Beeper
Consumer and social
messaging aggregator
SHOW HN2021
962points
486comments
#12of 2,533 in 2021
Top 1%of 2021 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
57 positive, 144 neutral or asking, 20 mixed, 64 critical, out of 285 comments about the project. Thread score -0.06.
Idea: 23 for, 14 againstExecution: 6 for, 17 againstPricing: 6 for, 14 againstPrivacy: 2 for, 13 againstDocs: 2 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Unifies chats across networks and is a good Matrix client
From 3 comments
I've been using this for several months now, and it's one of the biggest digital quality-of-life improvements I made in 2020. Getting modern chat networks to interact is never…
tylermenezes on HNWhile I think the core focus of Beeper as a cross platform messenger is great, the bigger positive here in my opinion is a matrix client with good UX and design. The user…
usbfingers on HNThis looks great. I'm just in the middle of trying to set up a home server using dendrite to do exactly this (mainly for fun). This looks really well done and polished though.…
jcul on HN
Polished design and UX
From 2 comments
While I think the core focus of Beeper as a cross platform messenger is great, the bigger positive here in my opinion is a matrix client with good UX and design. The user…
usbfingers on HNThis looks great. I'm just in the middle of trying to set up a home server using dendrite to do exactly this (mainly for fun). This looks really well done and polished though.…
jcul on HN
Objections
$10 per month is too expensive
From 3 comments
This looks nice, but $10 a month is a tough sell for me (I use only two of the supported platforms everyday, with about 20 messages total in a day, on average). Also, why does…
AnonHP on HNWonderful promise ! I'm really thinking that I need an app like that one but how to justify the price ? I'm ready to pay for that kind of service but it's seems too expensive to…
alaenix on HN10$/month is absurd
noxer on HN
Third-party clients risk bans from platforms like Discord and WhatsApp
From 3 comments
Doesn't using this with Discord run a risk of your account getting banned for using a third-party client? That's why the Cordless developer shut down the project:…
jakelazaroff on HNThis is really cool however I’m worried about getting banned from discord using for using your service as I believe it’s not authorized on discord to use third party client
vini808 on HNI thought WhatsApp banned thirdparty apps some time ago? How does this work exactly?
gkfasdfasdf on HN
iMessage bridge via jailbroken iPhone seems implausible or legally risky
From 3 comments
If there is an iMessage bridge that would be considered a zero-day exploit. There is no official or un-office API for iMessage outside the Apple ecosystem and this is part of…
soheil on HNiMessage integration is interesting but I can’t imagine it will last. Not sure what type of wizardry you guys pulled but a cease and desist is likely on its way. Either way,…
e-clinton on HNI assume some part of the iMessage faq is a joke ? > This was a tough one to figure out! Beeper has two ways of enabling Android, Windows and Linux users to use iMessage: we send…
carterschonwald on HN
Desktop client is closed source
From 1 comment
I love the idea of hosted bridges (in fact I was thinking about starting my own service like this) and I'm glad that the bridges themselves are open source. However I would much…
kevincox on HN
Requests
Support for SMS or VoIP
From 1 comment
Any plans for VoIP SMS support? A few years ago, I moved my phone number to VoIP.ms to save about $50/month on my cellphone bill ($70 /month for calls, texts and data vs…
miguelrochefort on HN
Send-later scheduling
From 1 comment
Congrats on the launch! My understanding of the space is that there is a great desire for "super powered" messaging - especially over text. Any chance "send later" is a part of…
lc3sim on HN
Google Chat support
From 1 comment
How does it work? Most of those protocols are’t exactly open. Also please add support for Google Chat.
mrweasel on HN
Questions
How the iMessage bridge works and whether it is open source
From 3 comments
Serious question: Is the below a joke or legitimate? How in the world did you get iMessage to work on Android and Windows? This was a tough one to figure out! Beeper has two ways…
el_dev_hell on HNLooks awesome, I'm looking forward to trying it out! A couple questions: 1) Is the desktop app electron or native? 2) Is the Mac iMessage bridge open-source? Thanks!
codebutler on HNI thought I’d seen this before[0] Also: > I make no claims to this being production level reliability. It's very much beta software. Very beta @erohead does this quote from you 6…
whycombagator on HN
Whether messages are visible to Beeper and how encryption works across bridges
From 3 comments
Are paying users messages visible to Beeper? If so, then it's just another risk.
visarga on HNHow does encryption work across the bridges? Is this written down anywhere? Signal, Telegram's Secret Chat, etc.
johnisgood on HNAll of our bridges (except Slack and Discord, but will soon) use Matrix's e2e encryption scheme and all messages are stored encrypted on Beeper servers with a key that you…
erohead on HN
How to get started after signing up
From 2 comments
How do I get started? I put in my email like 10 minutes ago and have received nothing...
uoflcards22 on HNWent to their website, filled out the form, assumed I was signing up for a beta. Then...nothing happened. No automated emails, "you're in the beta!" notifications, nothing.…
easyascake on HN
Alternatives named
Franz
From 3 comments
Are there already many similar apps? I used two: Rambox https://rambox.pro/ and Franz https://meetfranz.com
yingbo on HNIsn't Beeper similar to Franz [0]? [0] https://meetfranz.com/
saltybytes on HNNot "All Your Chats". Franz is doing this already. It has a free version with limited features. The down side is it is a CPU hog. It doesn't support WeChat, neither is your…
chenster on HN
Ferdi
From 1 comment
For those that don't use a macintosh(or don't care about imessage), ferdi is a great free alternative
WorldPeas on HN
Bitlbee
From 1 comment
I mentioned bitlbee elsewhere in this thread, but in case people haven't heard of it, it's a similar beast to Beeper but it bridges chat systems to an IRC client of your choice…
philsnow on HN
Weechat
From 1 comment
I use weechat for this and it works fine. Slack, Discord, Signal, etc. all bridge fine (though Signal is a bit messy). And of course, IRC. The one thing I haven't figured out how…
da_big_ghey on HN