Beam Messenger: Setting The Record Straight

If you are into tech or the latest tech trends then by now you have probably heard of Beam Messenger. It is our shiny new app in beta that catapulted into the spotlight after being featured a few days ago in a BuzzFeed article. That article garnered well over 400K views in its first day alone.

Beam is a real-time texting app. This means that you can see what a person is texting as the person types, letter by letter. You can chime in or interrupt their texts with your own texts in real-time too, just as you would in a verbal conversation. When only one party is online, Beam works just like any other messaging app; you send your messages and leave them there for your friend to see when they next open up the app.

Thanks to the BuzzFeed article Beam kinda went viral. However, quite a few of the ensuing articles took a dismissive or fearful view of the app. Reading them and reading some people’s comments led us to realize that there are a number of misconceptions people have about Beam and about people’s cellphone habits. We’d like to correct them.

There are three main things mentioned over and over again in articles and comments about Beam:

The supposed lack of privacy that Beam brings
Concern about real-time texting making it so that ill-conceived thoughts, spelling errors and the like get showcased
The assumption that if people wanted to have a verbal conversation they would pick up the phone and call

People seem to think Beam represents an egregious invasion of their privacy

Beam is no less private than other popular messaging apps. Just as with almost all other messaging apps, the app works when you and your friend both have it; the ability to see what a friend is typing only happens if you are both using Beam and are texting each other in the app.

Actually, we believe that Beam provides an extra layer of privacy compared to other messaging apps. Since users don’t have to hit send for the other person to see a message, if someone wants to be extra secure she could choose never to hit the send button when in a conversation with another. And instead just write and erase messages on the fly. Once messages are erased in that manner then they are never stored anywhere, not on any of the two phones involved in the conversation, not on our servers. Messages that are sent (i.e. when users hit the send button) are only stored locally on the sender and recipient’s phones.

People voice concerns about other people seeing their ill-conceived texts, bad spelling, etc

In the same way that we usually think before we start speaking (most of the time anyways), so can we think before we start texting on Beam. The process of texting on Beam is not any different from speaking. As noted in this article about Beam:

“Today we have to think before we post, tweet, hit send, and now we’ll have to think before we think because it goes so fast,” says Diane Gottsman, a national etiquette expert and owner of The Protocol School of Texas. “Sometimes we even say things before we have time to think about it, and basically this app is the same thing. It’s just another way to communicate.”

Most of us able-bodied folks get by fine when speaking, our main mode of communication with others on a face-to-face basis. So why would Beam destroy your world by introducing to texting the very same process you use to speak?

As for bad spelling, if people were able to get used to reading text gems such as “Gtg, I av 2 prep 4 prez in class 2day. lol. r u comin out l8tr?” we think it isn’t a stretch to think people will easily forgive spelling errors that they spot when their friends are texting in real-time. This is especially applicable to the main group of texters, i.e. teenagers. Coincidentally, teenagers are also our main initial target group.

People cannot imagine situations where they’d want to mimic a verbal conversation when texting

A Business Insider article about Beam said the following:

In a world where…texting is more popular than making calls, having a real-time way to send texts that’s truly real time is a nice change of pace.

This is one of the things written that we endorse. We couldn’t agree more with the quote above!

Remember our main target market, the teenagers mentioned above? Last year, the Pew Research Center reported that fully 25% of American teenagers never talk on their cellphones. Those kids are never going to have a situation where they choose to pick up the phone and call. Compare this with the 63% who reported texting daily. Plus, 49% of teens are sending texts to their friends on a daily basis. For teenagers and heavy texters, we are operating under the premise that when you send hundreds of texts per day, especially texts to friends, where your texts are basically being used as phone call replacements, then you would appreciate being able to have more rapid conversations over text. Beam makes that possible.

However, it’s not just teens and heavy texters who can benefit from using Beam.

There are many instances where you want to engage with others but your physical location makes it hard to do so verbally over the phone (whether it is that you don’t want to have private conversations verbally in a public place, e.g. on the subway/bus, or there is too much noise around you or you are at work or something else). Beam makes it easy to still engage with someone else and have a text conversation that mimics a verbal conversation. With the pace, interrupts, etc of a verbal conversation you won’t really feel like you are missing out. And you can enjoy that bus ride, more engaged with the person to whom you are texting while also not having your fellow passengers suffer through hearing TMI.

Speaking of engagement, real-time texting actually increases the engagement aspect of texting. In our tests with early beta users, people reported increased feelings of closeness. They said they felt as though they were physically closer to the person they were texting when they used Beam. Picture a scenario where you are in contact with loved ones abroad, people who live an expensive phone call away, where video and VOIP connections are unstable. Having Beam will help people to better maintain that strong connection with each other.

The Point

Misconceptions can lead to wrong conclusions. Thankfully, the negatively worded articles written about Beam didn’t seem to stop the app downloads and signups from coming in en masse from people. However, we don’t want the wrong information to continue being spread by some. We want to address some of the misconceptions going around about Beam and try to nip them in the bud.

We believe that true real-time texting, as introduced by Beam, is an enhancement of most people’s current messaging experiences!

So if you were one of the ones who was hesitant to try Beam, hopefully you will take a second look at the app and join our waitlist to get notified when we open again to new signups. Oh and please read this note to find out why we started limiting signups.

Thanks for reading!

Tania Hew, on behalf of
THE BEAM TEAM
(Alec Gordon, Cherry Cho, Paul Wang and Tania Hew)