why would one use this over Google Messages?
I’m guessing this prevents android messages from coming through as green, which for some reason paints you as a social pariah.
You clearly didn’t read the full article or don’t understand everything this does.
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.
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!
I really can’t get over sending them my login credentials though
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.
Is this open source?
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: https://github.com/beeper/self-host
There’s cavets though
First, there’s a waiting list to use it. Some people waited a year to get on.
Second, the encryption isn’t e2e when a different service is involved, they act as a middleman.
Third, for imessage in specific, you either give them your credentials or need your own device to act as the bridge.
Where are you seeing that? I’ve been using it for about two months now totally free.
https://www.reddit.com/r/beeper/comments/111dafp/beeper_is_free_to_use/
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.
