Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced some changes to its privacy policy that have led many users to consider whether to move their mobile social life to a new app.
Signal has received many new users, and Android users have complained that they can't switch to iMessage from Apple. All of this is a good time to get into the messaging business, and the founder of Pebble says he has a rather strange new solution.
Beeper is a future application that sells as a hub for all your messaging services. Instead of managing multiple apps to keep in touch with friends, family, and coworkers, Beeper lets you channel everything to a single interface. According to its website, the application supports 14 external messaging platforms, as well as its own Beeper network. The company claims that it can bring iMessage to Android, Windows or Linux devices.
A hub for all messaging services
Apple likes to keep its internal products exclusively for its own hardware, so this statement is a bit surprising, but Beeper says it has found a solution. On its website, the company explains:
The part about using a Mac that is always connected as a bridge is not unprecedented, but the idea of sending recycled iPhone users with jailbreaks is a bit strange.
Eric Migicovsky, the founder of the Pebble smartwatch company and partner at Beeper, wrote on Twitter that the jailbreak plan is legitimate and that he currently has 50 iPhones 4 ready for this task. On the other hand, an old jailbroken iPhone is a security risk that becomes more and more risky over time.
The privacy policy raises issues
Another privacy issue is encryption. Beeper's privacy policy is fairly straightforward. But it also doesn't mention encryption. Many of the services it binds use a certain level of end-to-end encryption, and Beeper needs to be able to guarantee users that they can expect the same level of security that it would have when using any of the standalone services.
Migicovsky told Gizmodo that "Beeper encrypts all messages from the client before it reaches our servers. We can't decrypt the contents of the message. "
And this is the list of Beeper compatible messaging services: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Android Messages (SMS), Telegram, Twitter, Slack, Hangouts, Instagram, Skype, IRC, Matrix, Discord, Signal and the Beeper network.
Beeper raises a lot of questions, the most important of which is whether or not people are willing to pay a $ 10-a-month subscription fee.