We all know Signal, Matrix, Telegram, SimpleX, etc… But if you can’t access the internet you can’t communicate. Pretty logic. But would it be possible, at least theoretically, to create an app that permits to message people even if the internet goes down?
It might be a dumb question I really have no idea to be honest.
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yggmail is a fairly obscure and experimental take on email on a mesh network: https://github.com/neilalexander/yggmail
Would this work through something like meshtastic?
yggmail specifically, probably not. yggdrasil uses TCP/IP and the Meshtastic latencies to perform connections would be too high AFAIK. It would probably only work in a fairly well-connected network. yggdrasil could be used directly over a WiFi protocol but it would need fairly good reception to function.
N.B. I haven’texperimented with this myself.
The first thing that comes to mind is Meshtastic: https://meshtastic.org/
There used to be one years ago that used WiFi radios or Bluetooth or whatever so you could chat to people near you… I totally forget what it was called though.
Bridgefy?
Yes, this is totally what I was thinking of!
Briar?
Bridgefy was used more during protests since it’s available on both iOS and Android, while Briar is Android only.
Bridgefy seems to require an online account to use. Brair requires zero obline accounts, and even allows sharing the apk to nearby devices without internet.
Edit: Yea, just checked… Bridgefy requires an internet connection the first time you launch it. Not good…
Yeah I’m not saying Bridgefy is better, just that it’s available on both major mobile platforms while Briar isn’t. I do prefer Briar on technical and privacy levels.
I don’t thiiiiink that’s it, but like I said, I don’t remember the name, so it might be 🤷♂️
Briar is the one that was mentioned a lot when the protests were happening in Taiwan, if that helps 👍
Taiwan? 🤨
You mean Hong Kong?
Yes, sorry. I woke up in the middle of the night, but apparently my brain didn’t…
I’ll correct it now 👍
I mean this is a terrible answer, but DS pictochat fits that
pictochat FTW
No joke, I was talking about this recently. I feel like niche groups (me included) are just going full-circle back to the DS days
I think SimpleX is mesh?
Surprised nobody mentioned scuttlebutt yet https://scuttlebutt.nz/
SSB can use the internet to share encrypted messages via hubs/servers, but it also can share the same messages peer to peer in a mesh sort of setup without the internet using a ‘gossip’ protocol within a local network. It was invented by a sailor who was regularly away from WiFi due to being at sea.
Briar or meshtastic
This was a common thing that was developed for the international protests after Arab Spring, which would frequently have their Internet shut down as a State tactic to prevent communication amongst protestors.
Mesh net chat apps like FireChat were born in response
Telegram isn’t P2P and isn’t recommended. Signal is good, but not P2P. Matrix is decentralized, not P2P. SimpleX is P2P, I think, but not sure.
Simplex uses Severs, you can bring your own one, but it is not peer to peer when talking about direct communication to the recipient
SimpleX uses onion links
Yea but there are android versions too. Its to send files over WiFi direct phone to phone with no network but some also have chat.
Oh interesting! I’ll take a look into it thanks.
Isn’t this what airdrop was?
@Ju135 Briar over WiFi or Bluetooth.
yes, a lot of people were using those kinds of apps during the free hong kong protests, they go from device-to-device with no internet in between.
No idea what the app is called, but apps like those exist
Woah Briar is really cool. I think this is like what I want Signal to be.
I found Berty yesterday just after making this post. But as a neophyte in cryptography and everything, how am I supposed to know which one is better for my privacy ? (e.g. between Briar and Berty) Because right now the only thing that I have is what the apps are “telling” me so… Yeah I don’t know how to chose.
Honestly if you don’t want to think too much about it, go with Briar, it’s way more battle tested, while Berty seems like it hasn’t seen much adoption since it’s younger, both have a bit of development activity I saw, so I can’t say if one is more or less maintained than the other
As for the actual question of gauging which has the better cryptographical implementation, I don’t know either, beside the most surface level information I know very little.
I believe if you want to look into it, you’ll have to start from their whitepapers
