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Briar is in maintenance mode

briarproject.org

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Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#91

Post by KennyBlanken »

joecot wrote: post #32
imhoguy wrote: post #27

Briar will thrive once EU Chat Control 2.0 passes, P2P E2E encryption is the only way to bypass bullshit laws.

Briar is dead because it doesn't work on iPhones. It doesn't work on iPhones because iOS will only allow waking the app from background when there's a push notification. Push notifications have to go through Apple's servers, which defeats the purpose of a decentralized app where your messages (and metadata) can't be traced.

There are numerous iPhone apps that don't need push notifications and sync just fine.

"Open source programmers do not understand how to code properly for iOS" != "doing things in the background is IMPOSSIBLE on iOS!!!!!"

People just love to screech about iOS/Apple being evil.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#92

Post by collabs »

mskes me wonder... Could Apple do this? Like imagine only for iMessage platform but just like find my... For short text messages like let's say under 500 characters plain text or something obscenely tiny allow people to hop on other people's data or network access to peer to peer deliver messages over iMessage like we do with find my. Would be a great idea to think about in case of natural disasters? Maybe limit both clientside as well as server side to something like only ten or twenty outstanding messages per apple id at any time to cut down spam? Right and this becomes even more powerful when you add in Apple's satellite message service. So if a device can't reach the sky but is in reach of a passing person maybe we can get the message. It isn't panacea by any means especially with the rate limits but Apple is in this unique position to do something good if it wanted to. Ten is more than zero and people can forward message like I am alive and in so and so is worth more than a thousand mindless Instagram reel forwards. And maybe some day we can have this as a "global" standard but until then Tim Cook says "buy your mom an iPhone"

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#93

Post by mhitza »

pogue wrote: post #2

Sounds like it's basically dead. The issue with messenger apps is that they're a dime a dozen, there are so many of them and they offer so much variability in security, privacy, but most importantly usability and uptime. If your friends won't switch to them, there's almost no point in having them or using them.

Still receives, and for the foreseeable future will receive, security updates which is good enough for me to keep it installed on my phone.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#94

Post by dijit »

bpicolo wrote: post #90
ijustlovemath wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helene survivor here. I will be spreading the word about this project and keeping some APKs for if the shit hits the fan again. FDroid being able to sync between local devices means all you need is to get fdroid onto someones phone. Wish they had an iphone app though!

What's the range on bluetooth? If I can reach someone via bluetooth, can't I also just talk to them? Or is it longer than I realize?

It's really not very far, maybe 15 meters.

I'm actually super annoyed that popular devices no longer show bluetooth signal strength at all... it's completely absent from the UI.

Impossible to know how well connected my headphones are when I keep hearing popping or distortion... you need special apps to realise how weak the connection actually is (and how absurdly busy the environment is: there are so many bluetooth devices around us.. it's crazy!)

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#95

Post by [deleted] »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #21

I've been attempting to build something similar and every time I take an honest look at the state of affairs on mobile phones I'm end up leaning towards running the way meshtastic users do: either strictly on dedicated hardware, or over a bluetooth link from my phone to dedicated hardware which I'll keep in my backpack or glovebox.

[deleted]

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#96

Post by fhn »

bpicolo wrote: post #90
ijustlovemath wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helene survivor here. I will be spreading the word about this project and keeping some APKs for if the shit hits the fan again. FDroid being able to sync between local devices means all you need is to get fdroid onto someones phone. Wish they had an iphone app though!

What's the range on bluetooth? If I can reach someone via bluetooth, can't I also just talk to them? Or is it longer than I realize?

I have smartphone in pants pocket and bluetooth headphones cut off all the time if that's any indication of how good it is.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#97

Post by lukeschlather »

Vinnl wrote: post #89
ijustlovemath wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helene survivor here. I will be spreading the word about this project and keeping some APKs for if the shit hits the fan again. FDroid being able to sync between local devices means all you need is to get fdroid onto someones phone. Wish they had an iphone app though!

Doesn't Briar itself provide functionality to share the apk via Bluetooth? So you don't even need F-Droid (though it's still good to have regardless, of course).

That doesn't help you if you're the only person with the apk on their phone.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#98

Post by lukeschlather »

ozyschmozy wrote: post #46
dist-epoch wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me this only happens if you don't use the app much. Or maybe some apps are "allowlisted", I've never had delayed WhatsApp/Slack notifications.

I use signal a lot (probably has 30-60 minutes screen time per day), and still notifications are extremely finicky no matter what battery optimization settings I tweak. So I'm leaning towards some apps being blessed

It seems very plausible Signal deliberately curses itself somehow, given its extreme privacy focus.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#99

Post by tehlike »

fhn wrote: post #96
bpicolo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the range on bluetooth? If I can reach someone via bluetooth, can't I also just talk to them? Or is it longer than I realize?

I have smartphone in pants pocket and bluetooth headphones cut off all the time if that's any indication of how good it is.

Never had my headphones drop off

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#100

Post by frollogaston »

joecot wrote: post #32
imhoguy wrote: post #27

Briar will thrive once EU Chat Control 2.0 passes, P2P E2E encryption is the only way to bypass bullshit laws.

Briar is dead because it doesn't work on iPhones. It doesn't work on iPhones because iOS will only allow waking the app from background when there's a push notification. Push notifications have to go through Apple's servers, which defeats the purpose of a decentralized app where your messages (and metadata) can't be traced.

There is https://developer.apple.com/documentation/backgroundtasks which requires the user to have "background app refresh" enabled
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