The US Department of Justice is conducting an expanded antitrust investigation into Apple over the closure of the Android messaging app Beeper Mini, according to the New York Times.
Beeper Mini allows Android users to send messages to iPhones without creating an Apple account.
Messages sent from the Beeper Mini appeared on the recipient’s iPhone in the built-in iMessage chat app.
However, Apple banned the application three days after its launch by making technical changes to iMessage.
Beeper temporarily restored service, but decided shortly thereafter to shut it down, saying: “We cannot win the cat-and-mouse game with the biggest company on Earth.”
Eric Migicowski, founder of Beeper, met with an antitrust lawyer at the Department of Justice on December 12.
A few days later, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked the department to investigate whether Apple had violated competition law by blocking the app.
Apple says it has closed the Beeper Mini app. Because it poses a cyber risk, the Beeper Mini allowed Android users to send messages to iMessage using techniques that exploit fake login credentials.
The company claimed that the app increases the risk of user metadata leaks, spam and phishing attacks.
