Federal Trade Commission checks Apple's blocking measures against ``Beeper Mini'' that allows iMessage to be used on Android
The Federal Trade Commission has announced that it will ``scrutinize companies that refuse to allow interoperability between services for privacy and security reasons.'' Although it does not name any specific services, Apple has repeatedly blocked
Interoperability, Privacy, & Security | Federal Trade Commission
https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2023/12/interoperability-privacy-security
Apple's Newest Headache: An App That Upended Its Control Over Messaging - The New York Times
'iMessage' is a messaging service provided by Apple that includes a read notification function and file sending and receiving functions. Although it is possible to exchange messages with Android devices, sending and receiving read notifications and files will be restricted.
``Beeper Mini'' developed by Beeper is an app that removes this restriction and allows you to use the same functions of ``iMessage'' from Android.
Introducing ``Beeper Mini'' which turns into a blue speech bubble in iMessage even if you send a message from Android - GIGAZINE
However, Apple has no intention of wide-opening iMessage and has blocked Beeper Mini on multiple occasions.
Perhaps related to this, on December 21, 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission published an article titled ``Interoperability, Privacy, and Security'' on its technology blog.
'Companies may claim privacy or security as a legitimate reason for refusing to allow their products and services to interoperate with those of other companies,' he says, adding that 'justifications will be scrutinized on a case-by-case basis.' ``and should be rejected if found to be a mere pretext for anti-competitive behavior,'' citing the 2021 precedent. 'We will closely scrutinize claims that restrictions or prohibitions on interoperability are appropriate ways to protect privacy and security.'
The New York Times also reported that on December 12, 2023, Beeper had a meeting with an antitrust lawyer from the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice has been investigating Apple's antitrust legal actions for the past four years.
In addition, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, sent a letter to the Department of Justice expressing concerns about Apple's exclusion of competitors. It seems that it has been sent.
According to data from Counterpoint Research, iPhone sales in the U.S. market have increased from 41% in 2018 to more than 50%, with competing manufacturers crediting it to iMessage. It is said that there is.
In addition, Beeper posted on its official blog on December 22, 2023 local time, ``Each time it is blocked, the reliability of Beeper Mini takes a hit. We want to fight for what we believe to be a great product.'' However, you can't win in a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company on the planet.'' ``We intend to make the latest version acceptable to Apple, but we don't have any plans to deal with it if it doesn't work.'' We posted this and made the source code public as planned.
Beeper - Moving Forward - Beeper Blog
GitHub - beeper/imessage: A Matrix-iMessage puppeting bridge.
https://github.com/beeper/imessage
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