Beeper’s all-in-one messaging app relaunches with an on-device model and premium upgrades

Multi-service messaging app Beeper, which permits folks to connect to all their chat apps from one interface, is relaunching its app on Wednesday to supply a safer model that not requires use of its personal cloud companies. As well as, Beeper is introducing premium choices that present entry to extra accounts than its free tier and embrace power-user options like reminders, the flexibility to ship messages later, an incognito mode to learn messages with out marking them learn, AI voice observe transcriptions, and extra.

Now owned by WordPress.com maker Automattic, which purchased Beeper for $125 million in 2024, the app has nearly solely built-in with competitor Texts.com, which Automattic also acquired the year prior for $50 million.

With a mixed 30-person group (together with contractors) and now working below the Beeper model, the messaging app helps WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, X, Telegram, Sign, Matrix, Slack, Google Chat, Discord, LinkedIn, and Google Messages (SMS/RCS). On Mac computer systems solely, Beeper also can join customers with their iMessage chats, although Apple has shut down this access in prior variations.

The general purpose, in keeping with Automattic, is to simplify the issue of getting too many messaging apps to maintain up with, whereas additionally holding these chats safe.

The app beforehand first related with Beeper Cloud earlier than speaking with the messaging community, stated Beeper CEO Kishan Bagaria. Whereas that system stays the default, customers will now have the choice of switching to Beeper on gadget, which can see the app connecting on to the messaging community and skipping the intermediary.

“That ensures that end-to-end encryption is preserved and your privateness is nearly as good because the official app,” Bagaria advised TechCrunch in an interview forward of the app’s relaunch. Whether or not the businesses concerned will recognize having their very own apps bypassed, nonetheless, stays to be seen.

“Now we have good relationships with a few of these firms, and a few of them are OK with this,” Bagaria stated. “Others, we now have not likely heard from a lot.”

To stave off any potential shutdowns by messaging community suppliers, Beeper goals to help the enterprise fashions of the first-party apps at any time when attainable. For instance, if Telegram is exhibiting advertisements, these advertisements can be proven in Beeper, too.

As well as, EU rules requiring that messaging platforms be interoperable may put strain on messaging app suppliers to go away an answer like Beeper’s alone.

Alongside the relaunch, there’ll now be an choice to improve to a brand new $9.99 per thirty days premium plan, Beeper Plus, which permits customers to attach with 10 messaging companies as a substitute of simply the 5 that free customers have entry to.

As well as, Plus subscribers have the choice to schedule messages to ship later, can set reminders to comply with up on chats, learn messages in incognito mode so that they don’t really feel pressured to reply instantly, entry a number of accounts per community, view AI voice observe transcriptions (processed by way of OpenAI’s Whisper mannequin with person consent), and swap out their app icon for a customized model.

A good greater tier, Beeper Plus Plus, which begins at $49.99 per thirty days, presents entry to limitless accounts and is designed with the wants of companies or social media managers in thoughts. (Annual subscriptions are additionally accessible at a reduced worth of $99.99 per 12 months for Beeper Plus and $499 per 12 months for Beeper Plus Plus.)

After Automattic acquired Beeper, the corporate mixed its group with Texts.com to develop a brand new product that supplied the very best of each companies. With Wednesday’s relaunch, these apps at the moment are 99% built-in, Bagaria stated, as just a few smaller options stay to be ported over.

Finally, Automattic’s latest acquisition, the personal CRM Clay, which can later be rebranded, can even be built-in with Beeper, although it is going to stay a stand-alone app.

“It is going to largely be constructed on prime of the Beeper platform — it’ll keep complimentary,” Bagaria stated. “Clay is a tremendous app [as it] works right this moment. Then, with Beeper, it could actually simply ingest extra interactions and knowledge, which can make it like 2x to 10x higher. As soon as that’s finished, I’m certain Clay generally is a very highly effective product.”

Beeper right this moment has hundreds of thousands of registered customers, together with these from Texts.com. A small portion of those that are nonetheless utilizing Texts.com at the moment are being supplied the choice emigrate to Beeper, because it has added the on-device expertise, which they like.

Bagaria stated there should be some remaining points round reliability when shifting to the on-device mannequin, however these are being labored out as edge circumstances pop up. At some later level, Beeper Cloud can be deprecated as soon as the corporate is bound the on-device mannequin is able to being everybody’s every day driver.

Additional down the street, Beeper goals to make its knowledge accessible to different firms, with person permission and controls to guard privateness. As an illustration, an MCP (mannequin context protocol) Beeper at some point may let customers join to speak apps by way of Claude or ChatGPT to ask it issues like “summarize all my vital messages from this night.”

These developments will take a while, as Bagaria says he’s additionally a “very privacy-conscious person,” and would desire a resolution that’s very clear about what knowledge is accessed and when, and one that enables customers to even manually say sure or no to knowledge requests, maybe.

“We additionally don’t wish to have server farms the place we now have fashions educated in your knowledge. That’s a whole no-no,” he stated.