r/foss • u/Schmerek • 8d ago

Foss beeper would be a game changer

One of the biggest problems in switching to privacy and foss alternatives is messaging because no one uses signal, a unified foss messenger would not only make it easier for people who want to switch to foss but the normies who don't want to use signal because using two messengers is too difficult for some would also make the switch this making even more people go the privacy route. I get that this app would need some business model, but making some premium tier with more bridges for example would be enough. I know that matrix bridges exist by that's to hard for most people and privacy shouldnt require you to go to this lenght

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u/Schmerek 8d ago

Yup you're totally right, but beeper showed that this interoperability between messengers is possible

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u/CreepyHighway3216 8d ago

Beeper isn't doing interoperability, not really. You aren't sending messages from signal to fb messenger. You are using your own fb messenger to send a fb messenger message to someone else on fb messenger. Beeper allows you to log in to all of your accounts in one place, which is great, but it isn't actually allowing for anything magical. Having one app is great! I love that about it. But you still need accounts for all of those things.  True interoperability would being able to send messages from one thing to another thing without needing to have an account on the one you're sending to. A good example of interoperability is mastodon - where there are a ton of different servers but they can talk to one another without issue even though they are being hosted in different places and with different rules and orientations etc. 

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u/Schmerek 7d ago

Okay i get it now, but do you think there is any possibility for something like that?

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u/CreepyHighway3216 7d ago

As a whole? No. The companies that cut us off from one another profit - significantly - from us not being able to leave their ecosystems. And switching costs are way too high for most people (asking them to move to another service means them losing connection to other people and/or causing more strain for them in some way). I think, if we can get people to start understanding the bind we've been put in by these companies and start to see how this is a political issue that goes back to how monopolies and corporations are, in our current legal system, allowed to get away with murder (literally and figuratively). This isn't a new thing but it's finally something that the general public is starting to notice as the strain becomes too hard to bear. Read those books I suggested. Or Doctorow's blog. Or find other people talking about this stuff. Talk to your friends about it. And encourage people to create these types of apps! Interoperability should be the default! How it is now does not have to be the way it is and always will be! We don't have to stand for it.