmaker, with US Senator Elizabeth Warren criticizing Apple’s move to shut down Beeper Mini.

The European Union’s iMessage antitrust investigation looks set to rule in favor of Apple, meaning that the secure messaging service would be exempt from upcoming interoperability rules.

If confirmed, it would mean that Apple would not have to make iMessage able to exchange messages with rival chat apps …

Yesterday’s Apple RCS u-turn came as a big surprise, as the company had previously indicated that it had no plans to support the rich communication services (RCS) messaging standard.

But while the announcement itself was a surprise, the timing of it was not a coincidence – and represents a rare example of Apple (sort of) getting ahead of antitrust legislation …

It’s official: Apple will add support for the RCS messaging standard in iOS. This won’t happen until the end of next year, and we don’t have many details about how Apple will implement RCS. In the meantime, we can reflect on the impact this will have on Android and iPhone users – and honestly, I don’t think it will be as huge as people might think.

Apple’s new iMessage Contact Key Verification at first glance seems to be a rather niche security feature, likely to be of interest only to the most paranoid or highly-targeted individuals. But it could turn out to be a privacy feature which protects us all from government spying.

That’s because it seems almost custom-designed to prevent a plan developed by the UK’s equivalent to the NSA – GCHQ …

Apple launched a new iMessage security feature yesterday in beta called Contact Key Verification. We learned the basics of how it works yesterday but now Apple has published technical details of how the next-level iMessage security feature operates – including a unique solution to a problem that other messaging services face.

Apple has enabled the testing of a new security feature with the first iOS 17.2 beta. For use with iMessage, Contact Key Verification gives users more certainty they’re messaging with the people they’re intending.

A planned law to require CSAM scanning in chat apps would be illegal, disproportionate, and could increase rather than decrease the risks to children, say experts. It could also see Apple withdraw iMessage from EU countries.

The warning was given by more than 20 speakers at a privacy seminar, as the European Union continues to press for a CSAM measure which would effectively outlaw end-to-end encryption in chat apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal …

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has acquired the all-in-one messaging app Texts. The app is capable of combining services including iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack DMs, and much more into a single interface.

Samsung is apparently joining Google’s ongoing “Get The Message” ad campaign calling on Apple to adopt RCS. In a new ad posted to YouTube this week, Samsung claims that “green bubbles and blue bubbles want to be together.”

RCS is the open messaging standard created by Google to replace SMS and offers a handful of iMessage-style features. Apple, however, isn’t keen on adopting the open standard.

Should Apple’s blue bubbles be subject to the European Union’s recent Digital Market Act? That’s something the European Commission is investigating, according to people in the know.

The Messages app gets a number of valuable upgrades with iOS 17. One of the big changes is the ability to create and place stickers including emoji, custom ones, and Live Stickers anywhere in a message. Follow along for how to make and use iPhone Messages stickers with iOS 17.

The British government’s hugely controversial Online Safety Bill has today passed in the second chamber of Parliament, and after six years of debate is now set to become law.

While Apple’s iMessage and other end-to-end encrypted messaging apps were saved from being outlawed by the bill, the government hasn’t yet given up the fight …

A new WhatsApp third-party chats feature has been spotted in the latest app code, indicating that the app is preparing to comply with European law on messaging interoperability.

Apple is so far pushing back on suggestions that iMessage would be subject to the same antitrust law, making the unlikely-sounding argument that it doesn’t have enough European users to count …

The future of iMessage in the UK had seemed in doubt, as the British government was demanding that the company break end-to-end encryption to allow messages to be scanned. Apple had said that it would withdraw iMessage from the UK rather than compromise user privacy.

WhatsApp and Signal had similarly threatened to withdraw their messaging apps from the UK, but the government has now done a U-turn, while issuing a meaningless, face-saving statement …