The world of instant messaging is undergoing a quiet revolution — and it's worth knowing about.
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Your phone is packed with a long list of messaging apps.
These include WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more.
The constant switching between apps is inefficient and inconvenient, and leads to missed messages or delayed replies.
The dream of unifying all our messaging apps into a single application is an idea being actively developed by a number of startups.
A company called Beeper has taken that idea all the way, and appears to be delivering particularly impressive results — currently unifying 14 different apps into one.
The app is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, and consolidates all of a user's chats into a single, convenient interface.
The company was acquired by another company called Automattic, and is currently focused on growing its user base and improving the user experience, while being offered free of charge.
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Behind the project lies a communications protocol called Matrix.
The idea behind Matrix is open-source, decentralized communication.
This means that unlike apps such as WhatsApp, there is no central server responsible for routing messages between users — instead, network management is handled in a decentralized manner.
This effectively prevents any commercial or governmental entity from controlling the content of messages transmitted over the network. There is no risk of arbitrary or politically motivated account blocking, and user privacy is preserved.