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Show HN: Amber – better Beeper, a modern all-in-one messenger

(useamber.app)
68 points DmitryDolgopolo | 7 comments | 02 Sep 25 18:48 UTC | HN request time: 1.028s | source | bottom

Hi HN! Excited to share early access to Amber.

I’ve tried every all-in-one messenger out there (Beeper included) but they always fell short. No real folders, no AI, clunky UI, no CRM features… As a founder who speaks with hundreds of people every quarter, I needed something better. So I decided to rebuild the entire experience from ground up.

Thoughts from one of our users: "The app I've been searching for for a looong time."

Check it out for free today!

Demo: https://www.loom.com/share/8b5bc80b9893436b9190ae41fc3f0f50

Features: - All messages (Whatsapp, Telegram, iMessage) unified in a beautifully crafted interface. - Split inboxes (folders) to effortlessly focus on work, friends, a particular project.. whatever matters the most right now. - Mark read – no read receipts (even on Whatsapp and Telegram), mark done only when you’re done. - Personal CRM: a lightweight private database of knowledge about each person with (optional) AI pulling important facts straight from conversations. (the latter is coming soon) - Command bar + shortcuts. - Send later + reminders.

Everything is securely stored on-device. All messages are end-to-end encrypted and go straight from your device to the network of choice – never touching our servers.

1. hmokiguess ◴[02 Sep 25 21:35 UTC] No.45109382[source]▶
Are there any open source clients for this out there? Also, if someone were to build that, what are the protocols one would even use to get these things talking to each other and reconciling the different accounts quirks
replies(1): >>45109563 #
2. Jonovono ◴[02 Sep 25 21:50 UTC] No.45109563[source]▶
I think most of these are built using Matrix: https://matrix.org. They have connections with most providers like iMessage, FB, Instagram, etc
replies(2): >>45109909 #>>45111826 #
3. swyx ◴[02 Sep 25 22:25 UTC] No.45109909[source]▶
ok is there an "open source beeper" that has emerged that i can play with? cant use amber because closed source
replies(1): >>45110343 #
4. tulir ◴[02 Sep 25 23:15 UTC] No.45110343{3}[source]▶
The bridges made for Beeper are all open source (https://github.com/mautrix/), so you can set up your own Matrix server with bridges and use any open source Matrix client (https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/).

Besides Beeper, the only consumer bridge hosting service I'm aware of is Element One, but it's only barely maintained, so I'd definitely recommend self-hosting over that.

5. WorldPeas ◴[03 Sep 25 02:55 UTC] No.45111826[source]▶
I don't think they use that anymore though? From what I've heard it all happens locally now with a proprietary solution.
replies(1): >>45111853 #
6. Jonovono ◴[03 Sep 25 03:02 UTC] No.45111853{3}[source]▶
Interesting, i'd be curious to learn more. It's been awhile since I looked into Beeper/Texts type apps.
replies(1): >>45118232 #
7. WorldPeas ◴[03 Sep 25 17:13 UTC] No.45118232{4}[source]▶
at least from talking to Eric at a meetup, I think some are still on remote implementations. I know texts definitely needs to do the iMessage implementation locally, but they're moving everything client-side, which to me as a thunderbird user, makes the most sense. I just wish we could have something like libpurple again that would allow me to finally get back to the everything-in-one-app paradigm