Re: [briar-devel] [Briar] Briar 1.1

[Michael R. <mi...@br...>]

Thanks Steve!

We're looking into whether an iOS version is feasible. Briar needs to
run in the background to receive messages from contacts, and iOS has
much tighter restrictions on background apps than Android (though
Android's getting stricter).

A typical iOS messaging app would use a push notification to wake the
app when a message is received, but this exposes metadata to Apple's
push notification service and the app developer's push gateway.

To reduce the metadata leakage, the sender of the message could connect
to the push gateway via Tor - but the push gateway and APNS would still
know who was receiving the notification. In a publish-subscribe network
like Briar, if a bunch of people always receive notifications whenever
the Revolutionary Planning Council updates its blog, then even if we
don't know who sent the notifications, we've learned something sensitive
about the recipients.

If we don't use push notifications then the best Apple allows us to do
is wake up every 15 minutes and check for messages. But maybe the sender
won't be online when we check (their 15 minute intervals might not be
aligned with ours - clocks aren't perfect). So we need somewhere for the
sender to store the message until our next check.

We're working on a piece of software called a mailbox that will receive
encrypted messages over Tor and store them until the owner collects
them. It's designed to run on a spare Android device, laptop, or
Raspberry Pi that's plugged into power and internet. Once that's ready
it will make an iOS app more feasible. But I'm not sure if the 15 minute
delay will be a deal-breaker. What do you think?

Cheers,
Michael

On 14/09/2018 17:18, Steve Phillips wrote:
> Congratulations! I'll have to check it out.
> 
> Is there an iOS version on the horizon?
> 
> --Steve
> 
> 
> On Friday, September 14, 2018, <bri...@li...
> <mailto:bri...@li...>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi everyone,
> 
>     I'm pleased to announce that Briar 1.1 for Android has been released!
> 
>     This release includes several new features:
>     * Dark theme
>     * New look for private conversations
>     * Lock the app without signing out
>     * Sign-in reminder after restarting phone or upgrading app
>     * Support for Tor bridges
>     * Support for using Tor with a VPN in countries that block bridges
>     * Updated emoji, including skin tone modifiers
>     * Updated translations
> 
>     You can install the app via Google Play, F-Droid, or direct download.
>     Please see the website for details:
> 
>     https://briarproject.org/download.html
>     <https://briarproject.org/download.html>
> 
>     Thank you to everyone who worked on this release, especially Torsten,
>     who wrote most of the code, and Erin, who coordinated the translations.
> 
>     We're already working on further improvements, including longer battery
>     life, adding contacts without meeting in person, and image attachments.
> 
>     We'd love to hear your thoughts about this release. Please send your
>     feedback to co...@br...
>     <mailto:co...@br...>, @BriarApp on Twitter, or
>     anonymously via the app.
> 
>     Cheers,
>     Michael
> 
>     --
>     PGP key: https://briarproject.org/keys/michael.asc
>     <https://briarproject.org/keys/michael.asc>
> 
> 
> 
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