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Briar is in maintenance mode

briarproject.org

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Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#101

Post by frollogaston »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #91
joecot wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Could come from Apple publicly saying a while back that killing apps doesn't save battery life because apps can't wake in the background. Might be sound advice not to kill apps, but part of that was factually untrue.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#102

Post by prmoustache »

timcobb wrote: post #47
fg137 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200 mean very different things to different people. I would never say it's "reasonable" to expect anyone (including maintainers) to contribute money or code to an open source project. Must be easy for you to type these things from your comfortable armchair.

So what's the point of spending months and months and months of your time just to shut down your project when it could possibly be worked out for several $100? Is the situation that the authors have a lot of time and no money? Could we get the project some money if that's the case? Apps like this are so important. Every year they become more critical. And I would like if someone could please confirm is this related t…

Spending money on AI would not remove any blocker from Android and iOS side.

This is crazy how people can have become so delusionnal to think AI is a magic wand that can solve all their problems. News flash: spending $200 on AI won't make your hair grow back if you are balding.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#106

Post by outime »

nunobrito wrote: post #13
HelloUsername wrote: post #5

That's too bad. Anyone know of a fork or similar project? Maybe Meshtastic/MeshCore/BitChat. Berty Messenger's last update on iOS was in January 2025.

Instead of a fork, there is completely new development going on here: https://github.com/geograms/aurora BLE/LoRa/radio/internet mesh with reticulum that combines chat, social and torrents over NOSTR (decentralized protoocol). Still beta, around August should be stable.

Not available for iOS though.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#107

Post by 15155 »

copperx wrote: post #38
embedding-shape wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most IMs I agree, Briar is/was slightly different though, being P2P and E2E encrypted. There isn't many IMs out there supporting Bluetooth connections between users for example.

Bitchat is great, but I don't understand why it's Bluetooth only. I would think Wifi reaches further.

BLE Coded PHY will work for kilometers, where standard WiFi devices will not (HaLow is the exception.)

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#108

Post by vmg12 »

allthetime wrote: post #17
vmg12 wrote: post #12

> We considered completely rebuilding the application from the ground up, or even splitting it into separate applications for online and offline use This is actually non-trivial. There's an app I was working on where I wanted to have a local first mode that allowed people to use the app for free without an account and there was also a cloud hosted version that allowed for team collaboration, etc. For this kind of thi…

Why? I use a similar model in a few mobile apps. Free, not logged in usage stores a restricted set of user activity data ephemerally (lost upon uninstall) in the phone. For subscribed users, this offline storage mechanism is still the primary storage mechanism, but then we add a cloud sync mechanism on top of it that enables usage across multiple devices and permanent storage in the cloud. Curious why you need to wri…

One of the hard issues was supporting full text search locally and in the cloud. Also it's not that the entire app needed to be written twice but that parts of it needed it needed to be written twice.

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#109

Post by em-bee »

lukeschlather wrote: post #97
Vinnl wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

why not? isn't all you need just bluetooth file upload to any other phone where you want to install it?

Re: Briar is in maintenance mode

#110

Post by throw2ih020 »

tehlike wrote: post #99
fhn wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If I put my phone in my right pocket the bluetooth module on the left side of my helmet will disconnect when I turn my motorcycle to the left
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