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Beeper acquired by Automattic

blog.beeper.com

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Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#191

Post by brandon272 »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #123
gnicholas wrote: post #100

I find it interesting that so many people want to unify all their messages. For me, I like having different apps that I can check with different frequency. I am glad that I can get my iMessages immediately but that LinkedIn messages don't get delivered to me until I open the app/website. I have literally never had an issue where I didn't get a message in time because it was sent via the wrong platform. People who nee…

The problem arise when your friends can text you on Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Bsky, Mastodon, Skype, Slack, Email. It's not that you don't receive messages but that you need to keep installed 14 different applications on your phone or get used to 14 different UIs to do the same thing. The major problem is the WhatsApp vs Telegram split for me, if all…

Yes, this is exactly it. And in an age where people are terminally on their phones, having 14 different apps that can all launch notifications from the background as long as they are installed and you are logged in is perhaps fine. On a Mac or PC in particular it would be nice to have other options around aggregating these messages in a single interface as we used to be able to do 20 years ago.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#192

Post by gnicholas »

brandon272 wrote: post #191
jokethrowaway wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem arise when your friends can text you on Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Bsky, Mastodon, Skype, Slack, Email. It's not that you don't receive messages but that you need to keep installed 14 different applications on your phone or get used to 14 different UIs to do the same thing. The major problem is the WhatsApp vs Telegram split for me, if all…

Yes, this is exactly it. And in an age where people are terminally on their phones, having 14 different apps that can all launch notifications from the background as long as they are installed and you are logged in is perhaps fine. On a Mac or PC in particular it would be nice to have other options around aggregating these messages in a single interface as we used to be able to do 20 years ago.

Yeah, I can understand the appeal a bit more on a computer. On my phone, it's a problem that's already been solved at the OS level.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#196

Post by askonomm »

compootr wrote: post #188
xinayder wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pessimistic take to say that Automattic will close up Beeper and make it a worse a product.

that's a naive take to think there's no chance they will every. company. wants. money. it's the SAME, EVERY.SINGLE.TIME

That's indeed what a purpose of companies are. Organizations that do not want money are registered as non-profit.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#197

Post by freedomben »

and they're rewriting Beeper in PHP as a WordPress plugin!

Kidding of course, but on a serious note what's the strategic value of Beeper here to Automattic?

From the post:

> Automattic is doubling down on chat after their acquisition last year of Texts.com, a messaging app with a similar mission. Our teams and products will merge, and I will take on the role leading the team as Head of Messaging. It will take a bit of time for us to integrate and combine forces under the Beeper brand. We’ve got big plans! I’m really excited about the future of chat

Why? Are they trying to eliminate a competitor (standard big tech co move)? Do they think texts.com doesn't have a bright future? I'm not trying to be negative (in fact I have a high opinion of Automattic due to their great open source work), just trying to figure out why this makes sense for them.

Is chat a diversification effort for Automattic, or does it tie into their overall strategy somehow?

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#198

Post by alalani1 »

xmprt wrote: post #180
alalani1 wrote: post #158

Automattic basically consolidated the messaging aggregator market for $175M - I don't have any data but given they had 40 FTE between the two companies, I would guess not more than $10M in revenue across the two. Anyone understand the business rationale for wanting to own this market?

No matter what, as long as we continue to communicate with each other, messaging will never die. Individual messaging platforms will come and go but the idea of instant messaging has existed for about as long as the internet. $175M might be a steal if Beeper gets more mass market appeal.

Yeah, my first response was going to be that the paid messaging app business model hasn't worked that entire time. But what we've learned from Whatsapp is that there may be other ways to monetize (Whatsapp Business). Still not an obvious bet IMO but you're right that owning the messaging layer is valuable.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#199

Post by snowfield »

mintplant wrote: post #98
Contortion wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus your messages will no longer be fully E2E encrypted. As per their FAQ (emphasis mine): "For example, if you send a message from Beeper to a friend on WhatsApp, the message is encrypted on your Beeper client, sent to the bridge, which decrypts and re-encrypts the message with WhatsApp's proprietary encryption protocol." Directly underneath that they also say: "Using native end-to-end encrypted chat apps independe…

You can host the bridges yourself: https://github.com/beeper/bridge-manager

Still won't be E2E as per their FAQ

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#200

Post by theogravity »

kevstev wrote: post #155
duxup wrote: post #125

>If you haven’t heard of Beeper before, welcome! We make a universal chat app – one app to send and receive messages on 14 different chat networks. I feel a little exhausted just thinking about needing to be on 14 different chat networks. What are people using that for? Marketing / customer service type chat stuff across networks?

This idea has existed and been implemented for a very long time- Pidgin was the first client I can remember that would try to bridge across various chat networks. You likely are on 14 different chat "networks" already- you might not think of them as chat networks, but as apps with chat functionality. Just real quick off the top of my head I can name a bunch: FB Instagram Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Signal Gchat/whateve…

Trillian was my first client. It looks like it still exists and now runs on a subscription model:

https://trillian.im/

Also looks like it no longer connects to multiple networks, but uses their own now.

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