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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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.
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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 👍
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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
The first thing that comes to mind is Meshtastic: https://meshtastic.org/
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
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
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wouldn’t a cheap walkie-talkie be more practical in that situation?
i remember using this app some time ago ☞ https://f-droid.org/packages/org.jsl.wfwt/
wouldn’t a cheap walkie-talkie be more practical in that situation?
That’s not secure or encrypted
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You can encrypt a radio.
Yes, but that requires you and the one(s) you’re communicating with to mod some radios and then to keep those radios secret, which won’t be easy once you start using them, especially in a situation like that where the government would probably be scanning those frequencies for exactly that
This one works, if you don’t mind a little diy and texting only: https://circuitmess.com/products/chatter-lora-communication-device
Meshtastic can be encrypted and is LoRa based. Can easily hit nodes dozens of miles away with a good line of sight. It also relays messages across nodes to reach even further distances.
Check out Reticulum Network Stack using LORA radio. Works really well.
If you don’t want to use internet the only ways are to use radio or deploy your own network infrastructure (optic fiber or cell tower), so there’s no really any messaging app that can be used without internet. Briar can use Bluetooth but with a limited range, needing an actual dense mesh network.
scratch telegram off that list, but Session messenger there instead.
Telegram isn’t private, one guy has the master key to the whole thing
Yeah to be honest I don’t even know how telegram became so popular in the “privacy-oriented world”
Briar has a mesh mode. And i think there was a matrix app doing this too?
Yes, it’s possible. To be honest, I find it very sad that we have grown so dependent on ISP and big telecom companies to have a working network.
In theory, you could have an infrastructure in your neighborhood and be able to play Quake with your neighbors without making use of the phone line at all, completely free of monthly fees and with a very efficient and fast connection too! you’d just need cabling connecting the apartments/houses and some decent routers controlling/restricting access on each subnet. It’s a pity that’s not a standard thing when designing residences.
Though less efficient and more limited in range, you can technically do it with Wifi and mesh networking too… there are projects like B.A.T.M.A.N (https://www.open-mesh.org/), however, it’s not very user-friendly to set up. I believe there have been some projects that attempted to launch embedded devices to act as mini routers for this, but the spread has not been wide enough to make it worth it, sadly.
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