Well universal chat (like universal e-mail) is either going to be a common open protocol (does not seem very likely given Apple and all the other players) or is going to be something like this on the client side. Although its a lot of work, it does seem more possible. The only pity is it can’t solve connecting to services that I don’t use like Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp.
The EU is forcing the big chat companies to open their gates. They have until April of next year to comply, so we might see a common protocol for chat pretty soon
That is really going to be interesting, yes! It is seriously needed despite what Apple will say. And if implemented correctly it can still be E2EE but with our own client apps.
They need to be interoperable. For example if you’re on Signal but want to chat with your parents who are on FB Messenger, then you would be able to chat to them via Signal.
You can envision each chat apps as different instances and these communicate to eachother with a common protocol, just like ActivityPub in Lemmy.
Been using it for about 2 months, set up was easy I just hate resigning into everything haha. So far it has been exactly what I needed, a place for my android texts, iOS texts, and discord messages in one place.
My one bug I ran into is when sharing something to someone I click their name on the menu that pops up on androids and instead of opening the chat with that person it opens the list of my recent texting partners.
These universal chat apps often do not offer all of the features the underlying apps have. Which makes sense but is probably a reason they never get massively adopted.
tell me how this is better than simply changing all my usernames to “CorsicanGuppy is only on Jabber now, so reach out there” and shutting them all down.
(Actually I liked when pidgin worked, as I could receive on walled platforms and respond on open platforms)
But still, continuing to use closed platforms allows them to perpetuate. Sendmail killed bitnet, and we need to only continue that trend.
This looks like a promising application; and as long as the business models stay sustainable and the company remains ethical; it should be a good place.
Overall it’s been pretty good. I mainly needed it to stop the problem of having an Android phone and MacBook, where sometimes texts from iPhone users “slip” to Messenger on my laptop and I don’t see them until I’m at my computer. I cant get it to take over my native Android messages, and it glitches when I get a call on WhatsApp where I have to open WhatsApp manually to answer, but still worth it.
Well… I said ‘kinda failed’. Synapse is still way too slow. And the new dendrite server is still not up to spec. Joining large rooms is still gives me a headache. I can’t easily protect DDoS or spam accounts. I was forced to basically close registrations my Matrix server. And Dendrite is not yet production ready which is a shame… Don’t get me wrong, I do like Matrix in general. I just hope my previous remarks are taken seriously by their devs.
yea… you are right. It “sort of failed” at some point, because I’m waiting for Matrix to solve these issues for more then 6 years now… basically since the start…
Pidgin didn’t use bridges, it tried to be “all the possible clients in one”… with closed source protocols… which went south, fast. It still works for some, though.
Matrix is running just fine, it doesn’t have the infinite flexibility of XMPP which made XMPP clients incompatible with each other, so as long as it doesn’t jump the shark, it’s just a matter of time to drive adoption.
It’s the base for numerous messengers used by governments around the world, it has a userbase of more than 70 million core users (not counting the various closed messengers).
Various competitors (e.g. Rocket Chat) have changed their base to Matrix.
And Beeper is Matrix with Bridges (which you absolutely could deploy yourself). In theory anyone could recreate the Beeper functionality with existing other apps/bridges AND be able to communicate with Beeper on their native standard - Matrix.
You can use any matrix client you want with it. The closed source one is just making bridging more straightward and adding some little quality of life features.
They do very much for Matrix and the bridging ecosystem is live because of them.
But client apps are 100% propietary, nonfree software, so it’s better to stay away now 😔.
You can use any matrix client with beeper according to their FAQ. It’s frustrating that they forked element and kept the source code closed, but it is Apache 2.0, so it’s not against the licence terms.
Been using their bridges for over 2 years, super happy that I no longer need WhatsApp installed on my phone.
If you’re like me and live in a country where a shitty chat application is required to be able to function in society, software like this is a breath of fresh air. The bridges are also super stable and incredibly well written.
Note: to be clear, I don’t use beeper itself, but use their open source bridges (what beeper is using internally) on my own self hosted Matrix server.
The one thing that sucks about bridging and is never likely to be solved is voice calls through bridges. Theres really no good way to implement it as you would essentially need to have the bridge call you through matrix after you get a WhatsApp call.
As a person who’s been using said bridges as his primary form of contact for years, it’s very difficult to tell people: “Hey, I’m not actually reachable on Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram, please just call me instead”.
