Apple Responds to The New York Times
After The New York Times reached out to Apple, some Beeper customers reported being unblocked in recent days. In light of these developments, the Justice Department held discussions with Beeper’s leadership team last year regarding Apple’s actions. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission stated on its blog that it will closely scrutinize dominant players that employ privacy and security as justifications for disallowing interoperability between services.
By blocking Beeper, Apple restricted users on Samsung and Google devices from utilizing certain features exclusive to iPhone users, such as high-resolution videos and animations. Despite this setback, Beeper managed to gain 100,000 new customers within three days of the app’s launch.
One of the affected Beeper customers is Matvei Vevitsis, a 31-year-old who used a MacBook from around 2015 to connect Beeper to his Samsung Galaxy phone. Vevitsis, an avid technology enthusiast, prefers Android phones due to their customization options. However, he encountered difficulties when attempting to send messages to his mother, who owns an iPhone and desired to receive high-quality photos and videos. Vevitsis contacted Apple support and was informed that his iMessage had been flagged as spam. Although the support representative offered to unblock him, the issue persisted. Ultimately, Vevitsis resorted to downloading an app that enabled him to generate an alternative serial number for his MacBook, finally allowing him to use iMessages once again.
Ghazi Shami, founder of Empire, an independent music company in San Francisco, experienced similar problems. Like Vevitsis, Shami prefers using a Galaxy device over an iPhone but relies on iMessage to send audio recordings. However, Beeper stopped working for Shami, and iMessage no longer functioned on his iMac, a $5,000 device released by Apple in 2017. Shami criticized Apple’s decision to block his serial number, asserting that it goes against the spirit of Silicon Valley, especially since he was only testing beta software.