Mainly this but there are a couple more articles about it. I’m not certain if the free beeper will remain an option other than possibly as a trial offer.
You need a Mac or Linux box with internet connectivity with a domain pointed to it (You probably could do it using dynamic DNS too.) I don’t know how much power it needs, you might be able to get away with something like a Raspberry Pi.
You can either run it on your own hardware, or host a server with something like Digital Ocean Droplet, A2 Hosting, AWS, Azure, etc.
You would have to use the Open Source Matrix clients like Element or SchildiChat instead of the actual Beeper App, but you would be able to use the Beeper bridges.
I think that there is a misunderstanding about the purpose Beeper is trying to solve. It’s about consolidating all your chat services together into one place. Google messages is SMS/MMS/RCS. Beeper or by extension the whole matrix platform with bridges can roll almost all your services together, gchat, sms, mms, RCS, Facebook, iMessage, discord, WhatsApp, signal, telegram, slack, instagram, etc.
I’m super into the idea of Beeper, but at the end of the day to get that level of interoperability you are trusting a third party with your login credentials to some very sensitive services that may also be tied to your financials (ie Apple ID). They state that it’s only saved once, and then encrypted so that they no longer have access, but still it’s a risk.
So far I’m not convinced it’s worth the trade off even though I really want it to be. Curious what others think?
They open-sourced their code which is nice and can help researchers inspect their security, plus it’s made by reputable people: the guy who made Pebble! I don’t have a use case for Beeper personally right now, but it seems really cool and I’m excited to see where it goes.
I don’t use it with iMessage, but I bridged WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Facebook. It works quite well, but I uninstalled it after maybe 2 weeks. There are too many features (understandably) missing, like surveys in WhatsApp, these bot chat buttons in Telegram and calls in general. And having the original apps and beeper installed defeats the purpose for me personally.
I am super excited regardless of the risk of another middleman. I feel like I am the only one who doesn’t use an iPhone so this should shock them once I can try this out. I have an apple ID but really nothing ties to it that’s personal since I am not an apple person. I would be more concerned with whatsapp since I use that way more to communicate and probably have had a few things through the years sent that shouldn’t have. I do try to delete it right after though.
Their client apps aren’t, since they’re closed-source forks of Element, but it seems that you could self-host something similar using Matrix and Beeper’s open-source bridges: github.com/beeper/self-host
Beeper is looking pretty awesome. It (and things like BlueBubbles) are allowing me to switch to android, and I love it. Can’t wait for my new phone to arrive!
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