A review of Beeper, a unified chats app.

“All your chats in one app. Yes, really” (but with some side notes). A short review of @onBeeper, a unified chats' app. 
 
 
On 02-08-2023[1] I received my invitation to give Beeper a try. Now, to understand why I am so well-stocked to try this app, you must understand that since forever, I've been on the lookout for ✨The Unified Inbox App That Will Solve All My Problems✨
 
I have to tell you now, Beeper is close, but not “it.”

The Good

To use Beeper, you are required to set up an account with them and download the desktop app. From the desktop app you can select messaging services that you want to connect to, like Instagram Direct Message, Twitter DM, WhatsApp, Signal, LinkedIn, SMS, iMessage, Telegram, and so on. Lastly, you log in to each of these services and use the connect-to-desktop-app or some-such feature that they have all built-in.

This is where the magic happens: some of these services do not give third-party apps access to your data. The thing is: most of these services are very user hostile. In their eyes (and in the fine print we all ignore forgot to read) they will have some wording to the extent that your data really isn’t your data but theirs, and they can lock it up as much as they see fit. 

The one thing that is saving us now is that they all see the benefit in having a desktop version of their platform in one way or the other. Beeper high jacks that system to link all these chat streams to itself, instead of the intended native app. 

So, after setting up all the links with your chat platforms of choice, you can log into the iOS app, and you will see all your chats in one unified list. 

And person or group chat that you mark in Beeper as favourite will always be shown on top.

The Bad

As I mentioned before, you are required to download and set up a desktop app. For many today, this is a big hurdle for the simple reason that owning a laptop or desktop isn't standard any more. Many people simply live by using their smartphone alone. 
Another drawback is a missing feature: unified chats. 
 
Say whaaaat? Let's say René sends me an SMS and later a message over Signal. Then Beeper will show two separate messages in the list, both labelled by sender “René.” I would really have loved for Beeper to unify the chats into one chat stream so that I simply see two messages under the chat of “René.” 

To prevent confusion on the receiving end, I would propose that whenever I reply to a message in Beeper, the message goes to whichever platform was last used by the recipient. 

Unfortunately, Beeper doesn’t support unified chats and there are no plans to support this in the future. 😢

Lastly, a big pain point at this time is the fact that all links to the platforms are randomly getting dropped. I then have to use the desktop Beeper app to set up the link again. I guess this due partly to bugs in Beeper and partly to do with bugs (or purposefully bugging) by all the platforms that Beeper is connecting to.

The Ugly

To connect Beeper to my iMessages (I barely use it because most of my friends do not live in the United States) I had to give Beeper full access to my Apple ID. 

That is some scary stuff. Not only do I now “trust” a company with FULL access to EVERYTHING, but also, I put the burden of keeping my data out of the wrong hands in their laps. 😱

This is a bad situation for me and Beeper both. To be clear: it’s not their fault. Apple simply hasn’t opened up iMessage to competitors yet. Soon they will have to either open up or stop the iMessage service in all the European Union countries under the new Digital Markets Act. But for now, we are stuck with this lose-lose franken-monster solution. 🙄

And now?

I'm guessing that because of the aforementioned DMA, numerous platforms will give some kind of access to their platforms, either via a free to use API or by switching over to an open standard like the Matrix protocol or RCS. Beeper is basically a fancy Matrix client, by the way. 

For now, I’m using Beeper just for the convenience of not having to have installed the LinkedIn and Instagram apps and still be able to respond to the (very few) messages that I get on those platforms. 
If Beeper started charging money, and they hadn’t implemented unified-chats by that time yet, then I would simply stop using the service altogether.
We will see.

I would love to read your thoughts on my article, and the future of unified chats' apps in general on Hacker News.

[1] Yes, I start with the day, then the month and then the year, I go from small to big, like God intended dates to be written.