giphyman

in beta still but https://briarproject.org/download-briar-desktop/ is worth a look

Are you able to get messaging working on Windows? Their website says they only support linux currently.

I responded to a similar question in the recent Briar thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33686094#33692201

The desktop app is currently in development: https://briarproject.org/download-briar-desktop/

A Briar user can either create a new forum, or get invited via a Briar contact that is already in an existing forum. There's some more info on this topic in Briar's user manual if you're interested: https://briarproject.org/manual/

Briar also has the ability to introduce contacts to each other, so while it doesn't support totally public forums, you can spread information between contacts fairly effectively.

They are working on a mailbox app to offload the constant background tor processes which use a lot of the battery life: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar-mailbox

Briar uses a rendevouz system for adding contacts over the internet: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar-spec/blob/master/p...

And a 2-party QR code protocol for adding contacts in person: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar-spec/blob/master/p...

In short, both these methods of adding contacts require both parties to actively add each other in the same time period. So even if you post your briar contact code publicly, only the contacts you are adding as well will be able to connect with you.

There is a WIP desktop client which is targeting linux phones: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar-desktop#design-goa...

briar is built on a p2p syncing protocol called bramble, you can read more here: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar/-/wikis/A-Quick-Ov...

it looks like briar is already working on that buffer node concept: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar-mailbox

Their website has a press page with some reviews and presentations: https://briarproject.org/press/

Briar is actually built on a library called Bramble that can be used for offline-first p2p data syncing. There was recently a good talk by a Briar Dev going deeper into the Bramble protocol: https://nico.dorfbrunnen.eu/posts/2021/diving-at-xmpp/

I found the code repository for Briar desktop port: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar-desktop