All articles tagged with #automattic
Originally Published 6 months ago — by The Verge
Automattic has put its plan to migrate Tumblr's backend to WordPress on hold to focus on user-visible features, delaying the integration with the fediverse and the potential for Tumblr posts to be shared across platforms, though the idea remains under consideration for the future.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Windows Central
Beeper is a free universal chat app that connects up to 14 chat services into a single desktop and mobile app, supporting messaging, group chats, images, and videos. After dropping its fee and iMessage support, Beeper has opened its app to everyone across multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Android devices. The app, now owned by Automattic, offers an optional paid subscription model in the future and aims to consolidate various chat apps into one accessible place with a universal inbox.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Engadget
Automattic, the owner of WordPress and Tumblr, has acquired Beeper, the maker of the Beeper Mini app that briefly challenged Apple's iMessage dominance. The $125 million acquisition will merge Beeper's universal messaging app mission with Automattic's existing Texts app, with plans to launch a combined service later this year. The move comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny on tech giants and their control over messaging platforms, as well as Apple's upcoming support for RCS on iPhones. Despite Beeper Mini's short-lived iMessage integration on Android, Automattic's CEO sees a future favoring cross-platform, universal messaging apps, and the acquisition may also be attributed to the brand Beeper built in taking on Apple.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by The Verge
Beeper, the messaging app that consolidates various messaging services into one inbox, has been acquired by Automattic, the company behind Wordpress.com and Tumblr. The acquisition comes after Beeper's launch of Beeper Mini, which allowed Android users to access iMessage, leading to a dispute with Apple. Automattic sees messaging as a key pillar for its future and plans to integrate Beeper into its messaging strategy. The long-term goal is to replace current messaging systems with an open-source platform, leveraging Beeper's use of the Matrix protocol.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by WIRED
Messaging app Beeper, known for challenging Apple's iMessage dominance, has been acquired by Automattic for $125 million. Beeper will continue to exist as a stand-alone product within Automattic, and all 27 employees will be absorbed into the larger entity. The acquisition comes after Beeper's highly publicized battle with Apple, where it tried to bridge the gap between Android messaging and iMessage but was ultimately thwarted. Beeper's reliance on an open source protocol, Matrix, was appealing to Automattic, aligning with its strategy to offer more messaging features.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by TechCrunch
Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, has acquired Beeper, the company behind the iMessage-on-Android solution, for $125 million. This marks Automattic's second acquisition of a cross-platform messaging solution. Beeper's team will merge with Texts.com's team to combine the best of both companies' products into one platform. The acquisition reflects Automattic's belief in the future of open-source messaging that works across services. Beeper's updated app on Android will connect with 14 different services and will soon support fully end-to-end encrypted messages across various platforms. The app will generate revenue through a premium subscription model, and the team plans to add more services in the future.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Gizmodo
Automattic, the parent company of WordPress and Tumblr, is in talks to sell user-generated content to AI companies for training purposes, sparking controversy internally. Some of the scraped content reportedly included private and advertising content not owned by Automattic. The company plans to introduce a new setting to allow users to opt out of having their content used for AI training, but it's unclear if this setting will be toggled on or off by default. Automattic defended the move as an opportunity to give users more control over their content, stating that they are following best practices in the industry and will respect all opt-out settings.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by The Verge
Automattic, the owner of Tumblr and WordPress.com, is reportedly in talks with AI companies Midjourney and OpenAI to provide training data scraped from users' posts, potentially creating a new revenue stream for the site. The company plans to launch a new setting allowing users to opt out of data sharing with third parties, including AI companies. However, it's unclear what data has been sent to the AI companies and how it has been used. This move reflects a trend of companies striking deals with AI tool makers for training data, but it has also sparked concerns from the creative community about their work being used for training. Automattic has struggled to monetize Tumblr since acquiring it in 2019 and is seeking new avenues for revenue.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by 9to5Mac
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has acquired Texts, an all-in-one messaging app that combines services like iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack DMs, and more into a single interface. Texts is currently available as a desktop client on Mac, Windows, and Linux, with an iPhone version in development. The app offers end-to-end encryption and features such as ChatGPT-powered summaries, draft responses, Gmail-style labels, and keyboard shortcuts. Texts is monetized through a subscription model starting at $12.50/month and is loosely invite-only, with a free 30-day trial available.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by The Verge
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and other popular web properties, has acquired Texts, a universal messaging app, for $50 million. Texts allows users to log in to multiple messaging apps and view and respond to messages in one place. Automattic sees messaging as its third pillar, alongside publishing and commerce, and plans to invest heavily in this area. The company is interested in open-source solutions and decentralized messaging networks like Matrix. Texts' founder, Kishan Bagaria, and its on-device encryption security model were key factors in the acquisition. The Texts team will focus on completing the mobile app, which will maintain end-to-end encryption and user privacy. Automattic envisions a future where messaging becomes more central to online interaction, and aims to make messaging more organized and user-friendly.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by TechCrunch
Automattic has launched an AI assistant for WordPress that can generate text based on prompts in natural language, create structured lists and tables, change the tonality of a post, and suggest titles for it. The assistant supports 12 languages and offers better spelling and grammar correction features than WordPress's built-in tools. The Jetpack AI Assistant block will let users send 20 requests as a free trial, after which they have to pay $10 per month to access the feature.