• Gargari@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    Is it a simple chat app or something like Telegram with channels and groups support?

    • moreeni@lemm.ee
      61·
      11 months ago

      It doesn’t have channels, only groups. It’s more like Signal with no phone number req but with worse UX as a trade off

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
          3·
          11 months ago

          I think they serve different (though related or overlapping) purposes.

          Briar started (IIRC) as a Bluetooth-only comm tool, and they’ve done a great job expanding what it can do (think it does Tor now?). Briar is not battery friendly, and the devs will tell you so. I don’t consider it a daily driver, but rather for specific circumstances. I keep it around just-in-case.

          SimpleX is more of a daily driver since it’s a more conventional IP networking app, though it’s a little battery hungry too.

            • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
              3·
              11 months ago

              Yea, it’s a different tool. And it’s still early days.

              I don’t use SimpleX as a daily driver, yet. But it has a lot potential. Just glad to see another tool out there, and the devs seem really earnest (I worked with them a year ago while testing the app).

                • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
                  2·
                  11 months ago

                  Lol, welcome to the club!

                  God how I despise SMS, and I can’t get anyone off it, even if other options are easier to use than SMS, much more robust, faster, more flexible, etc.

                  There are a couple messaging apps that are self-hostable (like I believe SimpleX is). Litewire is one. At some point I plan on hosting one myself, and preconfigure accounts for friends/family to make it even easier for them. Maybe that will get them on board.

          • EngineerGaming
            1·
            11 months ago

            My main concern wit Briar is that it would be of not much use without a smartphone (I meant the internet-less features in particular). I would not trust sensitive things to a smartphone. I wonder if soemthing like that could be doable with an Android VM or Waydroid with a laptop’s bluetooth…

            • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
              1·
              11 months ago

              Maybe. Check out Android Subsystem for Windows. It’s essentially an Android VM though you don’t have a launcher/home screen. You just see the apps in your task bar like any windows app. I run it on an older laptop, it’s a touch slow but works well enough.

              https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds

              • EngineerGaming
                1·
                11 months ago

                Windows is as much of a spyware as an average smartphone though, so not much of a point.

                Edit: I should try it in Waydroid then.

                • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
                  1·
                  11 months ago

                  Lol, true. I just assume most people are using it.

                  I’m working on getting away from it, been stuck on fining a OneNote replacement.

      • auth@lemmy.ml
        11·
        11 months ago

        Signal only ask for a phone number to verify your identity… its far from private