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Beeper Mini is back

blog.beeper.com

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Re: Beeper Mini is back

#871

Post by hug »

krick wrote: post #843
quantumsequoia wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to purchase an iPhone solely to use iMessage. Believe me, I would have loved to use any other internet-based chat app. But I just can't move my entire social circle to a different app. The network effects and friction are too high. The only thing end users really have control over is their own client. I don't know if they'll succeed in the long run, but I'm really rooting for beeper

Are you saying everyone in your social circle willingly vendor-locks themselves by using an app that is available only on a specific device? That sounds just comically bad. Where is that? USA? I just checked, the iPhone market share appears to be around 57% in the USA, which is sure a lot, but still it means that every second person does not have the ability to use this app. So how comes it ends up being inconvenient…

I will place a bet with you, if you like, that will be very easy for you to win if you're correct in your comment.

The bet goes something like this: Pick a group chat you're in of 10 or more real-life acquaintances who all currently only use a single messaging platform, and convince them all to move the group chat entirely to a different messaging platform, and delete the old group chat.

It doesn't matter which messaging platform you're moving to, any will do, and as you mention there's many to pick from -- some of which are probably better and more feature complete than the one your group chat is currently using.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#872

Post by fomine3 »

wharvle wrote: post #823
lxgr wrote: post #815

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iMessage is easily good enough that I haven't had to go find some alternative SMS app (Almost) nobody here is challenging that it is, under the condition that you communicate exclusively with iPhone users . MMS group chats are an absolute dumpster fire from an UX point of view. In some countries, a single MMS costs about half an USD as well (per recipient)!

No, I mean as an sms app. It’s fine for that. Group sms can get kinda rough but I’ve also never had a phone that did it better, including pre-iPhone phones, and a few Android phones. Of course it’s better if you can stay in iMessage, to avoid SMS, same as switching over to WhatsApp or whatever is way better. > MMS group chats are an absolute dumpster fire from an UX point of view. In some countries, a single MMS cost…

SMS is too underpowered in 2023

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#873

Post by ethanbond »

quantumsequoia wrote: post #812
ethanbond wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"No reverse engineering" is a pretty standard TOS item.

Can you sue someone for violating TOS? It's not illegal, and Apple doesn't have any damages. Terms of Service are just... the terms you need to follow in exchange for service. If you violate the terms, you get cut off from service... which they already did

Yes, breach of contract, especially when you’re circumventing controls specifically designed to prevent the thing you’re doing.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#874

Post by Der_Einzige »

js2 wrote: post #471

> Messages will be sent and received via your email address rather than phone number. [...] Even worse, when iPhone customers added an Android phone number to an existing iMessage secure encrypted group chat, the Messages app would by default switch the entire group chat to using unencrypted, unsecure SMS. These two Messages features combine to create a terrible UX. When someone starts a group chat in Messages and in…

[flagged]

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#875

Post by stillwithit »

quantumsequoia wrote: post #772
stillwithit wrote: post #585

Stuff like this feels petty by all parties. Use an app that’s already universal if users are so desperate. Playing whack a mole back and forth over a chat app as if it’s some high minded fight for speech when countless options exist is melodrama for the sake of melodrama and engagement farming Beeper real goal is like everyone else in tech; get rich. It found the perfect marketing meme, the old David and Goliath stor…

I had to purchase an iPhone solely to use iMessage. Believe me, I would have loved to use any other internet-based chat app. But I just can't move my entire social circle to a different app. The network effects and friction are too high. The only thing end users really have control over is their own client. I don't know if they'll succeed in the long run, but I'm really rooting for beeper

But those effects are not universal.

Not everyone is locked into iMessage.

Of course you’ve hardly been forced into hard labor in the gulag.

Can we use government for something more universal than saving you from your social groups choices?

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#876

Post by tempestn »

kergonath wrote: post #761
mardifoufs wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not American and I've never seen anyone use WhatsApp. I only use it to text my family back in Morocco. Facebook Messenger is even more universal than WhatsApp in my experience

It depends entirely on your social circles. That’s why all these discussions about $some_platform being completely useless because of course everyone uses $other_platform are completely pointless. I haven’t seen any of these in which there was any useful information or even a hint of looking things in perspective. It’s only people telling everyone else that no platform is relevant except for their pet app.

I agree, but I find it hard to comprehend the social circles that shun people for not having an iDevice. Why would people choose to use a platform that not everyone can participate in, when there are just-as-good alternatives that are available to everyone? Like, if there's a group chat that doesn't want to include me because I don't have an iPhone, I don't think I want to be in that group.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#877

Post by Der_Einzige »

quantumsequoia wrote: post #811

Interestingly, in the groupchat I'm in (N=67, mostly software engineers in the Bay Area), I've noticed a high correlation between people taking Pro-Beeper and Pro-Palestine stances, and those taking Pro-Apple and Pro-Israel stances

This would be for socioeconomic factors but it maps to my experience.

Downvoters are simply butthurt that others are noticing this connection. Getting downvoted here is evidence that you’re speaking truth to (apple) power

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#878

Post by oefrha »

fullstop wrote: post #558
maratc wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't doubt the fact that you know that other cross-platform messaging apps exist.

My mom, in her 70s, barely gets iMessage -- half the time I receive "text" messages from her as an email! Throwing in Whatsapp or Telegram would just confuse her.

My grandma in her late 80s managed to learn a non-iMessage messaging app just fine, and she’s the most active one in my family group. If grandmas all over the world can use something else, your mom can, too. I’m sure she wasn’t born with the ability to use iMessage.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#879

Post by fomine3 »

snakeyjake wrote: post #290
lacker wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best case outcome is to get publicity leading to US and EU antitrust regulators to file a lawsuit against Apple, both of which Apple loses. The conclusion of this lawsuit is that not only must Apple allow access to iMessage, they also must allow changing the default for every component of iOS - messaging app, browser, app store, let you replace Siri with other voice assistants - and to lower the 30% app store fee…

How is this an actionable anti-trust issue? iMessage doesn't even register as a messaging platform in the minds of most users globally. In the US is it dwarfed by at least three other platforms. Globally, do any of the other top ten (Apple is nowhere near the top ten) messaging apps allow third parties to spoof their service? The purpose of anti-trust is to increase competition and prevent unlawful monopolies. Apple…

My opinion from the beginning

* Platform dependent messanger is a terrible idea, but perhaps anyone have right to implement legal terrible idea.

* Why the US people widely adopt terrible idea? It's terrible as designed.

* Although, since it's widely adopted in the US, it should be opened, maybe. EU won't help because they don't adopt terrible idea.

Re: Beeper Mini is back

#880

Post by MissTake »

unshavedyak wrote: post #752
MissTake wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s free. The fact it’s only available on Apple devices doesn’t change that fact. You can only get Apple Fitness on Apple devices, but you also have to pay for it.

Seems a silly distinction. So you're saying Beeper could make paper clips, sell them to you for $2/m, and then give you Beeper Mini for free and you'd consider it free? Imo the only thing that should be done here is only valid Apple IDs should be able to use this service. Then paying customers are the ones using it. Problem solved, right?

What? Where did I claim that?

You are the one asking if iMessage is “free” (as in beer) software.

It comes with iOS - the license of which is provided free of charge for each user to run on their respective device.

I never made any statement about Beeper - I was talking singularly and only about Apple.

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