Still sucks you will need a phone number to use it though. Hopefully they adopt meshnet type technology similar to https://berty.tech so people can communicate even when the internet is shut off across all platforms with end to end encryption
There's Briar, but I am upset they don't have the bluetooth mesh functionality on desktop at least yet, and I don't know if you can make it work in a VM.
In the world of Mobile, you’re always going to have to have some kind of signalling protocol that will have to be through someone else Simply because establishing listening functions that help push notifications reach you at all consumes battery. In this case, I think what the real thing should be is, if we should be trusting these push notification systems We should be able to host them as well Servers we choose to associate with our devices
What gets me really excited is the idea of messaging in low internet connectivity areas (aeroplanes (to someone else on the plane)) on the subway/underground
The idea of Bluetooth/WiFi direct mesh, with "internet gateway" devices (maybe those people are rewarded in some way)
In this dream of mine, people can communicate, send data, through non ideal internet conditions (maybe one person on an aeroplane has internet, and they are the gateway for others)
There may be some relay servers running on AWS or whatever, but people could also run their own relays (I guess all devices are a relay)
I've tried to get this working myself, using a library called "reticulum" I found in GitHub (good library, but I couldn't get Bluetooth/WiFi mesh working)
So you want to engineer wireless specifications because internet isn’t always everywhere. Just hook into Amazons sidewalk network this is about your only option. It’s basically LoRa
Yeah, afaik, it only goes through TURN servers. The thing with direct Wifi or Bluetooth is that you almost never need it. Most of the time you will be messaging people on different networks. If you want more pure mesh options, check out Jami.