Briar

Arthur Brenneman

3 years ago

I would like to see a pop-up chat head. If I'm not looking at the screen I will miss the flash notification across the top. I have missed a reply for hours. I like adding the contact without using my phone number. I was using TextNow and Text free but the constant ads drove me crazy! I think this is a good app.

Chris MC

1 year ago

Really love the anti screenshot feature! It is one of the best features than what other "privacy" apps offer.

Stefan W

4 years ago

Secure but lacks basic necessary features. Clean, mess free interface with low resource demand. Consistent connections over p2p. Lots of nice features like blogs and groups. However, there is no way to back up your identity. There is no ability to share photos or files rendering the adoption of this tool problematic to the average user.

Jason Nicholas

3 years ago

Shows great potential. But needs ability to add photos (and video) in Forum, Blogs as well, to have any chance of mass adoption. Other things like voice/video chatting aren't so important as there are other apps for live chat. But images/video clips are absolutely necessary in the 21st century for an offline communication and information platform.

John Williams

4 years ago

One of the few apps that seemed to work without an internet connection, some small issues that I found: unable to send video or pictures and additionally you can only add people who you are physically in contact with, in a emergency their maybe other people trapped or folks you want to communicate with who are in the area but you can't physically meet. Overall however seems to do does basic communication okay

Pavan Raj N

1 year ago

Used this app during the recent floods in Chennai (India). Was able to send messages only to contacts yet it helped a lot. It would have been great if there were an option to broadcast messages to nearby briar users via a public broadcast channel. This will help us to reach people irrespective of users being our contact or not. This kind of feature helps a lot during times of crisis and natural calamities. Please consider this as a feature request.

tommy nook

10 months ago

I'm sure it's great, it's simple to use and has private messaging but haven't been able to test yet

Dylan

4 years ago

Underrated secure messaging application, taking something good (Tor) and applying it to something many are desperately in need for (private and discrete contacting in dangerous situations) and making something better than the sum of its parts. Stability may be a bit off, but that aside, security and privacy are what matters for those who download the app. I'd give 10 stars if possible.

Rodger

1 year ago

I've been following this project for a long time but it never worked via bluetooth for some reasons for the phones I was testing. I can finally confirm it works fully! Bluetooth to Bluetooth off grid messaging! Never had much of a use case scenario with my situation but always a solid back up plan.

Adam Prettyjohns

11 months ago

Briar is an outstanding app! Recently, it allowed me to stay connected with a friend while we were both in flight mode on a plane, using Bluetooth from opposite ends of the cabin. The messaging experience was seamless and reliable. Highly recommend this app for anyone needing a robust and innovative communication tool. Great work, developers!

Brian Keys

3 years ago

This app is perfect for my family with one exception. When I try to use it with the Windows 'Your Phone' app, I just get a black screen. All other cell apps work fine when used remotely through 'Your Phone'. We use it within our family because covid brought the kids back from college and they are living in separate trailers on our property for the short term. Briar lets us all communicate even when internet or power goes down. It is a very polished chat application.

David Colvin

1 year ago

Might be a limitation with Android but with data turned off I couldn't communicate with nearby contacts without manually pairing on both devices simultaneously. No iOS support so the few people I'd like to bring into the fold are ineligible. Severe battery drain. Subscribing to an RSS dropped my battery 20% in 3 hours. Even without subscriptions in "blog" I'm still losing too much battery for a background app. What good is an offline device if it's dead?

OCD Playlist Maker (OCDPlaylistMaker)

4 years ago

Make SURE "connection method to Tor network is NOT set to "automatic based on location." There was an insane flood of random IP addresses that tried to access Briar (which I was able to see with Netguard) until I chose the other two options. Edit: It is still not secure with this setting. While random IP addresses are less common, I've seen two amazon.aws trackers. Where the heck did those come from? Edit: Thank you for the response. I'll leave this here for others

Richard

2 years ago

Probably the most secure messaging app out of any available, great idea! Unfortunately it will not be a good replacement for more popular messaging apps anytime soon. There is no way to send a video. Pictures are possible, but only in a chat with one other person and they get massively compressed. Pretty crazy in 2022. I love the idea of my messages not being routed through a central server, but it's not ready to replace my messaging app of choice. I'll check back in a few years.

WESTCOAST RONNIE

4 years ago

This is probably one of the best messaging apps ever. I didn't even know a messaging app ever existed without using data . I installed this app into two phones and turned off Wi-Fi off for both of them and only left Bluetooth on. The app worked perfectly and no delayed text messages. I never knew that text messaging apps existed without ever having to use data or a Wi-Fi connection. I'm glad this technology exists because this would be very good in an emergency situations. Love this technology.

M K

2 years ago

Best Offline Messaging app!! The fact you can communicate through Bluetooth only really helps when service is bad in a friend group or on a cruise ship with family. The user interface is easy to use, and you can have multiple messages at once. I love that you can send emoji's and photos by Bluetooth only and or through wifi. It helped my friends and family stay connected during a cruise. I wish they added a walkie-talkie voice note feature but it's great so far.

Artorius The'Bear

1 year ago

The good: *I love that it works via Bluetooth. *Its fast and easy to add a friend with the QR code. *The Bluetooth connection has surprisingly long range! The bad: *It doesn't work via offline WiFi LAN. *you cant send pictures in groups. *you cant post pictures in forums. *you cant post pictures in blogs. *you cant react to specific images that have been sent.