(Credit: Joe Hindy / PCMag)
Apple’s efforts to block Beeper Mini from providing iMessage to Android devices has prompted a bipartisan group of US lawmakers to call for a federal antitrust investigation.
The four lawmakers sent a letter to the US Justice Department on Sunday, requesting an investigation into Apple’s “potentially anticompetitive conduct” to stop Beeper Mini, according to CBS News Reporter Jo Ling Kent, who posted the letter on Twitter/X.
"Consumers will never benefit from competition if dominant firms are allowed to snuff out that competition at its incipiency,” wrote the lawmakers, who include US Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.).
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voiced similar concerns earlier this month.
Beeper Mini has been offering a free app for Android users to access Apple's iMessage feature, but Apple has blocked it several times. The spat has since sparked a debate over whether Apple has a responsibility to make iMessage interoperable with other operating systems.
In calling for the investigation, the lawmakers point to Apple executives who previously indicated they made iMessage exclusive to iPhones to prevent losing users to Android. The letter then adds Apple’s effort to disrupt Beeper Mini may threaten to “harm competition and eliminate choices for consumers,” while discouraging “investment in interoperable messaging services.”
“We also fear these types of tactics may more broadly chill future investment and innovation from those that seek to compete with existing digital gatekeepers,” the lawmakers add.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But it’s important to note iMessage does support receiving text messages via SMS from other devices, including Android phones. Next year, iMessage will also support RCS for higher-quality and end-to-end encryption messaging with Android devices (though Android users will still appear as green bubbles).
In the meantime, Apple said it's been cracking down on Beeper Mini because the app allegedly represents a security risk to iMessage users. Developers of the app say they managed to reverse-engineer iMessage so that it can work locally on an Android phone. But Apple says "these techniques posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks.”
In response, Beeper Mini has been rolling out fixes to get around Apple's crackdowns.