I'm thrilled to announce that we just released our...

# compose-desktop

[Sebastian Kürten]

I'm thrilled to announce that we just released our first beta version of a peer2peer chat application we're building using compose for desktop. More details in the thread 👇

[Sebastian Kürten]

It's a client for the briar messenger that only had an Android client so far

[Sebastian Kürten]

https://desktop.briarproject.org/

[Sebastian Kürten]

It involves some native code (tor and obfs4proxy) that's why it's Linux-only at the moment. We have already experimented with Windows and macOS but still need to work a little on that to get it in a releasable state.

[Sebastian Kürten]

it's also got some traction on HN today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30023169

[Big Chungus]

I've been daydreaming about building something like this for years now. Lucky find!

[Sebastian Kürten]

What's very nice about this project is that we "only" need to implement the UI. We have a very solid core written in Java that's been in production for years that we can build on.

[Big Chungus]

Do you have any articles going a bit more in-depth into the architecture and connectivity? I'd be very much interested to know more.

[Sebastian Kürten]

I can recommend this overview https://briarproject.org/how-it-works/ , the FAQs https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar/-/wikis/FAQ and also the videos at the bottom of the press page https://briarproject.org/press/

[Sebastian Kürten]

message has been deleted

[Sebastian Kürten]

almost forgot to post a screenshot

[Dominaezzz]

Oooh, does it work with matrix?

[Sebastian Kürten]

no, actually it got its own protocol called bramble that works over tor when used over the internet and also via wifi and bluetooth locally

[Dominaezzz]

Oh cool

[David W]

immediately thought: there's a lot of mismatched padding and awkward spacing in that screenshot, might be worth having a professional designer do a pass over the UI if that's something you think your userbase will care about

[David W]

exciting to see a new CfD application!

[Sebastian Kürten]

I think you're right @David W Fortunately we'll get a few professional designers to help us with that soon. Managed to get an UX audit grant from OTF for that

[Glen]

Finally! Briar for desktop! I actually thought about building this 2 months ago, but since I am not skilled enough, I abandoned it. Thanks very much!

[Sebastian Kürten]

Nice, if you want to get involved this is of course all free software and we're always looking for people you want to contribute: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar-desktop