Briar Project
Earlier this year, I finally took the time to revisit the state of instant messaging services.  My requirements:<p>- open source<p>- cross-platform (linux, mac, windows, ios, android)<p>- group chats<p>- end-to-end encryption<p>- well-understood crypto ciphers &amp; protocols<p>- mature enough for a reasonable expectation of security &amp; privacy<p>- easy enough for most computer users<p>- some way to protect metadata (e.g. self-hosting)<p>- signup without real-world ID<p>- offline message delivery<p>I ended up choosing the Matrix network. The reference client is called Element[1] (formerly Riot). There are things I dislike about the client, but they&#x27;re pretty minor compared to the benefits of the underlying protocol, and lots of alternative clients are in development[2][3].<p>On top of meeting my requirements, all signs indicate that development is both active and moving in the right directions. Reading the team&#x27;s weekly reports and issue tracker convinced me that they are making very sound decisions.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;element.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;element.io&#x2F;</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;matrix.org&#x2F;clients-matrix&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;matrix.org&#x2F;clients-matrix&#x2F;</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;matrix.org&#x2F;clients&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;matrix.org&#x2F;clients&#x2F;</a><p>Here&#x27;s what I didn&#x27;t like about the others:<p>Briar: Lacked cross-platform support and (iirc) offline messaging. Tor brings baggage that not everyone is ready to accept.<p>Cwtch: Not mature yet.<p>Jami: Very fragile code base in my experience, which was also true when was called Ring, and when it was called SFLphone. Only about 25% of the builds I&#x27;ve tried over the years actually worked. I was unable to determine whether it had offline messaging.<p>Keybase: Now owned by Zoom, which is a privacy nightmare.<p>Ricochet: Same problems as Briar.<p>RocketChat: Crypto is not mature yet.<p>Session: Not mature yet. Small limit on number of group chat participants.<p>Signal: Required phone number for signup. Required Google Play Services (aka spyware) for quite a long time. Weak cross-platform support. Some of that is finally changing, but Moxie will surely make more intolerable design decisions, and refuse to fix them for years, again.<p>Telegram: Homebrew crypto.<p>XMPP: Most clients are hard to use (or to teach others to use). Good servers are hard to find. Protocol standards are a mess. I couldn&#x27;t find a real-world e2ee group chat implementation.<p>Everything else: Failed to meet my requirements even before I looked closely, mostly due to closed code and&#x2F;or problematic corporate interests. (For example, I will not use an app from Facebook or any of its subsidiaries.)