4 ms·

For those who don't know - Eric's new company, Beeper [1], is a proprietary Matrix chat client with hosted Matrix bridges to other chat platforms. The bridges a

For those who don't know - Eric's new company, Beeper [1], is a proprietary Matrix chat client with hosted Matrix bridges to other chat platforms. The bridges are open sourced which is a huge contribution to the Matrix ecosystem. [1]: https://www.beeper.com/ https://www.beeper.com/

wallawe 4y ago
I'm pumped for Beeper but have been on the wait list 6 months now, and am wondering if they're having implementation issues.
- erohead 4y ago
  We're working through our waitlist, talking to customers, getting feedback and iterating: https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-update-4-out-of-beta?s=w https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-update-4-out-of-beta?s=w
  - bsimpson 4y ago
    Surprised the FAQ doesn't say anything about encryption/privacy. The big selling point for Signal et. al. is knowing that corps/govs/etc can't spy on my conversations. If I was going to give another app permission to use my Signal, I'd need assurances I'm not sacrificing my security.
    - shp0ngle 4y ago
      You are, by design. Beeper gets around the e2e encryption by just running WA themselves on their side; there is no other way for them to be doing what they say they are doing…
      - jfkimmes 4y ago
        I run several bridges from my home. With End-to-Bridge Encryption enabled this gives you about the same security guarantees as E2EE with a second device added (Signal Desktop, etc). With Beeper you can do the same, IIRC. Their value proposition then hinges on how good their clients can aggregate conversations and different chat networks, I guess.
        shp0ngle 4y ago
        So _you_ run the bridge, not them? But then _you_ need to make sure it's available 100% of the time?
- donatj 4y ago
  I've been using it and loving it for a couple months now. I honestly didn't realize it wasn't open yet.
- striking 4y ago
  Happy customer here. I prepaid to reserve a username and the invite came through pretty shortly thereafter, but ymmv.
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  If you pay $120 for a year, you’ll be let in relatively quickly.
aquaticsunset 4y ago
I'm using Beeper! The app is solid, feature set meets my needs, and overall works quite well. It's still rough around the edges in a few spots. I'm waiting for the e2e protocol to have a self hosted bridge option, but once that's rolled out I'm a happy camper. Some smart people are running this, that's for sure.
bleachedsleet 4y ago
How does this compare to https://texts.com/ https://texts.com/ Anyone know?
- stitched2gethr 4y ago
  What is it that you are looking for with this comment? If you already know texts.com is there a degree of comparison you cannot glean from reading beeper.com?
- striking 4y ago
  Beeper is based on Matrix and the bridges they use are almost all open source. It's an amazing Matrix client (including on Android and, reportedly, iOS) and that makes it pretty great at everything else. Though the Discord integration could use a bit of work still. Texts looks entirely proprietary and the FAQ says they're working on an iOS app.
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  Mobile app is the big one. iMessage too. Texts iMessage solution is wanting. It requires leaving messages open on the computer you have it installed on. Might be Mac only. Texts was too buggy for me to keep using. I still think it has potential though.
grishka 4y ago
Is it an electron app? The 150 MB macOS download certainly suggests so, and that's unfortunate.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  That's disappointing, but I guess it's the reality of today if you want a cross-platform application with full design freedom. I mean personally I think application developers should just pay for and hire development teams for native platforms, with one small team per platform you can do a lot. But it also means compromising on your designs, I think, because I'm fairly sure it's a lot more difficult to implement a custom design on a Linux app. And Apple MacOS apps have certain design guidelines and Expectations as well. I wonder if they could make this into more of a client-server architecture; a crossplatform server that runs as the back-end on the user's machine (or an embedded core), and a native client implemented for the specific OS. With an open protocol so that the community can build alternative clients, e.g. CLI based, or native with less bells and whistles, or more compact.
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  I dislike electron apps a ton. But if an app is going to take over for a bunch of messaging apps, many that have bloated apps themselves, I don’t see it as a major problem.
el_dev_hell 4y ago
Beeper looks pretty awesome! Sorry to hijack the thread, but from the above link: > Yes, iMessage works even on Android, Windows and Linux! How could this be sustainable long-term? I've hacked together tools to forward iMessage content before and it's very unappealing. I suspect they must be using a makeshift solution. I hope it works (and would sign up if there was a way on the landing page), but this seems like building on sand.
- striking 4y ago
  From my understanding, they use a Mac the same way you would, and they forward the messages over by sheer force of will and also money. It works fine for me so far, though there's no out-of-the-box solution for forwarding iMessages that go to your phone number. That requires extra hackery.
- seizethegdgap 4y ago
  https://github.com/mautrix/imessage https://github.com/mautrix/imessage That's the bridge Beeper uses. I've got it running on a 2011 MacBook Air on MacOS 10.13, almost zero issues.
  - el_dev_hell 4y ago
    Appreciate the link! You've given me a fun project for the Easter break.
kilroy123 4y ago
I've been using it for the last two months. Literally just sent a message on there a minute ago. I'm digging it so far.
aidenn0 4y ago
I'm a bit surprised to not see Jabber on there; surely there's a Matrix/Jabber bridge? Or perhaps I'm the only one of their potential customers that still uses jabber...
- zaik 4y ago
  There is: https://aria-net.org/SitePages/Portal/Bridges.aspx https://aria-net.org/SitePages/Portal/Bridges.aspx Matrix.org also has an XMPP implementation (see https://disroot.org/en/services/xmpp https://disroot.org/en/services/xmpp), but it was quite unreliable when I tried it.
kevincox 4y ago
I love the idea of paying for hosted bridges but I'm not willing to switch my main ID to one they own. (And I don't want to have two accounts because that sort of defeats the the whole point.) If they would allow accessing the bridges with an arbitrary matrix account I would have been paying months ago.

