Peer-to-peer secure messaging
“Briar is a messaging app designed for activists, journalists, and anyone else who needs a safe, easy and robust way to communicate. Unlike traditional messaging apps, Briar doesn’t rely on a central server - messages are synchronized directly between the users’ devices. If the internet’s down, Briar can sync via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, keeping the information flowing in a crisis. If the internet’s up, Briar can sync via the Tor network, protecting users and their relationships from surveillance.” - https://briarproject.org/how-it-works/
Useful resources and links
- Installing Briar via F-Droid - https://briarproject.org/installing-briar-via-f-droid/
- Installing Briar via Direct Download - https://briarproject.org/installing-briar-via-direct-download/
- Briar code repository - https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar
- Briar Quick Start Guide - https://briarproject.org/quick-start/
- How it works - https://briarproject.org/how-it-works/
- Diving deep into Briar at XMPP Meetup Berlin - https://yewtu.be/watch?v=sKuljekMzTc
Creating an account
After installing and running Briar on your device, create an account by entering your desired username and password. Since Briar is peer-to-peer, your account will not be created on any servers and all data will be kept on your local device. This means that if you lose your device, forget your password, uninstall Briar or clear the application storage, your account will be permanently lost including all of your data such as messages, contacts, settings and other data
This is explained in the lost password dialogue below (shown in the Briar app if you click ‘i have forgotten my password’ on the login screen):
Adding contacts
Contacts can be added two different ways:
- At a distance - You will need to give the contact to add your Briar link (e.g. briar://az1o7unfh2378up644uk2621sdfpnguaf7i7dsfaofgxs6ndmt4vs - out of band, for example: via Signal messenger) and they will need to give you their Briar link. Both parties are required to exchange links and there is no method of searching for or adding users by username.
- Locally - For contacts physically nearby. This method will require bluetooth and location to be turned on so we will only cover adding contacts at a distance here.
An example of adding a contact at a distance is shown below (your contact link is shown in the red box and the contact you are adding is within the blue box):
After your contact appears online, commence a chat session by tapping on their username.
It’s recommended to turn on disappearing messages for chat sessions by tapping the 3 dots in the top right-corner (image courtesy of https://briarproject.org/):
Then enabling disappearing messages (image courtesy of https://briarproject.org/):
You can now chat with your contact on Briar messenger and messages will automatically disappear upon expiry.
This concludes the basic setup of Briar Secure Messenger.
Future posts will cover additional features such as group chats, blogs, rss feeds and more.
If you’d like to use Briar on devices in your organisation and require custom documentation and training, feel free to email us to request a meeting or quotation.