Briar Project

#1

Post by fishmaster » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 9:23 PM UTC

Re: Briar Project

#2

Post by askxnakjsn » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

Now that I think about it, why aren't most messaging apps peer to peer? Shouldn't that be the standard? I mean it's literally the point of messages: sending from one person to another.

Re: Briar Project

#3

Post by inglor » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

askxnakjsn wrote: post #2

Now that I think about it, why aren't most messaging apps peer to peer? Shouldn't that be the standard? I mean it's literally the point of messages: sending from one person to another.

For multiple reasons but first of all because it would require both devices to be connected and online.

The common alternative to overcome this is to pass the messages through the server and encrypt/decrypt them on the device (aka e2e encryption). I acknowledge that might not be secure enough for certain use cases.

Re: Briar Project

#4

Post by raspyberr » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 9:59 PM UTC

askxnakjsn wrote: post #2

Now that I think about it, why aren't most messaging apps peer to peer? Shouldn't that be the standard? I mean it's literally the point of messages: sending from one person to another.

P2P requires both clients to be running at the same time in order to communicate. If you friend's phone is off and you send a message, they won't get it when they turn their phone on.

Re: Briar Project

#5

Post by crazygringo » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 10:00 PM UTC

askxnakjsn wrote: post #2

Now that I think about it, why aren't most messaging apps peer to peer? Shouldn't that be the standard? I mean it's literally the point of messages: sending from one person to another.

Because:

a) Often the intended recipient isn't online when the message is sent, and it may happen that there is never a time when both sender and recipient are online simultaneously (e.g. sender's device only turns on to send the occasional message, receiver's device is usually off but turns on occasionally to check if there are messages)

b) Often one or both devices can only connect to, but can't be connected to (because behind a NAT, a mobile device, firewall, etc.)

c) Communication is often desired between accounts rather than devices -- I may want to send/receive on my work computer, home computer, phone, and watch

Re: Briar Project

#6

Post by dunefox » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 10:01 PM UTC

I've been looking for secure messengers during the last few weeks. I use WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Telegram isn't very secure, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and even Signal - while very secure - requires a cell phone number... Briar seems great in this regard but isn't available on iPhone and has no support for images, calls, voice messages, etc. Apparently they're going to support images and a desktop client, though.

In short, I just don't know what to use.

Edit: Session looks great but is not fully released yet: https://getsession.org/ This might be what I'm looking for in the future.

Re: Briar Project

#7

Post by dijit » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 10:04 PM UTC

dunefox wrote: post #6

I've been looking for secure messengers during the last few weeks. I use WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Telegram isn't very secure, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and even Signal - while very secure - requires a cell phone number... Briar seems great in this regard but isn't available on iPhone and has no support for images, calls, voice messages, etc. Apparently they're going to support images and a desktop client,…

Have you looked at 'threema'? I recently installed it and I'm actually pleasantly surprised.

However, all of these bloody messengers mean that my contacts list is spread across a multitude of programs: we need the iOS/Android equivalent of pidgin.

Re: Briar Project

#8

Post by IgorPartola » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 10:06 PM UTC

dunefox wrote: post #6

I've been looking for secure messengers during the last few weeks. I use WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Telegram isn't very secure, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and even Signal - while very secure - requires a cell phone number... Briar seems great in this regard but isn't available on iPhone and has no support for images, calls, voice messages, etc. Apparently they're going to support images and a desktop client,…

What did Riot, the Matrix client, get renamed to?

Re: Briar Project

#9

Post by kgraves » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 10:07 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #8

dunefox wrote: post #6

I've been looking for secure messengers during the last few weeks. I use WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Telegram isn't very secure, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and even Signal - while very secure - requires a cell phone number... Briar seems great in this regard but isn't available on iPhone and has no support for images, calls, voice messages, etc. Apparently they're going to support images and a desktop client,…

What did Riot, the Matrix client, get renamed to?

"Element". had to look it up, forgotten it already. :/

Re: Briar Project

#10

Post by overcast » Sun, Aug 02, 2020, 10:08 PM UTC

dunefox wrote: post #6

I've been looking for secure messengers during the last few weeks. I use WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Telegram isn't very secure, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and even Signal - while very secure - requires a cell phone number... Briar seems great in this regard but isn't available on iPhone and has no support for images, calls, voice messages, etc. Apparently they're going to support images and a desktop client,…

iMessage? Natively on your phone/macOS and peer to peer encrypted. Never really saw a need for yet another messaging service. I think I'd trust Apple to do the right thing over any of these.