Briar - secure p2p group communications
Briar is a messaging app designed to be used by groups of people to allow for secure and censorship resistant communications.
This technically isn't self hosted in the strictest sense but I think it is still relevant.
After a loot of research and testing different tools (Briar, Jami, Simplex, Session), I ended up using XMPP (Snikket). The call quality is good, has E2EE, Self-hosteable
Edit: fixed a typo
I don't know why this gets downvoted. Xmpp is my solution as well. Lightweight, selfhostable and federated, it's just a great solution. Briar is good as well and probably one of the best solutions if your are an activist/journalist. But it will eat your battery as all p2p solutions will. Is you host your own xmpp server at home, that's really as secure as it will get imho.
Yeah.. I'm a bit surprised by the downvotes also. I just shared my experience without saying anything bad about any apps. Anybody is free try any tool they want until they find the one that fits their need. Thanks for the support 🤝
I will never not grin slightly at the name XMPP.
Seems pretty similar to Jami except that it lacks the iOS and desktop clients that Jami already has.
Don't use Jami. It is a security nightmare and unreliable.
Could you link me some resources for that? I may need something to demonstrate that to others.
My personal experience
Also they haven't had a security audit
Lack of audit is not great I agree. I can see from a basic web search that security is an issue but I'm not sure 'nightmare' is warranted. The lack of audit seems to be main focus of concern and I'd say thats a judgement call for each person depending on threat model. I was hoping for something more conclusive than that. Its certainly adequate for a more privacy-centric way of communicating than an app that doesn't cater for Apple users at all.
I'm never going to recommend something that I can't get to work reliability. Also the lack of a security audit is a major deal breaker.
Communications is one of those things that needs to be absolutely solid.
This project runs on Tor. You are effectively hosting a Tor site.
Not at all. You're effectively using a messenger that can only receive messages when your phone has an internet connection because briar doesn't have servers. Also the connections are made through the Tor network, which hides metadata
Briar does not require an internet connection. It can send messages over Bluetooth and WiFi.
To be fair, that's true for most messengers, even ones that do have servers.
Messages are only sent when both online though, thet's the bigger difference (unless using Briar Mailbox). Also it can send over wifi and bluetooth without internet connection i.e. no other devices involved.
That's an entirely different thing, yes. 😄
I've always wondered what the utility is in sending messages over Bluetooth. Exchanging data secretly and securely in person, I guess?
Anytime you have bad/no cellular reception. Think being at a large event where the cell network is saturated, or in a rural area with no cell service.
Right, but you have to be so close to each other for Bluetooth to work, so it seems very limited in utility. But of course, data exchange in person would be one thing.
Bluetooth has a pretty significant range, especially outdoors. So you might be watching something on the stage while a friend or family member is 300 feet away at a concession stand.
No one else then the parties messaging can see that the communication even occurs.
Right, but you have to be so close to each other for Bluetooth to work.
It transfers across other peers; you don't have to have a direct connection to the recipient, just an eventual connection to them.
I've used it to message someone while on a flight.
That's brilliant use, I like it.
So how does it work? Do you just need to "have Bluetooth turned on" and it reaches the recipient, or do you need to connect to each other somehow? Can this work for a group chat with a family, or colleagues on a conference trip perhaps?
You need to enable Bluetooth as a method of connection in the app settings (and can turn off wifi and data there).
The phones can be in airplane mode but with Bluetooth turned back on (as you would to use earbuds).
I don't recall pairing the phones, but there is a "connect via Bluetooth" option on each chat that might be doing that automatically.
You link accounts to each other by scanning qr codes.
It does have a group chat but I haven't used it, so I don't know if that works with Bluetooth alone.
I just tried testing this with an old phone of mine, but can't get it to work right now (maybe because it has Graphene os?), but I have actually used it on flights in the past.
Sort of I guess
Why does it matter?