Beeper Mini, the app that broughtiMessage to Android phonesfor a short blissful week, might cause an FCC investigation into Apple. The company quickly blocked Beeper’s workaround to enable iMessage outside its walled garden, and FCC commissioner Brendan Carr wants the agency to look into possible violations of FCC rules committed by Apple in the process.
Carr cites FCC’s Part 14 rules, which are concerned with accessibility and usability of messaging services,according to The Verge. The ruling doesn’t have to do with anti-competitive behavior, but rather makes the argument that Beeper enhances the accessibility for iOS users. Apple’s green SMS bubbles suffer from low contrast with white text on bright green, making it harder to read for those with visual impairments. Beeper could have presented a solution to that, as it turns bubbles blue for a lot more conversations.
Beyond just iMessage on Android, the FCC commissioner is concerned about Apple’s walled garden approach in general, with him criticizing that the company is keeping a lot of features sealed off from the competition. He said, “I think there are potentially negative consequences if Apple perpetuates a world in which it treats its own proprietary technologies one way and degrades the performance of competitive ones.”
A big problem with the bubble color argument is that Apple provides accessibility settings that improve legibility across its operating system out of the box. For example, when you enable Apple’sIncrease Contrastoption in its system settings, which people with visual impairments likely already use, green bubbles in the Messages app become significantly darker and thus easier to read. On top of that, options likeBold TextandLager Textfurther increase legibility in the Messages app and beyond. We might love to see iMessage on Android, but arguing with accessibility could not lead anywhere.
Regular Messages app vs. with high contrast enabled
Beeper Mini was the latest and most elegant iteration of Beeper’s attempt at moving iMessage out of Apple’s walled garden. The service initially only required signing up with your phone number, seamlessly providing you with a way to receive iMessage content on Android. Apple quickly managed to block the workaround Beeper was using, and after a few more attempts at using different routes to gain access to iMessage, Beeper threw the towel on iMessage in late January. Instead, the service wants to focus on becoming a unified interface for other messaging services, another original goal of Beeper.
