Apple is planning to adopt RCS messaging to replace SMS/MMS exchanges between iPhones and Androids.
While Android owners will gain read receipts, live typing indicators, and hi-res media, the green bubbles will remain.
A new Android app, Beeper Mini, is said to eradicate this completely, allowing all users to have a blue bubble with full end-to-end encryption.
Users will be able to edit, unsend, send voice messages, and have emoji reactions just like iMessage.
The developers claim Beeper Mini is grounded in the reverse engineering of iMessage, and will work with a standard phone number, rather than an email address. An Apple ID is also not needed.
The catch? Beeper Mini will be free for seven days, then users will be charged per month afterwards. Australian pricing is yet to be revealed.
The developer has said, “Now you can send and receive blue bubble texts from your phone number. As soon as you install Beeper Mini, your Android phone number will be blue instead of green when your iPhone friends text you.”
“It’s easy to join iPhone-only group chats, since people can add your phone number instead of your email address. All chat features like typing status, read receipts, full resolution images/video, emoji reactions, voice messages, editing, un-sending, and more are supported.”
Whether the app is actually necessary remains unclear. Apple’s changes are said to give Android users most of what they have requested, including safety, knowing the messages have been sent, and higher quality images.
Google have also recently changed Messages to allow the bubbles to be whatever colour the user chooses.
Additionally, as Beeper Mini is based on tech that reverse engineers Apple’s iMessages, it’s remains to be seen if there will be legal recourse.
