The Beeper app brings together all your messaging apps, but is that good?

In 2020, Eric Migicovsky — the co-founder of Pebble, one of many early smartwatch firms — introduced the creation of the Beeper app. In a prolonged weblog submit, Migicovsky defined how Beeper would “bridge all our chat networks into one client.” In different phrases, he wished to ease our affected by the overwhelming variety of messaging apps we use by bringing them all together into one hub. Later, Migicovsky additionally promised the power for Beeper customers to make use of iMessage on Android, which is thought of the holy grail of messaging app experiences.

Once Beeper began gaining some steam, I signed up for the waitlist. It took over a yr (407 days, to be particular), but I lastly gained entry to the service, which is nonetheless in beta. Excitedly, I set it up, all the whereas pondering, “This is going to solve all my messaging problems!”

Unfortunately, Beeper didn’t clear up any of my issues. In truth, now that the mud has settled, I believe Beeper — and any service geared in direction of combining many messaging apps into one — creates extra issues than it’s value. The actual answer to our messaging app deluge is a lot less complicated.

On my cellphone and laptop computer, I recurrently use a whopping 9 chat apps. My favourite is Google Messages. This is how I talk with my companion, most of my household, and a big portion of my pals. However, some pals use WhatsApp, so I would like that one too. My extra tech-savvy pals and trade colleagues use Signal or Telegram, so I’ve these put in as properly. Of course, I exploit Slack and LinkedIn for work. I additionally recurrently get messages from pals and followers via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and on and on. It’s absolute insanity.

The idea of taking all these apps and bringing them into one hub sounds superb. Just think about: Someone messages you thru WhatsApp whereas, concurrently, another person sends you a LinkedIn message. Both notifications come via as one icon on your cellphone, and you’ll reply to each from the identical interface. The recipients are none-the-wiser. It sounds lovely.

Of course, very tech-savvy readers will know that this sort of factor has been attainable for a very long time. Using the open-source Matrix protocol, you’ll be able to “bridge” all your apps together. However, Beeper takes the tech-savvy necessity of this away. You simply obtain the app on your Windows, macOS, Linux, or Chrome OS pc and comply with the dead-simple prompts to log in to all your chat apps, of which Beeper helps 15, together with all those I’ve talked about thus far. Once you’re all set on your pc, you put in the Beeper cellular app via Google Play or the Apple App Store, check in, and also you’re carried out. Now all your chats are in a single spot, and you’ll message your family and friends from your pc or cellphone.

This is how I felt about Beeper previous to residing with it for just a few days, although. Once the thrill wore off, I noticed that this simply wouldn’t work for me.

Slack is one in every of my most-used messaging apps. Technically, it is categorized within the “Labs” part of Beeper’s help record, together with Discord. When I signed in with my Slack account, the Beeper software program even warned me: Slack doesn’t work properly with Beeper, so it’s best to in all probability keep away from it.

“No big deal,” I mentioned to myself. “I can just add everything else to Beeper and leave Slack alone.”

Oh, but additionally, Beeper doesn’t help RCS when bridged to Google Messages (the corporate says this is coming someday in 2023). So I’ll depart Messages alone, too. Ah, but Beeper additionally received’t help typing notifications from Instagram DMs, which will probably be annoying. Guess I’ll depart that out, too.

You see the place this is going. With nearly each chat service, there’s one thing elementary that Beeper can’t replicate. You can see an up-to-date record of all Beeper’s lacking options for every platform on the hyperlink. This forces you to resolve whether or not shedding out on that characteristic (or options, plural) is well worth the comfort of getting every part underneath one roof.

Even Beeper’s trump card — the power to make use of iMessage on Android — leaves a lot to be desired. When I chatted with my iPhone-using pals on my Pixel 7 Pro, my bubble wasn’t inexperienced, but it wasn’t blue, both. Instead, it was gray, and sure iMessage options nonetheless didn’t work, similar to typing notifications.

