Unified messaging - Beeper

[Infrasonic]

https://www.beeper.com/faq

What is Beeper?

Beeper is a universal chat app. With Beeper, you can send and receive messages to friends, family and colleagues on 15 different chat networks, all from a single app. Beeper is free to use, with optional paid subscription. You can use Beeper on all your devices at the same time — your messages sync seamlessly across all of your iPhones, Androids, iPads and computers.

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Read it all before commenting , the obvious security/encryption issues are addressed, some will be insurmountable but for replacing many of my casual messaging apps it could potentially work. I'd keep Signal off of it though and use that app exclusively direct.

There's a few reviews of it in the tech press - all raise similar questions about its sustainability in an environment where the big players like Apple/FB/Google/MS will change their API's at the drop of a hat and may start blocking IP addresses...

[UncleEbenezer]

There's a few reviews of it in the tech press - all raise similar questions about its sustainability in an environment where the big players like Apple/FB/Google/MS will change their API's at the drop of a hat and may start blocking IP addresses...

Change their APIs at the drop of a hat?

That's either a contradiction in terms, or a declaration that the APIs are useless. The whole point of an API is to enable third-party developers to work with the software in question, and an API needs a stability promise. OK, that's an oversimplification, but if they bugger up one third-party app then they do the same for all of them - give or take!

[Infrasonic]

There's a few reviews of it in the tech press - all raise similar questions about its sustainability in an environment where the big players like Apple/FB/Google/MS will change their API's at the drop of a hat and may start blocking IP addresses...

Change their APIs at the drop of a hat?

That's either a contradiction in terms, or a declaration that the APIs are useless. The whole point of an API is to enable third-party developers to work with the software in question, and an API needs a stability promise. OK, that's an oversimplification, but if they bugger up one third-party app then they do the same for all of them - give or take!

I suggest you pay attention to what the big players actually do in practise rather than armchair theory. They have their own ecosystems and preferred partners - who'll get a heads up - and they aren't that bothered about small third party devs being inconvenienced by an API change (read the devs blogs/chat boards for all the moaning they do about it...).

I've lost count of the number of freemium third party cloud apps that I have used over the past twenty years or so that worked with Google/MS/FB flawlessly one month and not the next. Cue an app update, rinse and repeat until the app gets bought out by bigger fish or development withers through lack of cash and drifts into diminishing relevance.

[UncleEbenezer]

I suggest you pay attention to what the big players actually do in practise rather than armchair theory.

Good reply, but I have quite a lot of real-world experience on both sides of the API table. I guess my world (open development) differs from your experience ...

The main case to which I'm party is APIs published and supported by some Apache projects, including the web server used by much of the Web (including lemonfool). We publish a stability promise, together with a description of the conditions under which a change might happen. Software following guidelines in my book for application developers (January 2007) still works today, although there may be new and better ways to do some things.

I also recommend that where a developer sees a need to extend the API, they consider taking the trouble to do it in a generic manner and contributing their work back to the project. That way their API becomes part of the product that is stable and maintained, as opposed to something that could break at any time due to changes in our software. A bit of up-front planning saves a lot of potential maintenance headache!

And as a developer on the other side of the table, I have software that still works with third-party APIs I used over 20 years ago!

[JohnB]

I note the Beeper FAQ misses the obvious "which 15 messaging systems do you suppprt?"

APIs controlled by developer keys can be selectively turned off at whim of course.

[Infrasonic]

I note the Beeper FAQ misses the obvious "which 15 messaging systems do you suppprt?"

APIs controlled by developer keys can be selectively turned off at whim of course.

The homepage does however...https://www.beeper.com/

15 Chat Networks - 1 App
Beeper supports:

Whatsapp

Facebook Messenger

Twitter

iMessage

Android SMS

Telegram

Signal

Beeper

Slack

Google Chat

Instagram

IRC (Libera.chat)

Matrix

Discord

LinkedIn

Most chat apps treat desktop as a second class citizen. Not us! Our desktop app is fast, fully-featured and full of keyboard shortcuts to help you get through your inbox. Beeper Desktop runs on Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Chrome OS.

I'm going to give it a bit of time for others to beta test and see where it's at in a few months - there's too many potential issues for me currently to commit to it - but I like the idea!

[Urbandreamer]

I suggest you pay attention to what the big players actually do in practise rather than armchair theory.

Good reply, but I have quite a lot of real-world experience on both sides of the API table. I guess my world (open development) differs from your experience ...

The main case to which I'm party is APIs published and supported by some Apache projects, including the web server used by much of the Web (including lemonfool).

I suspect that the problem is that API, doesn't carry with it any intention or ethos of those involved. I would expect the likes of Apache to maintain compatibility. possibly gently depreciating certain aspects. The same is decidedly NOT true with the likes of Yahoo, which has caused issues with the HYPTUSS developers amongst others.

Likewise attitudes change. Back in the day the BBC was quite keen to make their Iplayer API available to the many. That has changed and they are restricting access. It does have to be admitted that they are expected to monetize their production rather than give it away for free these days.

[ReformedCharacter]

The homepage does however...https://www.beeper.com/

15 Chat Networks - 1 App
Beeper supports:

...

I'm going to give it a bit of time for others to beta test and see where it's at in a few months - there's too many potential issues for me currently to commit to it - but I like the idea!

Thanks. It's a modern day Tower of Babel IMO. And no 'Threads' yet

I see IRC still lives in a new form, that takes me back a bit.

RC

[Infrasonic]

...And no 'Threads' yet

Can't post to Threads without an IG account - a step too far for me, I'm trying to reduce my social media accounts footprint. I've got Twitter and FB and hardly post to either these days. The messaging apps have ballooned due to my non techie friends not being on Signal. Their eyes glaze over when I start going on about privacy/encryption...

[Infrasonic]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12 ... atibility/

Beeper Mini for Android sends and receives iMessages, no Mac server required...

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