Automattic Acquires Messaging App Beeper, Plans to Combine With Texts

Automattic, the company behind WordPress and WooCommerce, has acquired Beeper, a “universal messaging app” that combines 14 chat networks in one inbox.

The company will combine Beeper with Texts, a messaging app that Automattic acquired in 2023, Automattic said in a Tuesday (April 9) blog post.

“We began investing in messaging last year when we acquired Texts.com,” the company said in the post. “Now, two of the most exciting teams in tech will work together to push the boundaries of messaging, giving us one app that will improve our focus and the way we communicate.”

The company is developing a phased plan to fully merge Texts and Beeper, and will do so under the Beeper brand, according to the post. In the meantime, it suggested that customers keep using both apps.

The merger of the two apps will help solve the challenges messaging app users face in having multiple chat apps, each with different contacts and notification settings, the post said.

Automattic aims to deliver a solution that is accessible, encrypted and open source, where possible, per the post.

“Merging Texts with Beeper is our next step toward the dream of combining all online conversations in a safe, secure and effective way,” the company said in the post. “Both teams have already built best-in-class messaging apps; now, we’re confident that by joining forces, they’ll bring even more people back to the promise of the open web.”

The CEO of Beeper, Eric Migicovsky, has become head of messaging at Automattic, Migicovsky said in a Tuesday blog post.

Beeper has 115,000 users and sees an opportunity to push boundaries and create new opportunities in the messaging space, he said in the post.

“It’s a fantastic match,” Migicovsky said of the acquisition. “Automattic is best known for supporting WordPress and WooCommerce — two open source software projects that underpin huge portions of the internet’s publishing and eCommerce infrastructure. Together, we’ll develop software for a third fundamental pillar of the internet: chat.”

Beeper was in the news in February when its service that allowed Android users to access Apple’s iMessage, Beeper Mini, was disabled by Apple. That action led to scrutiny by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr, who launched an investigation examining whether Apple’s actions comply with FCC regulations.