You can self host the bridges, but a lot of the “magic” happens on their clients. But if you’re okay with a bit of inconvenience in setting up and bridging services, self-hosting bridges is definitely possible using another matrix client.
To be honest, I’m not sure what they were thinking when they released their reverse-engineered iMessage app. But I’m hoping they’re back on two solid feet and will get back to focusing on their original mission because it’ll mean more open source contributions back to the matrix project.
I’m not super excited about them getting bought, but at the same time I think it’s better than the alternative. Beeper’s CEO (now former after being bought) is infamous for creating the startup, Pebble, then running it into the ground by not selling it. As unfortunate as it is, the reality is that companies, even ones based on open source projects, can’t survive without funding.
Yes, Beeper’s apps are all closed source. But they do contribute a lot of their improvements back to the matrix community. For example, they’ve contributed quite a few performance improvements to the Synapse homeserver. They’re also involved in getting new features supported on matrix such as media captions.
Using an all-in-one messenger like Beeper will always be less secure than using standalone apps because it can introduce another vector for attack. That being said, I believe Beeper is trying their hardest to stop “middle manning” your messages. For example, in their newest Android client they have an on-device Signal bridge which means your messages never get sent to Beeper’s servers.
Personally, I am happy with the convenience of Beeper. I use it every day with multiple IM services linked and it has saved me a lot of time. I also love that Beeper is built on matrix and that they’re contributing back to the open source community.
tbh, I don’t like where this new product seems to be taking Beeper. I was a giant fan of Beeper because they were a huge contributor to the matrix project. But with them creating an entirely new app that doesn’t rely on matrix at all, it looks like they may be looking to pivot away and create their own client-side implementations rather than use matrix bridges. It would be sad to lose a contributor to the matrix space.
You might try a Matrix group instead. Doesn’t require a phone number and supports more than 1000 users unlike Signal. Search is bad though unfortunately.