An app instead of numerous messengers on the smartphone – Beeper wants to be this dream. 15 Services including iMessage are to be combined there in one interface. So far, the project was called NovaChat, which Eric Migicovsky, CEO of the former smartwatch manufacturer Pebble, announced on Twitter Beepers can then be controlled include WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Matrix, Skype, Slack, Twitter, Discord, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and iMessages. “Yes, iMessage runs on Android, Windows and Linux with a trick,” tweeted Migicovsky. The trick is to use a permanently running device from Apple as a bridge on which the Beeper app is installed. If such a device is currently unavailable, Beeper helps out with discarded and jailbroken iPhones.

Open source and yet not secure The messenger itself uses the matrix protocol. The client is not open source, however, the connections that are used to the other messengers are. To use it, you have to pay ten US dollars a month. In return you get a “clean interface” with search and filter for the chats, it says on the website. Bots can be created for beepers via Matrix API and extensions can be connected. You can also host yourself. End-to-end encryption is likely to be lifted in all cases.

The app is still not easy to use. You first have to submit an application online and enter at least the ID of your “favorite network” and other usage habits. Perhaps the dream of a new Adium-croaking duck is not quite fulfilled after all. Apple is unlikely to be happy about a service that publicly issues jailbreak iPhones and thus uses its messaging function. There have already been similar attempts, but so far they have not prevailed.

(emw)