As a result, I have a backup “net phone” in one of my cupboards with each of those apps installed. If I’m dealing with a particularly stubborn person I have to use it as a fall back.
So, while I love these bridges, your comment is completely valid and anyone thinking of using them should be aware of that.
TLDR, my Matrix chats are filled with:
Person A (WA): Incoming call
Me: I don’t have whatsapp, needs to be a normal call :(
Yeah this is especially difficult if you’re dealing with people overseas who have generally bad cellular voice service. I’ve had to relaunch whatsapp in another profile on my phone just to answer their calls.
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Well universal chat (like universal e-mail) is either going to be a common open protocol (does not seem very likely given Apple and all the other players) or is going to be something like this on the client side. Although its a lot of work, it does seem more possible. The only pity is it can’t solve connecting to services that I don’t use like Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp.
The EU is forcing the big chat companies to open their gates. They have until April of next year to comply, so we might see a common protocol for chat pretty soon
That is really going to be interesting, yes! It is seriously needed despite what Apple will say. And if implemented correctly it can still be E2EE but with our own client apps.
This one I hadn’t heard about until now, do you have a link to some more information?
Digital market act https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Chat apps are only part of it. It will force iOS and android to offer competing app market too.
Isn’t Apple restricting their part of that to EU citizens?
Can you explain how this affects chat apps? What do they need to implement?
They need to be interoperable. For example if you’re on Signal but want to chat with your parents who are on FB Messenger, then you would be able to chat to them via Signal.
You can envision each chat apps as different instances and these communicate to eachother with a common protocol, just like ActivityPub in Lemmy.
That sounds like something that companies are going to do literally everything they can to avoid. I hope this makes them squirm.
Oh, I hadn’t realized chat apps were covered by it, but that sounds promising! Thanks for the link 🙂
For… free… seems like people make a very strong effort to not learn a shit from experiences
Right this sounds like giving all of my personal messages to one more entity.
Honestly this app sounds almost too good to be true, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it anyways just in case.
Been using it for about 2 months, set up was easy I just hate resigning into everything haha. So far it has been exactly what I needed, a place for my android texts, iOS texts, and discord messages in one place.
My one bug I ran into is when sharing something to someone I click their name on the menu that pops up on androids and instead of opening the chat with that person it opens the list of my recent texting partners.
Would beeper give me access to iMessage without having an iDevice?
Yes
Sorry for the follow up question but is it text only or is it a workaround for the video compression as well?
Thanks for sharing, regardless it’s promising!
Text, images, videos…I believe there is, or will be soon, video conferencing.
My parents are going to be getting a lot more dog videos soon!
Damn…I’m going to be getting a lot of dog videos from my parents.
Yes! One of the main reasons lots of people use Beeper
These universal chat apps often do not offer all of the features the underlying apps have. Which makes sense but is probably a reason they never get massively adopted.
Everyone uses what’sapp in the UK, and from what I understand, other countries. It’s the US that seems to have a weird attachment to iMessage.
The faceblocked and facebanned don’t and can’t. Open chat matters
Is this something like texts.com?
Why juggle multiple messaging apps when you can have all your conversations in one place? SocialSmartly is the solution you’ve been waiting for. 😍
tell me how this is better than simply changing all my usernames to “CorsicanGuppy is only on Jabber now, so reach out there” and shutting them all down.
(Actually I liked when pidgin worked, as I could receive on walled platforms and respond on open platforms)
But still, continuing to use closed platforms allows them to perpetuate. Sendmail killed bitnet, and we need to only continue that trend.
This looks like a promising application; and as long as the business models stay sustainable and the company remains ethical; it should be a good place.
I’ll bite and queue up.
So much for waiting on the wait-list… But I’m excited!!!
Overall it’s been pretty good. I mainly needed it to stop the problem of having an Android phone and MacBook, where sometimes texts from iPhone users “slip” to Messenger on my laptop and I don’t see them until I’m at my computer. I cant get it to take over my native Android messages, and it glitches when I get a call on WhatsApp where I have to open WhatsApp manually to answer, but still worth it.
The last time I heard the word beeper it referred to a pager. You kids know what a pager was?
It’s how you used to buy weed.
Correct: It was the dealers best friend.
Some time ago I found my old CocaCola Beeper. That time might’ve been 10+ years ago…
Lol.
Kinda funny how quickly those disappeared when cell phones came along.
