A bipartisan group of congressional critics of Big Tech is asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether Apple breached antitrust laws by blocking an app that allows Android users access to iMessage.

The group sent a letter to DOJ Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter late on Sunday asking him to investigate Apple's decision to prevent the Beeper Mini app from accessing its servers. Beeper Mini found a workaround that allowed Android users to access the iMessage service, meaning that their texts would appear in blue bubbles rather than green.

BIDEN'S AUTO SAFETY OFFICIAL FORCED TO RESIGN FROM TEMPORARY ROLE

The difficulties texting between Android and iOS have long frustrated people in group texts, although Apple has said it will get rid of the green bubbles next year.

"Interoperability and interconnection have long been key drivers of competition and consumer choice in communications services," Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) and Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Ken Buck (R-CO) wrote in the letter. "But consumers will never benefit from competition if dominant firms are allowed to snuff out that competition at its incipiency."

The authors are "concerned that Apple's recent actions to disable Beeper Mini harm competition, eliminate choices for consumers and will discourage future innovation and investment in interoperable messaging services." They also said they are worried that Apple's actions against Beeper Mini may "more broadly chill future investment and innovation from those that seek to compete with existing digital gatekeepers."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Beeper Mini had initially figured out how to reverse engineer the iMessage protocol and support it on Android through falsified security IDs. The Beeper Mini app began to act up, and Apple released a statement confirming that it had blocked Beeper Mini's exploit for accessing the system. Beeper Mini adapted its method to work on Android, although it required users to have an Apple ID instead. The app's developers confirmed that it was still having technical problems and that it believed Apple was "deliberately blocking iMessages from being delivered" for some users. The company reported on Sunday that the app had been broken for "more than 60 hours."

Apple announced in November that it was adding support for RCS, the preferred encryption protocol for Android, in 2024. It previously resisted giving Android users access to blue bubbles on security grounds. When asked what his plans were for amending the gap between iMessage and Android, Apple CEO Tim Cook told conference attendees to "get their mom an iPhone." The decision is believed to have been provoked by the European Union's attempt to crack down on Apple through the antitrust-focused Digital Markets Act.