Beeper Mini’s Android iMessage App is Back; TikTok-1st Non-Game App to hit $10 Billion; FTC Scrutinizing Microsoft OpenAI Investment; Google Working on Editing Support for Google Messages

After rolling out its app for using Apple’s iMessage over Android, suddenly last week the Beeper Mini app was apparently quickly killed by Apple. Apple had said in a post that the app was basically faking credentials to get in. Now, 9to5google.com reports that Beeper Mini is back. Right now, it has to be side-loaded as it is still under review by the Play store. The update removes phone number support and leaves users to continue with iMessage using their Apple ID. For a lot of users, this is still a bummer, as they probably don’t have an Apple ID if they are all-Android. Beeper is working on a way of using your phone number again, without having Apple swat them down. Some good news though…the app is now free to use for the time being, instead of charging a $2 per month subscription. Apple’s position is unchanged…anything they deem to compromise user privacy and security will be blocked. For its part, Beeper says the app doesn’t compromise either…and it gives Android users that precious blue bubble in chats, instead of the green one Apple assigns to all non-iMessage messages on its platform. 

TikTok has passed a real milestone. The app had hit a billion monthly active uses back in 2021, and now has become the first non-game mobile app to generate $10 billion in consumer spending across the Apple App Store and Google Play Store combined. According to TechCrunch.com, the data was pulled together by app intelligence provider data.ai. The only other apps to have achieved this are all games, including Candy Crush Saga from King/Activision Blizzard, the top earner at over $12 billion, plus Tencent’s Honor of Kings, XFLAG/Mixi’s Monster Strike and Supercell’s Clash of Clans.

Apparently it’s not just regulators in the UK that are looking into Microsoft’s some $13 billion investment in OpenAI. Now, engadget.com says the FTC here in the US is also making a preliminary inquiry. It should be noted that this isn’t a formal investigation yet. A bit of a fly in the ointment for government investigations…OpenAI is a non-profit, and transactions involving non-corporate entities aren’t required by law to be reported. Of course, OpenAI has established a for-profit..basically subsidiary, so the structure will be a bit of a challenge for the FTC and other governing agencies. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority press release noted that  “The CMA will review whether the partnership has resulted in an acquisition of control — that is, where it results in one party having material influence, de facto control or more than 50% of the voting rights over another entity.” Does Microsoft have such de facto control with its investment and two new board seats? Stay tuned. 

Apple brought text editing support to iMessage with iOS 16….if you  are quick…and now, Google is working on doing the same for Google Messages. Bgr.com reports that code has been spotted that points to editing support showing up soon. It’s a real boon to be able to quickly jump in and edit a typo or goof if you are quick on iMessage…beats the hell out of having to type an additional message correcting what you just sent. Since iMessage got editing, WhatsApp got it, and it is coming soon to Facebook Messenger, too. None of this matters for those who don’t care about bit about capitalization or punctuation, or who are cool with sending out typo and error-laden texts…but for those of us who are a bit more particular about what we send off into the ether, Google Message editing will be great to have.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Techinfied’ for now.