Beeper’s new “Universal Chat” app for Android is here, but iMessage isn’t included

Beeper is a mobile chat app that’s made a name for itself by offering a “universal” approach to chat, allowing you to communicate with people who are using apps other than Beeper. Most notably, the company has tried several different approaches to letting folks with Android phones communicate with iPhone users by tapping into Apple’s iMessage service.

Apple didn’t like that, and after a few rounds of cat and mouse, Beeper seems to have given up, because the new Beeper app for Android that’s launching in beta today supports a whole bunch of services… but iMessage isn’t one of them.

Beeper says its new Android app has been completely rewritten with an updated design and a focus on speed when it comes to viewing, sending, or searching messages.

There’s also support for “Minimal” or “Pro” inbox modes depending on how much information you want to see on your screen, and new themes including an OLED black theme and Material You theme. And users with tablets or foldable phones can use a new dual-pane view.

The app currently supports more than a dozen different messaging platforms including SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal, but not iMessage. And some features are still under development, but not yet available, including message scheduling, Android Auto support, the ability to delete chats, and end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp and Google Messages.

One other thing to keep in mind? Beeper is still invite-only at the moment. If you already have a Beeper account then you can download and try the new Android app while it’s in beta. But if you don’t yet have an account, you can join a waitlist or ask an existing users to send you a referral.