Using something like this compromises e2e encryption for you and anyone that you talk to. It’s actively inviting a man-in-the-middle into all of your chats.
It’s a shitty thing to do to your friends.
Just use Signal if you care about the green bubble stuff.
Or just buy an iPhone if that kind of thing matters to you
I did read the article, and I fail to see how this is different than other implementations.
“In a call with Beeper’s Eric Migicovsky, that’s exactly what I wanted to find out, and it seems the answer comes down to trust. Beeper as it stands today, where everything is running on Mac Minis, is being done “in the open.” The backend is largely open-source, and the company has aimed to be straightforward and transparent with every update along the way. Migicovsky adds that, soon, Beeper will be doing a full in-public security review.”
So the difference is “you can trust us”. Sounds like BS to me, you’re still routing your messages through an endpoint that is someone else’s Mac mini.
You may have read the article, but you obviously didn't understand it. Read the third paragraph once more. Your quote refers to the previous implementation that Beeper used.
You're not routing any messages through anyone's mac mini.
You can run this completely platform independent, without a Mac or IOS device. Try it yourself. DYOR and attempt to verify before you vehemently spout more misinformation.
Where is the beeper mini source code? Does Beeper mini send any data to beeper? Does it only talk to Apple servers from your phone?
Unless the code, for the app is open source, that we can build ourselves, and maybe even stick on f Droid, I'm not going to trust them not to be man in the middleing.
From what I've researched, Beeper's servers are only used when you use their push-notification service as it's not possible to use Apple's own push notifications(obviously). Everything else is done locally (encryption and what not). You don't even need an Apple ID, just a phone number.
The backend code is already open source, however their app isn't, so there is a bit of trust involved. Also, the app isn't free so that sucks. There are plans to open source it though.
You can also try iMessage using the link I sent previously, all trustless and independent from Beeper.
If Beeper decides not to open-source their app, someone capable could definitely step up as once again, the underlying tech is open source.
I advise you to DYOR if you'd like to verify any suspicions, i'm not the best at explaining things.