That would make sense: because Apple have deeply coupled iMessage to the OS they can’t simply roll out a new version of the app with protocol changes that would block Beeper, they’d have to release entire OS updates.
No matter the method it would be a scorched earth approach. I suspect the number of people actually using Beeper will be far below a rounding error for Apple.
Non-Apple legitimate users aren't the only concern for Apple: Once third-party clients are readily available, this makes spam much harder to filter.
Right now they can probably just ban known-spam-originating devices, which is much more effective than banning iCloud accounts since there is a much higher cost to the spammers.
You say this like Apple doesn't release OS updates. Why are you putting that as some arbitrary limiter to what Apple could do to protect its walled garden?
They don't usually remove features as important as iMessage from older iOS versions. I don't believe they push updates to the iPhone 7 and older anymore, so they'd be unable to use iMessage.
I have a 6sPlus, and messages work just fine, and it may not be iOS 17, but I recently-ish ran an update for its OS that Apple deliberately updated (which you just know must have been an important update). You can stop making stuff up now
Uptake for OS updates is very high on iOS though right? I heard a while back that it is like 90+% in 6 months. (could be totally wrong on that can someone confirm?)
Uptake of updates is, uptake of devices isn’t. Here I have 1st gen retina iPad from 2012 which is on the latest iOS available for it - 9.3.5 (from 2016, current version is 17.1.2). As of today FaceTime and iMessage still work perfectly fine.
That and reading the books is actually about the only thing it can do right now.
There’s a ton of devices out there unable to upgrade to the latest iOS. Obviously you can release point upgrades for old versions but I do wonder what the uptake of those is like. I’d wager there are a ton of very old iOS devices out there. At the very least many more than there are potential users of Beeper.
anecdote of 1, but i have a 6S+ that is kept up with any updates it receives which is 15.8. there maybe some devs that have older devices that they intentionally keep at even older versions, but if someone is using an old iDevice as a daily driver, they're probably still more likely to run the updates. at least, that's my reaches up and grabs for an opinion
I don’t think this actually physically deletes the app, given that it’s back once you reset the phone. It’s most likely just hidden/deactivated until you “reinstall it from the app store”.
Actual updates require the app binary/bundle to be mutable.
Not the OS-included ones, afaik. Some Apple apps are through the AppStore normally, which can be updated independently (i.e. TestFlight, despite its deep hooks).
Why did google break out Google Play Services as a separate app, was that when they started integrating more with third-party android phone suppliers, and they didn't want to have to wait for OS upgrade cycles from slower-moving companies?
Probably they originally did it because Android has high-assurance embedded use-cases (compare/contrast: Windows IoT Core) where you want to strip out everything possible from the attack surface.
But mainly it's because base Android (AOSP) can be arbitrarily modified by the OEM; and Google doesn't want to have to trust installations of Google Play Services that have been arbitrarily modified by OEMs.
(Especially because those versions would likely all act differently-enough from one-another that they would be forced to loosen their server-side, network-traffic-fingerprint-based "authentic Android device" detection that allows them to ignore/block bots pretending to be Android devices.)
By shipping Google Play Services through the store, they can ensure that, on devices that run it, it's exactly the same code for every device that runs it, with no OEM alterations. (And they can also include various checks to reject devices that would try to alter that code at load time. This is the real reason why e.g. Huawei devices are blocked from using Google Play Services — they try to patch unspecified parts of the Play Services code while loading it, "breaking the integrity of the platform" from Google's perspective.)
Man, that's contrived. Really its simple: Google seperates out Play Services so they can harvest user data from virtually all Andoid devices. It lets them market Android as OSS while still reaping the benefits of closed source data scraping.
Google can harvest data from "virtually all Android devices" just by offering Chrome, Google Search, and Gmail as apps. Almost every Android user has at least one of those apps installed. They don't need Play Services itself to spy on you on top of that.
derefr cited one reason but there's another that's relevant to this thread: updates. In the Android model handset manufacturers and carriers decide when (or if) to ship updates. Google distributing their apps through the store gives them a way to roll out new features to a reasonable portion of their user base.
will iMessage Contact Key Verification coming in iOS 17.2 break Beeper — or just make it super annoying like the “not a genuine Apple part” warning when replacing a screen or battery
Messages has a bunch of special privileges on iOS, which is why they had to add the whole Blastdoor protection framework and why it's such a juicy target for sandbox escape exploits.
Yes, and when it's enabled it has more privileges than most other apps, doesn't it? But yeah you can still remove the app.
Btw, maybe related, on iOS I have "app privacy report" enabled, to show me a list of apps and the recent entitlements they used. Every Apple app, even those that don't need access to them, is shown as having recently accessed my Contacts. I find this weird. Anyone know why they do that? e.g. I've never even used the Health app and yet it's accessing my Contacts for some reason.
It’s basically the same as any other app, there are some special permissions it has to integrate with the OS a bit better but nothing too interesting. Not sure what’s going on with Contacts but it might be a bug?
It’s a Ventura and later feature and your MacBook Air probably topped out around Monterey or earlier. 2016 MacBooks Pro also didn’t make the cut for Ventura.
No matter the method it would be a scorched earth approach. I suspect the number of people actually using Beeper will be far below a rounding error for Apple.