Summary
- Beeper’s new Android app offers a fresh, native design and universal chat support for various platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp.
- The app is fast, stable, and modern, and there’s a long list of upcoming features on the way. However, native iMessage support — previously Beeper’s bread and butter — isn’t coming.
- While existing Beeper users can access the new app in beta for free, paid memberships are on the horizon.
Remember Beeper? It’s been a few months, but in the tail-end of last year, it was one of the biggest stories in tech for a hot minute. Although the core app had been around for a while, Beeper went supernova with the launch of a dedicated iMessage client for Android, one that — for a couple of glorious days in December — just worked. Then, let’s just say, the empirestruckback. Months after the iMessage debacle came and went, Beeper is back with an all-new unified chat inbox for Android, and it’s pretty slick. Just don’t expect any blue bubble support.
Beeper’s new app is just called Beeper (no “Cloud” or “Mini” in the name), and as the company’s announcement post makes clear, this really is completely rebuilt from the ground up. The result is something that looks and feels completely native to Android in a way that, frankly, I’m not sure either previous Beeper client could manage. It’s even better once you enable dynamic themes in settings, mirroring what you’d find in, say, Google’s RCS-based Messages app.
I’ve tried out Beeper’s new Android app
And honestly, it’s a pretty strong start
I’ve been testing out Beeper’s new Android app for the last few days, and although it’s clearly in an early state — I’ve been getting at least one update a day, and usually more — it’s already in a solid state. Adding network connections is simple enough, and everything you’d expect to find here has made the transition over from older apps. Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger — they’re all here. RCS and SMS support is ready out of the box as well, and you can also link in social and community platforms like Discord, Slack, and Twitter.
Everything today’s announcement promises about speed is true. The app feels super fluid, loaded with plenty of animations that are leagues above similar sorts of apps. Unified chat inboxes aren’t a new concept, but this one feels modern in a way that you don’t see too often.
It’s also surprisingly stable. I haven’t had the app crash, nor did I have any issues linking platforms like Signal, Telegram, and RCS. The only real headache I spotted came down to a Telegram group that uses channels. Beeper, unable to make sense of that organization structure, instead dumped everything into a single thread, making following conversations difficult. I’m not sure if we’ll see that fixed, but thankfully, marking it as a low priority thread on Beeper’s desktop app hid it from my mobile inbox, a tip given to me directly by CEO Eric Migicovsky. That still requires me to open Telegram to participate in those rooms, but it feels a little more organized.
There’s plenty of room for improvement
And Beeper’s got big plans for the future
There’s plenty coming to Beeper, but iMessage support isn’t part of it.
That’s one of the rubs, by the way — you’ll need to be a pre-existing Beeper user to try out this service. Thankfully, referrals are a thing, as is the company’s waitlist to join the platform. That said, waiting a while to try out Beeper’s new app might not be such a bad idea. The list of upcoming features looks pretty promising: Android Auto support, archiving messages, avatar-based DMs, and so much more. There’s not really a downside to waiting when the list of pending improvements is this long.
Also, just to draw an even bigger circle around it: you won’t find iMessage support here. The existing bridge is still operating in Beeper Mini, and it’s on the list to eventually come to this platform, but it’s a far cry from what the company offered back in November. As has been made clear, the days of trying to make iMessage on Android work are in the rearview mirror, and frankly, I think users are better off thinking of Beeper as a unified inbox for everything outside of the world of blue bubbles.
Android users don’t want iMessage — they just want peace
This isn’t a story about David and Goliath. It’s a story about human interaction
If you have a Beeper account, you can grab this new app today in beta. It’s free for now, but if the “Subscription” link in the settings menu wasn’t enough proof, the company confirmed in today’s announcement that paid memberships are returning to the platform soon enough. Like that list of upcoming features, we’ll have to keep waiting for pricing details.
