You may remember Beeper. It’s the company whose Beeper Mini app famously brought iMessage to Android last year before finding itself in a bit of a tech dispute with Apple. Eventually, Apple was able to stop the Beeper Mini from operating, and with some concerns about potential privacy and security issues, things went very quiet indeed.
But now the Beeper is back. It also has a new owner, with Automattic taking over the company in a deal that was announced just today. Automattic already owns WordPress and Tumblr among other online services, and sees messaging as another key aspect of its future.
But while Beeper came to the forefront for many when it went head-to-head with Apple, it is notable that iMessage will not be part of this comeback. Beeper seems to think it’s not worth fighting Apple when it’s likely to lose. But that is in a technological sense. Hopefully the antitrust lawsuit against Apple will have teeth and change things, forcing the iPhone maker to open up iMessage to everyone. But for now, Beeper is looking elsewhere.
Chatting about conversations
In an interview with The Verge, Eric Migicovsky, CEO of Beeper, said that we shouldn’t read too much into the fact that iMessage isn’t part of this news — it doesn’t appear to be a drop-off or a sell-off.
As for Beeper, the app and the service that powers it, there are a few changes for those who have been waiting to try it out. For starters, the waiting list is gone and anyone who wants to get in on the action can now download Beeper and get going. There were nearly half a million people on the waiting list when it opened to everyone, so we can expect an influx of new users almost immediately. It remains to be seen whether that number will be affected by the lack of the main iMessage feature, as well as how well Beeper’s servers will handle the launch.
Going forward, The Verge notes that “Migicovsky will head Automattic’s messaging division, and the combined Texts and Beeper team will work on Beeper.” Texts is another semi-recent acquisition for Automattic, a company that hasn’t been shy about the checkbook lately. Migicovsky admits that “we have a hell of a lot of work ahead of us” to make sure the Beeper platform is ready to go and security issues are resolved. Improvements have already been made, but there is still a way to go, it seems.
For now, Beeper will give people most of their favorite messaging services in one app. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal and even Slack are all supported according to the company’s website. Apps are available for all major platforms, including the top iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and the whole thing is free to use.
Namely, this news comes right after the relaunch of another iMessage-on-Android service. Sunbird is back and considered safe to use after having privacy and security issues last year. And whether it is really so, that is a completely different matter.