WhatsApp controversies still leave the users with scars that are surely going to take time to heal. The incident has caused the users to shift from the Facebook-owned app to other choices like Signal and Telegram. The sudden movement has caused a big impact too as what has happened to Signal.
However, all this migration has one issue altogether. Not all of our mutuals have the same messaging app. Also, it would be a hassle to keep shifting from one app to another while texting different people.
Hence, Eric Migicovsky who once introduced Pebble (a smartwatch brand, in case you don’t know) has released the new app by the name of Beeper. With Beeper, you can connect with 15 different messaging apps.
The apps supported by Beeper are WhatsApp, FB Messenger, iMessage (shocking, right?), SMS, Telegram, Signal, Instagram and the list goes on.
Migicovsky claimed that the idea came as he was working on the Pebble smartwatch. He also claimed that obtaining the iMessage feature is not as easy as it might sound.
“We really wanted Pebble to be able to send iMessages, but we could never figure out a way to do it because there’s no API for iMessage. All of Beeper is built on top of Matrix, which is this open-source federated, encrypted messaging protocol,” said Migicovsky.
Matrix grants an API that allows developers to connect with other chat networks using a “bridge,” which relays the messages back and forth from one side to another.
With Tulir Asokan, a Matrix contributor he met in a Matrix chat room, Migicovsky started working on Beeper as a side project. Using this bridge, messages across various channels are then relayed to-and-fro.
Here’s another thing. In reality, Beeper ships an old, jailbroken iPhone (iPhone 4S, because it’s cheap) to its users to serve as a bridge. You are basically reading and writing the code installed on the iPhone to the database file where your iMessages are stored.
The iPhone encrypts the messages using your own personal key and then sends them via the Beeper network. Hence, every chat there is encrypted and Beeper can’t read those messages. Sounds promising!
You can sign up for Beeper at the price of USD 10 which is around RM40 monthly. Just click this link to sign up. Don’t worry as it is available on MacOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android.
This will be very beneficial if you have international friends who are using only certain apps. Since it is still new, maybe through several phases of updates, this app will be the mecca for messaging app. Who knows, right?
