I'm big on unified messaging from the libpurple days, but now 99% of my chats are in Signal so perhaps I am just not the target demographic for this.
You don't have to use our hosted bridges, we've made it ridiculously easy to self host: https://github.com/beeper/bridge-manager
Having the features and polish of the first party app, but with a user-controlled backend (like how Bitwarden does it) would be great.
BTW, I have a Pebble on my wrist right now :)
Is there still plans for supporting multiple G Apps accounts?
If they ever chose to implement remote attestation for bridges, and you chose to use an open source matrix client to control your local keys, there is at least a potential path for you to prove they can't look at messages so you don't have to trust them.
You also have the option to self host bridges and take your ball and go home at any time, given that Matrix is an open protocol. Minimal lock-in.
Texts.com by contrast is completely proprietary as far as I can tell, with no path to self host, so it is strictly worse than Beeper in every way in terms of transparency.
> On-Device Signal Bridge
Haven't tried it yet.
It was a good illustration of how an open source app could surpass all the proprietary alternatives because it wasn't subject to the same incentives as a commercial company. Although obviously all those companies wised up and killed XMPP...
Completely defining your own secure perimeter by self hosting everything possible makes for extremely perfunctory audits by regulatory bodies for the industries (finance, mainly) we support.
Miss those days when companies didn't invest into building walled gardens.
I was talking about https://pidgin.im/
Wasn't this the reason to use beeper on android?
Their ability to bridge other networks may be useful to you. It’s what they did before the iMessage thing.
I agree though a ton of their possible demand is gone now due to that. Add in RCS later this year, and even if iMessage came back I’m not sure it would be worth it to many.
But hey. I didn’t know they existed before that. I do now. That’s something. I also distrust their judgement based on their actions. But I’m sure that not true for everyone who now knows they exist.
I currently use through it: Telegram, WhatsApp, RCS (Android Messages), Signal.
Beeper is built on Matrix and their client is based on Element but I would say the experience is slightly better than native; for example I prefer how client verification works in Beeper over vanilla Element.
Congrats on the open beta!
How long will it remain free to use?
Beeper isn't in a business that's every going to make them significant money. Their core value proposition is, ironically, that reverse engineering iMessage is "just hard enough". If it becomes too hard, they fail.
But if it becomes too easy, they fail too because everyone will launch Apple-compatible chat apps! In fact the worst case is that the protocols end up standardized, in which case they'll have to compete with genuine open source implementations.
Basically, I'm absolutely in their corner in this fight, but I'd never bet on Beeper as a product.
I found my Xperia z3 Compact in a drawer the other day. It was immediately such a pleasure to hold, I love the concept of having something as powerful as a smartphone in such a small package.
I'm happy to pay it forward, the only caveat is that I think the referral code has to be sent via a chat method that beeper supports. Feel free to email me (HN username @ big G's mail service) with a GChat/WhatsApp/SMS address.
But I don't want to depend on Google on my phone.
