Love to 1) ditch iPhone, 2) keep iMessage, and 3) combine all messengers


rutherford

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Friggin Tim Cook and the Apple monster finally had me give in and switch to an iPhone. It hasn’t been all bad, the apple AirPods I never would have tried, and wow are they terrific.

I’d love to get the functionality of iMessage on a web interface AND a phone of my choosing (android Pixel).

Looks like Beeper is doing exactly that. The creator blog mentions being at their work laptop and not wanted to pull out iPhone for messaging. I have a whole pile of apps that are “messaging apps”: Signal, iMessage, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, and Discord. And Instagram. Facepalm.

 

I already have a NAS (unRaid) 24/7 home server with Docker. There IS a Matrix chat how-to for unRaid, which is probably where I’ll start and participate.

 

I’m ready to get a Mac mini (how I hear Beeper is making iMessage work). I’ve tried several times to get a Macinabox VM going but for one reason or another it’s been like pulling teeth. I’m also going to require damn near 100% uptime for this project. 
 

And what a good opportunity to combine all those messengers. Otherwise I’ll have to add Blue Bubbles or We Message as yet ANOTHER messenger app to keep track of. And then what do I use as my primary messenger app or actual SMS?

 

So, I’d like to see a more robust wiki how-to for the setup that Beeper is doing. So I’ll write it. At $10/mo I’d like to figure out the self hosting thing!

I’d be happy for any additional resources you folks know of. Especially someone that’s done it before wink


https://github.com/beeper/self-host

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/127917-guide-matrix-synapse-w-postgres-db-chat-server-element-web-client-coturn-voice/

https://blog.beeper.com/p/were-building-the-best-chat-app-on

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/01/21/beeper-brings-imessage-to-android-and-windows/

 

my reddit post in /selfhosted

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/11fa14l/stick_it_to_apple_imessage/

 

Edited by rutherford
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Run the matrix docker once
docker install > advanced
  remove the "generate" from the Post Argument field
  
Get SWAG reverse proxy going

/mnt/user/appdata/swag/nginx/proxy-confs
cp synapse.subdomain.conf.sample synapse.subdomain.conf

some help with this step
https://discourse.linuxserver.io/t/help-needed-with-synapse-matrix-behind-swag-server/3815/2

edit SWAG docker settings to include "matrix" in the list of comma-seperated Subdomain(s).

edit Matrix docker Network Type to Custom: proxynet

edit /mnt/user/appdata/swag/nginx/proxy-confs/synapse.subdomain.conf
from:
set $upstream_app synapse;

to: 
set $upstream_app Matrix-Synapse;

Our docker Name: is Matrix-Synapse, that needs to match this piece so SWAG can figure it out.

 

carry on here:

https://community.nethserver.org/t/install-matrix-synapse-including-whatsapp-bridge-using-docker-compose/21214

to start adding bridges.

 

?how do I connect to my home server via Element app, web app, or windows app?

How do I start adding bridges?

Go into the Docker CLI, run commands in there I think, to grab GIT stuff

 

 

 

post argument Generate remove on second run.png

Edited by rutherford
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I don't have technical advice on this but wanted to add a few pieces of contexte regarding the difficulty of self-hosting this.

 

I've been a Beeper user since early 2022 and it's been overall a very positive experience. Beeper is now planning to go for a freemium model (details yet to come). The frontend app they are providing appears to be a much better experience than going with a client like Element. It will also only connect to the Beeper servers.

 

Second, we semi-regularly see bridges going down for a few minutes. Maintaining it seems to be quite a bit of work, so I'd be curious what your experience is once you deploy.

 

If your concern is price, I think Beeper going free might be the answer. If it's the waitlist, Texts might be more accessible (although I have no idea how good the product is). From my side, only an acute privacy need would warrant the apparent hassle that is self-hosting this.

 

In any case, please update this to let us know how it goes, I'm very curious.

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