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WordPress.com and Tumblr ownerAutomatticis adding another company to its portfolio with today ’s news that it has evolve the all - in - one messaging appTexts.comfor $ 50 million . The app brings all your message apps together in a single splasher , including iMessage , Slack , WhatsApp , Instagram , Telegram , Messenger , LinkedIn , Signal , Discord and X , with plan for more in the future tense , acompany blog post announce .
Though other company have attempt to do something alike — likeBeeper — Texts.com offer end - to - end encryption of your confab and other features substance abuser have always wanted , like the ability to schedule content at a clip that ’s commodious for the recipient , not just for you . In accession , you could grade messages as unread even on services that do n’t offer that feature , allow you to remember to check that message again when you return , as well as get summaries of long radical chats you ’ve missed .
The company explained its interest group in the messaging political program in anannouncement , say that the acquisition reserve it to move into a “ 4th mart that ’s integral to the modern web experience : messaging . ”
Already , Automattic offer WordPress for online publishing , WooCommerce for due east - Commerce Department and Tumblr for blogging and a retinue of ad tool . It also learn ajournaling app , Day One , and apodcasts app Pocket Casts , in 2021 and more lately , an ActivityPub hack - inthat allowsWordPress blog to connect to the wider webof interconnected but decentralised social networking apps , like Mastodon , collectively known as the fediverse .
With the acquisition , Texts.com founder Kishan Bagaria will connect the company as the new head of messaging , along with the rest period of the distribute Texts.com squad .
The Vergefirst reported the news of the accomplishment .
Speaking tothe Pivot podcast , Automattic owner Matt Mullenweg explained that , in part , some of the desire for the deal was born out of personal frustration — everyone has multiple messaging apps , and it ’s hard to go after who you messaged on each one .
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“ I find myself sort of get very behind and so went out in the market and in reality Automattic terminate up making some investment in this quad over the last few years , let in inElement , which is a Matrix company , Beeper , which is another app , which has some interchangeable things , but differently , and fall across Texts , and was really just accept with the production , ” he excuse .
In addition , he say he wish to work in areas that you could pass the rest of your liveliness on .
But Mullenweg also target to the current regulatory theoretical account as something that made the deal more practicable . With the EU regulations , he believed that it would be more difficult for Apple , Google and Meta to block a smaller player like Texts because it ’s user - centric , tend client - side and is 100 % encrypted .
“ So it ’s just as impregnable as their background apps , ” he state . ( Apple has struggle against opening up its iOS program to third - party app computer memory because they ’re less secure than its own . It could n’t make that same disceptation with Texts.com , ostensibly . )
According to Texts ’ website , message are never institutionalize to its own servers — they ’re sent directly to the political platform , which is how they ’re able-bodied to preserve end - to - end encoding . In other words , they play just like the prescribed apps do . Their servers also host no sensitive data , messages or report credentials , and all the data stay on your gimmick .
Mullenweg also believe that put a message app in the hands of a company like Automattic — a sizable company not considered a part of “ Big Tech ” — will provide it to develop Texts more quickly and assert its focal point . He hint that big companionship , like Google , often do n’t get message correctly . ( In fact , Google hadso many different electronic messaging initiativesat one point , it became a functional joke . ) Plus , iMessage has been shut up into the Apple ecosystem , which exclude mass from take part if they do n’t have an iPhone or Mac . U.S. teenager , in particular , are lock into the Apple universe because of the blue bubble , The Wall Street Journal reported last year .
The Automattic founder also say that Texts.com fits into the company because of its user - centric values tied to the mode it tries to keep going everything citizenry utilize for messaging .
“ As users , we utilize all these things . And the companies require to pretend you do n’t , but we all do . So that ’s also something we ’ve taken a big feeler for … we just tried to integrate with everything . Open source also makes it easygoing , because people can write wad - ins for anything , ” he say . “ So I think if you keep those three things in head , you’re able to compete with the big guys , and in fact , prosper . ”
Texts.com isavailableat $ 15 per month for most user , or $ 30 per calendar month for businesses . It run on Mac , Windows and Linux with apps for iOS and Android on the manner . iMessage is only supported on Mac , and SMS only with iMessage . WhatsApp , Telegram , Signal , Messenger , Twitter , Instagram , LinkedIn , IRC , Slack and Discord DMs are also offered .
