regulations would force it to make iMessage

That means that anytime you text your Android friends, anyone can read the message. Apple can read the message. Your phone carrier can read the message.

Google… literally, it’s just like a postcard. Anyone can read it. So Beeper Mini actually increases the security of iPhones,” he had told TechCrunch.

Apple, on the other hand, sees iMessage as one of the key tools for locking in users to its ecosystem, which is why it won’t launch an iMessage app for Android.

While there was some hope that EU regulations would force it to make iMessage more interoperable, news this week indicates that iMessage will get a reprieve from those rules because the service is not popular enough with business users.

That means Apple has no reason not to try to shut down Beeper Mini, if it could.