** Now in Android and iOS app stores **
No Face, No Name, No Number, No SIM card, No Internet! Berty is a messenger that doesn’t require any of your personal data or network connection (using Bluetooth Low Energy BLE). All conversations are encrypted with end-to-end encryption, in a fully distributed network.
It is a peer-to-peer messenger with no servers, no cloud - your data is only stored on the device where Berty is installed and used. No one would be able to access the data or shut the app down, not even the developers.
Being P2P, it means the IP address needs to be available to route messaging, but their site explains a bit about how they’ve tried to mask this. Whilst Briar is an excellent alternative, it is still Android only. The closest alternative is maybe Jami, but it lacks a non-Internet Bluetooth alternative if I recall correctly. Interestingly, Berty also can use Airdrop (iOS to iOS) and Android’s Nearby as alternative protocols.
You can share your details and add contacts via a QR code, public key, or an invite link. It is currently available on both iOS and Android, with desktop clients to follow.
#technology #messenger #berty #P2P #IPFS #privacy
i’ve been using berty for a couple of months now, not as a primary messenger, but more so in situations where I want to transfer some information in the form of text/images/videos in situations where there is no internet connection
it has some issues, but it’s relatively robust imo
Any idea how it compares to Briar by chance?
i’m not familiar with briar, so i can’t really tell :(
They sound quite samiliar, with Berty you have to have the recipient on the app as well, ya? In other words no SMS/MMS messaging I believe from the break down? Briar is marketed for activists and journalist being a decentralized and encrypted messager which works without WiFi and can be routed over Tor.
Been looking for a good offline messenger. Going on a cruise soon. I want to chat with my family. Will have access to the ships WiFi but not internet. Dont want to pay the $100s for a weekend. By biggest hurdle is being on iOS and android. Most apps are not on iOS.
Was attemptingtoo download this open source app but its not on fdroid?
iOS especially is a problem for WiFi enabled apps or cell to cell direct. Could also maybe look at SimpleX https://simplex.chat/.
Does simplex work offline?
Actually no, sorry I see SimpleX is via a server. But why would Berty not work as it is offline and does iOS as well? Tox is another option https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_(protocol) but bear in mind their point made, that if there is no central server used, both (or all) clients needs to be actually online for any connection. There is no store and forward server in the middle.
It may. seems like it only connects via bluetooth LTE. That range is not ideal. Will be testing it one of these days.
What pro does it offer you? We must ask ourselves this.
You don’t think that their comparison matric table with some other products shown on their website, is sort of leaning towards the pro’s? That to me did sort of highlight their pro’s vs what the other producst don’t do?
Honestly I have my doubts
Will it also be available on f-droid or the like, or maybe as direct apk download?
they do
join their discord, they have a beta-onboarding channel where you have to react to a message or smth in order to automatically be added to additional hidden channels that give all the appropriate links (including direct .apk download)
everything is explained in the beta-onboarding channel more concretely :)
you can also ask them there about their plans for f-droid 🤷♀️
A privacy focused messenger that gathers on Discord? 😬
It shows no concern for how easily our network graph is used to control us, we should be able to lift and shift our messaging abilities anywhere after 100 years of consumers wanting that exact feature.
