Privacy

https://veilid.com/

Not a fully functional chat app but an interesting project/framework being developed. They've described it as "TOR mixed with IPFS without the crypto." Uses a DHT similar to torrents with built in secure routing reminiscent of TOR. Importantly, it's not a VPN, but designed to be built into the applications themselves. All apps powered by Veilid also contribute to the network and can be assigned any role in "the onion." The most important pitch is that by being built into apps it can bring very strong privacy and security to the layperson, though app developers still need to address things like ensuring users retain access to data without email recovery etc.

Anyway, If you like these kinds of projects I'd look into it. I think it has some really good bones and it feels like we need it to mature sooner rather than later.

Looks like its on its last legs. Hopefully they get more collaborators.

Briar is in maintenance mode

This is a quick update about the status of Briar. Short version: the project is still active but we’re only making essential security updates and bugfixes for now.

Long version:

For several years we’ve been trying to find solutions to some of the longstanding issues with Briar, such as high battery usage and unreliable background operation on Android, missing features like account backup and file attachments, and a difficult user experience for adding contacts and communicating offline.

We considered completely rebuilding the application from the ground up, or even splitting it into separate applications for online and offline use. Meanwhile, the project didn’t have funding, we were reluctant to look for funding without having a long-term plan, and so we could only work on Briar in our spare time.

Last year, we decided that we wouldn’t realistically be able to solve these issues and so we reluctantly decided to shut down the project. We worked on releasing a final update for Android and desktop to allow the app to remain functional for as long as possible. In the meantime we were hearing a lot of supportive words from people we had told about our decision, and the app continued to attract new users. So finally we decided to continue the project in maintenance mode. We’re only making essential security updates and bugfixes for now, but eventually we hope to make some incremental progress on those longstanding issues.

We’re sending out this update because some rumours have been circulating that the project is shutting down, based on conversations we had with people in the internet freedom and privacy community last year. Those rumours are out of date: the project is continuing.

Nice