Beeper is a new all-in-one chat app that merges 15 different platforms into one. That sounds pretty interesting already, but what makes Beeper really exciting is its promise to put iMessage on Android and Windows.
The app, from Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky and his team, is “using some trickery” to make the impossible possible. But you’ll have to cough up a monthly subscription fee if you want to take advantage of it.
Apple is dead against bringing iMessage to third-party platforms. It’s one reason why some iPhone owners keep buying Apple smartphones and won’t make the leap to Android. But could Beeper change that?
Like other hopeful iMessage clients, Beeper uses less than ideal workarounds to get iMessage working on Android and Windows devices. And that’s just one of a long list of chat platforms that it rolls into one.
Beeper brings your favorite platforms together
Beeper brings together Discord, Slack, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more. You can use one chat client on any platform to communicate through any and all of these services.
Other chat apps have attempted similar things in the past; Beeper is simply a modern version of those with support for the latest services. But again, it’s the iMessage support that makes it really interesting.
So, how does it work? Well, if you have a Mac that’s always on, Beeper will use that as a bridge to iMessage. That’s how other third-party iMessage clients, such as AirMessage, have used in the past.
And if you don’t have an always-on Mac you can route through, Beeper provides you with a jailbroken iPhone 4S that becomes your bridge instead. Seriously. Check out the below tweet from Migicovsky.
Yes! That is EXACTLY what we're doing. I have 50 iPhone 4s sitting here at my desk.
— Eric Migicovsky (@ericmigi) January 20, 2021
An FAQ on the Beeper website provides some more information, and explains some other things — like the cost of entry.
Beeper isn’t free
You’ll need to cough up $10 a month to take advantage of Beeper, and it’s not yet clear if that covers the cost of the iPhone 4S if you need one. After subscribing, you can download the Beeper app on all popular platforms.
Beeper isn’t yet available to all, however. You can now register your interest in an invite to the service, but we’ll have to wait longer for a wider launch.
Via: The Verge
