Beeper is a new universal chat program that aims to unite 15 different chat platforms in one interface. The app is the work of a team that includes Eric Migicovsky, CEO and founder of former smartwatch maker Pebble, who announced the launch on Twitter. Beeper’s website notes that the project was previously known as NovaChat, and requires a $ 10 monthly subscription.
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 Apple devices and is often mentioned by users as something that prevents them from switching to Android. Migicovsky says that Beeper should make iMessage work on Android, Windows and Linux, but admits that he uses ‘trouble’ to do so.
And yes, iMessage even works on Android, Windows and Linux using troubleshooting 🙂
– Eric Migicovsky (@ericmigi) 20 January 2021
A frequently asked question on Beeper’s website provides a more in-depth explanation of exactly what these fraudsters involve. If you always have a Mac online, you can install the Beeper Mac app to serve as a bridge, similar to the approach AirMessage uses. But things get really crazy when you do not have access to a Mac, and then Beeper says that he will literally send a “Jailbroken iPhone with the Beeper app installed” to each of his users to act as a bridge . At this point, we should probably mention that using Beeper involves a $ 10 per month subscription, which may or may not include the cost of the iPhone.
Just in case you thought Beeper was joking, Migicovsky said in a follow-up tweet that he currently has 50 old iPhone 4Ss on his desk, ready to be used with Beeper.
If the solution works as Beeper claims, the result should be a universal chat program that works in MacOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, that provides a unified inbox and the ability to search messages from each of the 15 services . It’s based on the open source Matrix messaging protocol (Migicovsky described NovaChat’s relationship with Matrix earlier as similar to Gmail’s email relationship), and although the client app itself is not open source, the bridges it connected to other chat services.
Oh, and of course there’s a dark mode in Beeper’s next update.
While the short-term goal is to make it easier to chat with people in different chat programs, Migicovsky finally talked about the prospect that everyone will use Matrix themselves to chat with friends and colleagues, rather than simply as a use bridge between services.
Although Migicovsky says he has been using Beeper as his standard chat client for the past two years, it is not yet widely available. Instead, Beeper asks prospective users to fill out a form on their website for an invitation.
Here is the full list of chat services that Beeper currently supports:
- Facebook Messenger
- iMessage
- Android Messaging (SMS)
- Telegram
- Slap
- Hangouts
- Skype
- IRC
- Matrix
- Onmin
- Sein
- Beep Network