A lawsuit filed Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice against Apple cites the iPhone maker's fight against Beeper, an app aimed at providing iMessage to Android users. Beeper abandoned its mission late last year when Apple blocked its app efforts. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department cited the dispute as an example of Apple controlling “the actions and innovations of third parties to protect itself from competition.”
Beeper, launched by Pebble smartwatch founder Eric Migicovsky, has successfully reverse-engineered the iMessage protocol and brought support for end-to-end encrypted blue bubble iMessage chats to Android users. Beeper functioned as a true iMessage client, supporting threads, replies, read receipts, direct messages and group chats, tapback emoji reactions, editing, and more.
As soon as Beeper was released, the two companies entered into a cat-and-mouse game, but Apple ultimately won. Every time Beeper issued workarounds or fixes to keep the service alive, Apple disabled them one by one. The controversy prompted a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers to call on the Department of Justice to investigate Apple's anticompetitive treatment of the app.
“Apple recently blocked third-party developers from fixing the broken cross-platform messaging experience in Apple Messages and providing end-to-end encryption for messages between Apple Messages and Android users,” the Justice Department's complaint states. “I did,” it says. “By denying solutions that enable cross-platform encryption, Apple continues to make iPhone users less secure than usual.”
At the time of the lawsuit, Apple argued that Beeper “posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata leaks and the potential for unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks.”
The dispute between the two companies caught the attention of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who in February asked the commission to investigate Apple's actions in light of the FCC's Part 14 rules regarding accessibility, usability, and compatibility. .
The Justice Department cited the companies' dispute as part of a broader argument that accuses Apple of protecting its smartphone monopoly to undermine cross-platform messaging apps and rival smartphones. The department alleges that Apple “consciously and intentionally degrades the quality, privacy, and security of its users.”
The lawsuit also accuses Apple of stifling cross-platform compatibility for smartwatches, something Migicovsky previously worked on at Pebble, the smartwatch company he shuttered in 2016. The Department of Justice denies that Apple began offering users the ability to connect their iPhones in his 2013. Provided third-party smartwatch developers with access to various APIs related to Apple Notification Center services, Calendar, Contacts, and Location. When Apple launched the Apple Watch the following year, it began restricting third-party access to new and improved APIs for smartwatch functionality.
The Department of Justice notes that Apple prevents iPhone users from using third-party smartwatches to respond to notifications. According to the department, Apple will instead give third parties access to more limited APIs that don't allow users to do the things available on its own Apple Watch, such as replying to messages or accepting calendar invites. It is said that it is provided for smart watches.
The lawsuit even accuses Apple of “copying a third-party developer's smartwatch idea.”
Learn more about Apple's antitrust lawsuit here.