I had a pager in highschool. 🧓
That brought up some memories I had suppressed lol.
Yes.
Lol.
I owned one for a while.
It’s what those ancient iPads, I think they were called b’oks had right? ;-)
Pidgin. That failed. Then we have matrix. That kinda failed. And now beeper?
I don’t know…
Why do you feel like matrix has failed? I joined it recently and to me it looks like it’s kinda growing.
Well… I said ‘kinda failed’. Synapse is still way too slow. And the new dendrite server is still not up to spec. Joining large rooms is still gives me a headache. I can’t easily protect DDoS or spam accounts. I was forced to basically close registrations my Matrix server. And Dendrite is not yet production ready which is a shame… Don’t get me wrong, I do like Matrix in general. I just hope my previous remarks are taken seriously by their devs.
Idk, that’s more of a “not yet finished” thing rather than “failed” imo
yea… you are right. It “sort of failed” at some point, because I’m waiting for Matrix to solve these issues for more then 6 years now… basically since the start…
Pidgin didn’t use bridges, it tried to be “all the possible clients in one”… with closed source protocols… which went south, fast. It still works for some, though.
Matrix is running just fine, it doesn’t have the infinite flexibility of XMPP which made XMPP clients incompatible with each other, so as long as it doesn’t jump the shark, it’s just a matter of time to drive adoption.
Well… I’m using pidgin right now.
Great! Good to hear you use Pidgin! I love using it in the past as well… I now use Matrix mainly. Should I go back to Pidgin?
Beeper is Matrix in a trenchcoat, judging by their Github page.
How did Matrix fail?
It’s the base for numerous messengers used by governments around the world, it has a userbase of more than 70 million core users (not counting the various closed messengers). Various competitors (e.g. Rocket Chat) have changed their base to Matrix.
And Beeper is Matrix with Bridges (which you absolutely could deploy yourself). In theory anyone could recreate the Beeper functionality with existing other apps/bridges AND be able to communicate with Beeper on their native standard - Matrix.
See my reaction above (https://kbin.melroy.org/m/technology@beehaw.org/t/11834/-/comment/90707)
Beeper is a Matrix client that have easy bridging interface.
ow lame… It’s non-free??
Yes, 100% propietary client.
Double lame…!
You can use any matrix client you want with it. The closed source one is just making bridging more straightward and adding some little quality of life features.
I see that initial setup require using Beeper’s desktop client.
Interpersonal communication is too important to use a closed apps, better to wait for those convinient features to arrive at free ones.
They do very much for Matrix and the bridging ecosystem is live because of them. But client apps are 100% propietary, nonfree software, so it’s better to stay away now 😔.
You can use any matrix client with beeper according to their FAQ. It’s frustrating that they forked element and kept the source code closed, but it is Apache 2.0, so it’s not against the licence terms.
Been using their bridges for over 2 years, super happy that I no longer need WhatsApp installed on my phone.
If you’re like me and live in a country where a shitty chat application is required to be able to function in society, software like this is a breath of fresh air. The bridges are also super stable and incredibly well written.
Note: to be clear, I don’t use beeper itself, but use their open source bridges (what beeper is using internally) on my own self hosted Matrix server.
The one thing that sucks about bridging and is never likely to be solved is voice calls through bridges. Theres really no good way to implement it as you would essentially need to have the bridge call you through matrix after you get a WhatsApp call.
Yes, this is very correct.
As a person who’s been using said bridges as his primary form of contact for years, it’s very difficult to tell people: “Hey, I’m not actually reachable on Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram, please just call me instead”.
As a result, I have a backup “net phone” in one of my cupboards with each of those apps installed. If I’m dealing with a particularly stubborn person I have to use it as a fall back.
So, while I love these bridges, your comment is completely valid and anyone thinking of using them should be aware of that.
TLDR, my Matrix chats are filled with:
It gets even funnier when the other person can’t even distinguish between a phone call and a whatsapp voice call.
Yeah, as a result I just see matrix + Tulir’s bridges as a system that I’ve deployed just for me.
I get all my chat networks in one place, and others get to see me online on their networks of choice. Not perfect, but not the worst.
And it’s leagues ahead of Trillian and the rest of those older solutions.
Yeah this is especially difficult if you’re dealing with people overseas who have generally bad cellular voice service. I’ve had to relaunch whatsapp in another profile on my phone just to answer their calls.
Yep. Shame that we’re so reliant on shit like this.