this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
68 points (91.5% liked)

Selfhosted

52165 readers
417 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Briar is a messaging app designed to be used by groups of people to allow for secure and censorship resistant communications.

This technically isn't self hosted in the strictest sense but I think it is still relevant.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

a messenger that can only receive messages when your phone has an internet connection

To be fair, that's true for most messengers, even ones that do have servers.

[–] IanTwenty@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Messages are only sent when both online though, thet's the bigger difference (unless using Briar Mailbox). Also it can send over wifi and bluetooth without internet connection i.e. no other devices involved.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Messages are only sent when both online though

That's an entirely different thing, yes. 😄

I've always wondered what the utility is in sending messages over Bluetooth. Exchanging data secretly and securely in person, I guess?

[–] artyom@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Anytime you have bad/no cellular reception. Think being at a large event where the cell network is saturated, or in a rural area with no cell service.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Right, but you have to be so close to each other for Bluetooth to work, so it seems very limited in utility. But of course, data exchange in person would be one thing.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Bluetooth has a pretty significant range, especially outdoors. So you might be watching something on the stage while a friend or family member is 300 feet away at a concession stand.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

That's pretty far, that makes it better I guess. Like you could send messages across buildings if you have line of sight e.g. That's neat.

[–] FrostyPolicy@suppo.fi 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No one else then the parties messaging can see that the communication even occurs.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Right, but you have to be so close to each other for Bluetooth to work.

[–] TheButtonJustSpins 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It transfers across other peers; you don't have to have a direct connection to the recipient, just an eventual connection to them.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But you have to directly connect to other people's devices via Bluetooth along the way, right? Like a relay race of handing over the message until you either reach a network, or the recipient?

[–] TheButtonJustSpins 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I.. don't actually know. I wouldn't think that would be necessary (at least manually).

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

If not, it goes against everything I thought I understood about Bluetooth 😆 Curious to know how it actually would work.

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've used it to message someone while on a flight.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's brilliant use, I like it.

So how does it work? Do you just need to "have Bluetooth turned on" and it reaches the recipient, or do you need to connect to each other somehow? Can this work for a group chat with a family, or colleagues on a conference trip perhaps?

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You need to enable Bluetooth as a method of connection in the app settings (and can turn off wifi and data there).

The phones can be in airplane mode but with Bluetooth turned back on (as you would to use earbuds).

I don't recall pairing the phones, but there is a "connect via Bluetooth" option on each chat that might be doing that automatically.

You link accounts to each other by scanning qr codes.

It does have a group chat but I haven't used it, so I don't know if that works with Bluetooth alone.

I just tried testing this with an old phone of mine, but can't get it to work right now (maybe because it has Graphene os?), but I have actually used it on flights in the past.

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

I tested some more and can't get it to work any more. I found a post saying it worked in 1.5.2 so maybe something broke in newer versions.