Technology

I'm still curious if this is even legal. It seems like a really good idea, but is Apple going to be able to sue over it? I almost feel like it could be covered under the reverse engineering clause, because it is meant to enable interoperability with another product. But Apple's terms of service already seem really hamstrung on what is and is not allowed. With the macOS SLA beginning with:

For use on Apple-branded Systems

Obviously iMessage isn't macOS, and I can't seem to find a specific terms of service for iMessage specifically, but it is running on it. Which is what would make this integration possible. So what makes me wonder if Apple's lawyers could find a clause there.

This sounds like The Onion, ridiculous.

This could easily be blocked by Apple

Goodbye, privacy

Whatever, Matrix/XMPP work with carrier-independent protocols.

Are these a Matrix/Beeper bridge?

Nice one, not sure why it's geo restricted to the US, Canada, and Europe though, unless that's a limitation of the bridge software they're using. Could be a pretty neat selling point for a small subset of users, but I don't think it'll make people reconsider which Android they choose to upgrade to.

Also nice to see e2ee RCS implemented outside of Samsung and Google's apps.

For anyone looking at alternatives, there's AirMessage (if you have a mac, real or virtualized), and Beeper (not free, in any sense of the word, but supports even more messengers)