Beeper is a new universal chat app. Eric Migicovsky, the CEO and founder of former smartwatch manufacturer Pebble and his team, developed this app, aiming to unify 15 different chat platforms into one interface. Eric Migicovsky has recently announced its launch on Twitter. According to Beeper’s site, this project was previously NovaChat. The company requires a $10 per month subscription from costumers.
Beeper integrates with the most popular messaging services, such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Signal, Discord, Telegram, and Instagram. However, it also has the support for Apple’s iMessage. iMessage is officially available only on Apple devices. Users often point out that it’s one of the mean reasons that prevent them from switching to Android. According to Migicovsky, Beeper should allow iMessage to work on Windows, Android, and Linux. However, he admitted that the app is using some trickery to do so.
Beeper’s website has an FAQ section, which gives a more in-depth explanation of exactly what this trickery involves. You can install the Beeper Mac application to act as a bridge if you use an always-online Mac, that’s similar to the approach AirMessage uses. However, if you don’t have access to a Mac, things become more difficult.
Beeper says, in that case, it’ll literally send each of its users an iPhone with the Beeper app installed in order to act as a bridge. But, using Beeper means paying a $10 a month subscription, which may or may not include the iPhone’s cost.
Migicovsky twitted that he had 50 old iPhone 4S’s at his desk, all of them ready to be upcycled for use with Beeper.
What happens if Beeper really work?
If Beeper’s claim proves right and the workaround works, the result will be a universal chat app that works across MacOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux, offering a unified inbox. It will have the ability to search across messages from each of the 15 services.
Beeper is built on the open-source Matrix messaging protocol. The client app itself isn’t open-source, but the bridges connecting it to other chat services are. And the team is also working on the dark mode, which will be available after the next update.
The team’s short-term aim is to make it easier for people to chat across different chat apps. However, Migicovsky has also considered the prospect of people using Matrix itself to chat with friends and colleagues, instead of using it only as a bridge between services.
