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New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

blog.beeper.com

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Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#21

Post by ForHackernews »

Interesting! Anyone here remember Pidgin? It was such a fantastic app for chatting with friends on AIM, MSN, ICQ, gchat (XMPP), and IRC all from one interface. It even had an "off the record" (OTR) plugin that was an early example of end-to-end encryption.

It was a good illustration of how an open source app could surpass all the proprietary alternatives because it wasn't subject to the same incentives as a commercial company. Although obviously all those companies wised up and killed XMPP...

Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#22

Post by shrimp_emoji »

ForHackernews wrote: post #21

Interesting! Anyone here remember Pidgin? It was such a fantastic app for chatting with friends on AIM, MSN, ICQ, gchat (XMPP), and IRC all from one interface. It even had an "off the record" (OTR) plugin that was an early example of end-to-end encryption. It was a good illustration of how an open source app could surpass all the proprietary alternatives because it wasn't subject to the same incentives as a commercia…

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin

Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#23

Post by ForHackernews »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #22
ForHackernews wrote: post #21

Interesting! Anyone here remember Pidgin? It was such a fantastic app for chatting with friends on AIM, MSN, ICQ, gchat (XMPP), and IRC all from one interface. It even had an "off the record" (OTR) plugin that was an early example of end-to-end encryption. It was a good illustration of how an open source app could surpass all the proprietary alternatives because it wasn't subject to the same incentives as a commercia…

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin

?

I was talking about https://pidgin.im/

Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#24

Post by jxdxbx »

dabluecaboose wrote: post #16
SalariedSlave wrote: post #10

now if only I had a small android phone I could install this app on...

Hoping Eric pops in here like he does on other Beeper threads and sees this. I'm still checking every day for a small android phone. I found my Xperia z3 Compact in a drawer the other day. It was immediately such a pleasure to hold, I love the concept of having something as powerful as a smartphone in such a small package.

There are 3” Android “media player” devices for under $100 on Amazon. No cellular but cool to play with.

Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#26

Post by chankstein38 »

neodymiumphish wrote: post #13
wnevets wrote: post #2

> On-device iMessage bridge (like Beeper Mini) is not enabled at this time. Wasn't this the reason to use beeper on android?

I switched from Android to iOS for the first time ever last month (was on Android since the very early 2010s), and I still use Beeper for everything but iMessages.

Curious how you're finding it so far? I mowed my Note20 Ultra in June of last year and replaced it with a 14 Pro Max then just last month went and swapped back to an S24 Ultra. I found Apple to be too restrictive. The OS level stuff was one thing but the app store lacking things like emulators or vape apps because "Apple said so" rubbed me the wrong way, whether I need them or not. Plus I like writing python on my phone.

Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#27

Post by szszrk »

ForHackernews wrote: post #21

Interesting! Anyone here remember Pidgin? It was such a fantastic app for chatting with friends on AIM, MSN, ICQ, gchat (XMPP), and IRC all from one interface. It even had an "off the record" (OTR) plugin that was an early example of end-to-end encryption. It was a good illustration of how an open source app could surpass all the proprietary alternatives because it wasn't subject to the same incentives as a commercia…

Pidgin was (is) great, but that was possible with jabber transports on any client. I had multiple major closed networks, blogging platform, RSS, IRC and more in one jabber/xmpp client. Cli, phone, second computer... No problem, including self hosted.

Miss those days when companies didn't invest into building walled gardens.

Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#28

Post by lrvick »

anyekwest wrote: post #19
mcsniff wrote: post #12

I want to use Beeper, but funneling all my communications through hosted bridges (especially so Signal) is gonna be a nope, until they release more very deep technical and verifiable information about how on-device bridges work. I'm big on unified messaging from the libpurple days, but now 99% of my chats are in Signal so perhaps I am just not the target demographic for this.

I use texts.com instead, honestly has worked better for me than beeper

Beeper at least has source code for the bridges, which you can have some hope is the same code that they run and that they don't get court orders to look at the messages.

If they ever chose to implement remote attestation for bridges, and you chose to use an open source matrix client to control your local keys, there is at least a potential path for you to prove they can't look at messages so you don't have to trust them.

You also have the option to self host bridges and take your ball and go home at any time, given that Matrix is an open protocol. Minimal lock-in.

Texts.com by contrast is completely proprietary as far as I can tell, with no path to self host, so it is strictly worse than Beeper in every way in terms of transparency.

Re: New Beeper Android app – Open beta test

#29

Post by barrenko »

yoavm wrote: post #5
wnevets wrote: post #2

> On-device iMessage bridge (like Beeper Mini) is not enabled at this time. Wasn't this the reason to use beeper on android?

I use Beeper on Android to have one app through which I send messages on WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram etc. I never cared for iMessage support.

This works?
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