On high of all this, Beeper is additionally its personal chat app, which is how Migicovsky and the staff talk with customers. It’s delightfully ironic that this noble ambition to make chat less complicated additionally includes creating a brand new chat app to throw on high of the pile.

Obviously, Beeper is nonetheless in beta. Things will solely get higher. However, now that I’ve tasted the meals, so to talk, I’m undecided this specific restaurant is for me.

Let’s fake that Beeper achieves 100% parity with all 15 of its supported companies. This is extremely unlikely to ever occur, but, even when it did, I nonetheless don’t assume I’d wish to use it.

First, the elephant within the room must be addressed: safety. In Beeper’s start-up information, the very first thing you see is an enormous alert field: “Beeper may be less secure than using encrypted chat apps by themselves.” Fundamentally, there’s no method to repair this. To use any of the chat apps, you have to hyperlink Beeper to that service utilizing your credentials, which is inherently extra insecure than logging into the app straight. Beeper is fast to defend itself by declaring its sturdy privateness coverage, its moral enterprise practices with a user-centered focus, and its use of end-to-end encryption (E2EE). However, that doesn’t defend your credentials from hackers that might acquire entry to Beeper and ship your grandma a message via WhatsApp pretending to be you and asking to wire $1,000 to an account in China.

Even in the event you can look previous safety, there are different issues. For instance, in a Twitter DM, I might wish to “@” somebody. If I do that within the native app, it’ll begin to auto-fill usernames as I am going. This is useful as a result of loads of individuals I do know have very completely different usernames throughout social media, and I can’t bear in mind them all. Beeper doesn’t assist with that, although. Obviously, on this particular situation, I’d want to leap over to the primary Twitter app to search out the username I would like, thus defeating the entire level of a consolidated app.

Finally, Beeper’s UI is the identical for each app. This is, little question, by design. However, it may be disorienting to not know which service you’re utilizing simply by it. Beeper tries to assist by placing the service’s identify and icon on the web page, but that’s no substitute for the enduring appears of every chat app. This may sound nitpicky, but think about utilizing Facebook Messenger in a window that appears like a Windows Command Prompt. Sure, that design would work, but it wouldn’t really feel proper.

These are all issues Beeper could have a really robust time fixing, irrespective of how good it will get at integrating different companies. This brings me to what I’ve decided is the true answer to overwhelming messaging choices.

In Migicovsky’s unique announcement for Beeper, he describes two kinds of individuals. First, there are “siloed” messengers: individuals who keep in a single app and demand that anybody who needs to speak with them use that app. This is what iPhone customers within the United States do. On the opposite hand, there are “ambi-social” customers: individuals who have many chat apps and wish to recollect which individuals use which app to accommodate them all. This is the class I’m in.

Beeper needs to be the very best of each worlds by permitting your family and friends to remain within the apps they like but silo your self in a single place. For causes I’ve already identified, although, it may’t do that, at the very least not effectively sufficient — or securely sufficient — to make it value my time.

Instead, the true third answer is a mixture of each “siloed” and “ambi-social.” Use the large platforms that most of your family and friends use, and encourage as many individuals as attainable to make use of one in every of these platforms over the opposite choices.

Right now, I exploit 9 chat apps: Messages, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and LinkedIn. Slack and LinkedIn are only for work, to allow them to exist as their very own factor. Most individuals on Signal and Telegram additionally use WhatsApp, so I can begin solely messaging these of us on WhatsApp. I barely use Facebook and Twitter anymore, so I can simply inform anybody who messages me there to textual content me or use WhatsApp. That leaves me utilizing Messages, Instagram, LinkedIn, Slack, and WhatsApp. I can stay with 5 chat apps, I believe.

This clearly doesn’t cut back the variety of apps I would like to put in on my cellphone, nor does it clear up the iMessage on Android mess. But the issue of messaging app overload can solely be mitigated by exercising some self-control and eradicating outliers from your life. That buddy who solely talks to you on Twitter absolutely makes use of one other messaging app too. That answer isn’t as enjoyable sounding as an app like Beeper, but it’s extra sensible, and can really obtain your meant end result.