US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Brendan Carr on Tuesday sought a probe into Apple over the Beeper Mini app that briefly enabled message interoperability between iOS and Android. During the \u2018State of the Net Conference\u2019 event, Carr said the regulator should look into whether Apple\u2019s move \u201ccomplies with the FCC\u2019s Part 14 rules\u201d about accommodating users with disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called for the FCC to investigate whether Apple violated our Part 14 rules by blocking Beeper Mini \u2014 an app that enabled interoperability between iOS and Android messaging,\u201d she posted on X. Beeper bridged the \u201cblue bubble \u2013 green bubble\u201d divide that Apple maintains as part of a broader set of walled garden practices that inhibit competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cApple\u2019s wider set of exclusionary practices warrant scrutiny by antitrust and competition agencies, but the FCC should also examine this particular incident through the lens of our Part 14 rules on accessibility, usability, and compatibility,\u201d Carr further posted.<\/p>\n
Beeper Mini was launched last year, allowing Android users to gain access to iMessage features. However, Apple blocked Beeper Mini users and continued to shut down attempts to make the app work. The FCC\u2019s Part 14 rules lay out requirements that \u201cadvanced communications service,\u201d such as iMessage, must follow to ensure they\u2019re accessible.<\/p>\n
\u201cApple made changes to iMessage to disable the functionality of Beeper Mini,\u201d Carr said. \u201cThere are many negative consequences that flow from Apple\u2019s iMessage decisions,\u201d she added. Apple was yet to react to Carr\u2019s investigation call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Brendan Carr on Tuesday sought a probe into Apple over the Beeper Mini app\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":16920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9777,284,9979,9978,9980,9981,8966,9977],"class_list":["post-30945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-antitrust-case","tag-apple","tag-beeper-mini","tag-fcc-commissioner-brendan-carr","tag-message-interoperability-between-ios-and-android","tag-prohibiting-competition","tag-shutdown","tag-us-federal-communications-commission-fcc"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}