OK, took a while to figure out what it is, as I barely know anyone using iphone.
Though it's not for me, BUT if they deliver this:
> Over time, we will be adding all networks that Beeper supports into Beeper Mini, including SMS/RCS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter, Slack, Discord, Google Chat and Linkedin. We'll also bring Beeper Mini to desktop and iOS.
I'm interested, even if it's paid. I'd love to have most of those apps gone and use a cleaner one.
Happy Beeper customer and original poster here to tell you: Beeper Cloud is already out there and works really well! It's also free, though you'll have to get through the waitlist somehow. It doesn't perfectly replace every app just yet but it covers the most important functionality extremely well. And it's available on mobile as well as desktop devices.
IIRC, though, Beeper Cloud does not come with end-to-end encryption on messaging services that usually have that feature through their regular app. Messages are encrypted between your device and Beeper's servers, and between Beeper's servers and the other end of the conversation, but the Beeper folks can still read your messages if they want.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong; the architecture of their product is pretty confusing.)
ah didn't realize it had gone away. its successor appears to be [0]
now I'm reliving the chaos of the late-00s/early-10s instant messaging apocalypse when AOL sunsetted AIM. Clients like Trillian were absolutely necessary before AIM shut down. Everybuddy was a good linux-friendly client. When I still spent time on IRC, I really really liked Bitlbee [1] with ERC [2]. Gaim was one of the first open-source projects I ever contributed to.
(I'm not saying that there's a connection there, but rather that all the chat protocols started getting used less around the same time for the same reason, which was smartphones becoming commonplace in late-00s.)
Ive tried the legacy version to consolidate Signal, Whatsapp, etc and you can't send/receive calls, only messages. It's very much still a work in progress
I'm from the Netherlands and I know plenty of people who have iPhones but I also know (and am) plenty people with androids. People use either WhatsApp or Telegram. Isn't iMessage just texting within a walled garden?
The situation is very different in the US, primarily because in other countries SMS fees tended to be really high a decade and change ago, and thus drove users to WhatsApp, but in the US most carriers had adopted some form of unlimited texting shortly after the iPhone first came out.
Thus, for many socio-economic groups, iPhone is definitely king in the US, and for them iMessage is just the default way to message people because when it was introduced it was the default way to use SMS on iPhone. A restaurant in Texas famous for their funny signs put this out, https://twitter.com/ElArroyo_ATX/status/1693316647677825160 , and tons of people (myself included) could immediately relate.
Poland. I know a few apple fanboys but those aren't people I communicate with outside of work. Just not my bubble.
It's actually weird and silly when they send me text messages and somehow I end up in the same conversation multiple times - like once 1:1, once in a group chat with myself included twice or more (as a number, as an email, as a second number). It's a bizarre experience and usually iPhone user can't see anything wrong :D
> Over time, we will be adding all networks that Beeper supports into Beeper Mini, including SMS/RCS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter, Slack, Discord, Google Chat and Linkedin. We'll also bring Beeper Mini to desktop and iOS.
I'm interested, even if it's paid. I'd love to have most of those apps gone and use a cleaner one.