Briar: a secure messaging app that continues to work without the internet by sending messages over Bluetooth or LAN. Supports P2P Reddit-like Forums which spread from person to person.
Posted by copenhagen_bram@reddit | RedditAlternatives | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Squabtastic@reddit
As far as I understand. This app does not work on an iPhone correct??
copenhagen_bram@reddit (OP)
Sadly, no.
whoisrich@reddit
A few years back I was on a cruise ship, no signal, broken wifi, just getting friends next door to all meet up was such a pain.
We did try a few apps that claimed p2p but couldn't get any to actually work, so would interested to see how things have improved since then.
Ignoring the secret agent stuff, it's easy to take for granted communication infrastructure until it's not available.
copenhagen_bram@reddit (OP)
I think that in my experience, Briar works! I've used it over bluetooth a few times with friends.
Briar doesn't relay direct messages through other users, you have to be directly next to that person in range of bluetooth/LAN to send them a message offline.
However, forums DO relay from person to person. If you share the forum with enough contacts, and your contacts share that forum with their contacts, you could theoretically daisy chain forum messages across any distance.
Delicious_Ease2595@reddit
Can a relay be shut down or censor certain text from a relay?
copenhagen_bram@reddit (OP)
Briar is peer to peer, so you and your contacts ARE the relays.
Forums are unmoderated. If a bad actor appears, best you can do is hope everyone deletes that bad actor from their contacts, isolating them from the forum. The messages they posted will remain afterwards.
Delicious_Ease2595@reddit
Sounds good.
copenhagen_bram@reddit (OP)
However, Briar is not anonymous. The client only supports one profile. Local IP addresses and Bluetooth addresses are shared with your contacts, even unverified ones. Messages in forums cannot be deleted. If your threat model is serious, only add trusted and verified contacts.
whoisrich@reddit
We had 5 rooms along a corridor, so the people at either end would have been out of range of each other, so it does seem like a Briar forum is what I would have needed for messages to be daisy chained between the rooms.
TheConquistaa@reddit
Briar is pretty cool. I wish more people would use that.
copenhagen_bram@reddit (OP)
If anyone wants an easy way to find communities on Briar, go to http://briar.retiolus.net/request when it's online. Since it's down right now, you can also try going to #briar:matrix.org on Matrix/Element or joining the SimpleX Chat group for Briar and asking for an invite.