Beeper is a new universal chat application that seeks to integrate 15 different chat platforms into a single interface. The app is the work of a team that includes Eric Migikowski, CEO and founder of former smartwatch maker Pebble, who announced its launch on Twitter. Beeper’s site notes that the project was formerly known as Novachet, and for a monthly subscription. 10 required.
Although Beeper integrates with the world’s most popular messaging services such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Slack, Twitter, Discord, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, it is the support for Apple’s iMessage that is perhaps the most interesting. iMessage is only officially available on Pull devices, and is often cited by users as something that prevents them from switching to Android. Migikowski says Beeper should allow iMessage to work on Android, Windows and Linux, but admits that in doing so it is “using some fraud”.
And yes, iMessage works on Android, Windows and even Linux using some fraud 🙂
– Eric Migikowski (@ Ericmigi) January 20, 2021
An FAQ on Beeper’s website explains in more detail what is involved in this tactic. If you have an always-Mac online line, then you can install the Beeper Mac app to act as a bridge, the same approach that uses AirMessage. But, things get really wild if you don’t have access to it, at which point Beeper says I’ll send literally a “jailbroken iPhone with the Beeper app installed” to each of its users to act like a bridge. At this point we should probably mention that using Beeper involves paying a ડો 10 a month subscription, which may or may not include the cost of the iPhone.
Just, you thought Beeper was joking, in a follow-up tweet, Migikowski said he currently has 500 old iPhone Ss on his desk, which will be ready for use with Beeper.
If Beeper works as it claims, the result should be a universal chat application that works on OS Kos, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, provides a unified inbox, and has the ability to search messages on each of the 15 services. . It is built on the open source metrics messaging protocol (Migikowski previously described Novachet’s relationship with the metrics as Gmail’s relationship with email), and although the client application itself is not open source, it bridges the gap with other chat services.
Oh, and naturally in Beeper’s next update, there’s a dark mode coming up.
While the short-term goal is to make it easier to chat with people on different chat apps, Migikowski has finally used the metrics about the possibility of everyone using it to chat with friends and colleagues, rather than just using it as a bridge between services.
Although Migikowski says he has been using Beeper as his default chat client for the past two years, it doesn’t seem to be widely available yet. Instead, Beeper asks potential users to fill out a form on its website inviting them.
Here is a complete list of chat services that Beeper currently supports:
- Facebook Messenger
- iMessage
- Android Messages (SMS)
- Wire
- Slack
- Hangout
- Skype
- IRC
- Matrix
- Conflict
- Signal
- Beeper Network