wallawe 4y ago

I'm pumped for Beeper but have been on the wait list 6 months now, and am wondering if they're having implementation issues.

erohead 4y ago
We're working through our waitlist, talking to customers, getting feedback and iterating: https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-update-4-out-of-beta?s=w https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-update-4-out-of-beta?s=w
- bsimpson 4y ago
  Surprised the FAQ doesn't say anything about encryption/privacy. The big selling point for Signal et. al. is knowing that corps/govs/etc can't spy on my conversations. If I was going to give another app permission to use my Signal, I'd need assurances I'm not sacrificing my security.
  - shp0ngle 4y ago
    You are, by design. Beeper gets around the e2e encryption by just running WA themselves on their side; there is no other way for them to be doing what they say they are doing…
    - jfkimmes 4y ago
      I run several bridges from my home. With End-to-Bridge Encryption enabled this gives you about the same security guarantees as E2EE with a second device added (Signal Desktop, etc). With Beeper you can do the same, IIRC. Their value proposition then hinges on how good their clients can aggregate conversations and different chat networks, I guess.
      - shp0ngle 4y ago
        So _you_ run the bridge, not them? But then _you_ need to make sure it's available 100% of the time?
donatj 4y ago
I've been using it and loving it for a couple months now. I honestly didn't realize it wasn't open yet.
striking 4y ago
Happy customer here. I prepaid to reserve a username and the invite came through pretty shortly thereafter, but ymmv.
skinnymuch 4y ago
If you pay $120 for a year, you’ll be let in relatively quickly.

aquaticsunset 4y ago

I'm using Beeper! The app is solid, feature set meets my needs, and overall works quite well. It's still rough around the edges in a few spots. I'm waiting for the e2e protocol to have a self hosted bridge option, but once that's rolled out I'm a happy camper. Some smart people are running this, that's for sure.

bleachedsleet 4y ago

How does this compare to https://texts.com/ https://texts.com/ Anyone know?

stitched2gethr 4y ago
What is it that you are looking for with this comment? If you already know texts.com is there a degree of comparison you cannot glean from reading beeper.com?
striking 4y ago
Beeper is based on Matrix and the bridges they use are almost all open source. It's an amazing Matrix client (including on Android and, reportedly, iOS) and that makes it pretty great at everything else. Though the Discord integration could use a bit of work still. Texts looks entirely proprietary and the FAQ says they're working on an iOS app.
skinnymuch 4y ago
Mobile app is the big one. iMessage too. Texts iMessage solution is wanting. It requires leaving messages open on the computer you have it installed on. Might be Mac only. Texts was too buggy for me to keep using. I still think it has potential though.

grishka 4y ago

Is it an electron app? The 150 MB macOS download certainly suggests so, and that's unfortunate.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
That's disappointing, but I guess it's the reality of today if you want a cross-platform application with full design freedom. I mean personally I think application developers should just pay for and hire development teams for native platforms, with one small team per platform you can do a lot. But it also means compromising on your designs, I think, because I'm fairly sure it's a lot more difficult to implement a custom design on a Linux app. And Apple MacOS apps have certain design guidelines and Expectations as well. I wonder if they could make this into more of a client-server architecture; a crossplatform server that runs as the back-end on the user's machine (or an embedded core), and a native client implemented for the specific OS. With an open protocol so that the community can build alternative clients, e.g. CLI based, or native with less bells and whistles, or more compact.
skinnymuch 4y ago
I dislike electron apps a ton. But if an app is going to take over for a bunch of messaging apps, many that have bloated apps themselves, I don’t see it as a major problem.

el_dev_hell 4y ago

Beeper looks pretty awesome! Sorry to hijack the thread, but from the above link: > Yes, iMessage works even on Android, Windows and Linux! How could this be sustainable long-term? I've hacked together tools to forward iMessage content before and it's very unappealing. I suspect they must be using a makeshift solution. I hope it works (and would sign up if there was a way on the landing page), but this seems like building on sand.

striking 4y ago
From my understanding, they use a Mac the same way you would, and they forward the messages over by sheer force of will and also money. It works fine for me so far, though there's no out-of-the-box solution for forwarding iMessages that go to your phone number. That requires extra hackery.
seizethegdgap 4y ago
https://github.com/mautrix/imessage https://github.com/mautrix/imessage That's the bridge Beeper uses. I've got it running on a 2011 MacBook Air on MacOS 10.13, almost zero issues.
- el_dev_hell 4y ago
  Appreciate the link! You've given me a fun project for the Easter break.

kilroy123 4y ago

I've been using it for the last two months. Literally just sent a message on there a minute ago. I'm digging it so far.

aidenn0 4y ago

I'm a bit surprised to not see Jabber on there; surely there's a Matrix/Jabber bridge? Or perhaps I'm the only one of their potential customers that still uses jabber...

zaik 4y ago
There is: https://aria-net.org/SitePages/Portal/Bridges.aspx https://aria-net.org/SitePages/Portal/Bridges.aspx Matrix.org also has an XMPP implementation (see https://disroot.org/en/services/xmpp https://disroot.org/en/services/xmpp), but it was quite unreliable when I tried it.

kevincox 4y ago

I love the idea of paying for hosted bridges but I'm not willing to switch my main ID to one they own. (And I don't want to have two accounts because that sort of defeats the the whole point.) If they would allow accessing the bridges with an arbitrary matrix account I would have been paying months ago.