this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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Privacy

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Peer to Peer Messaging App (lemmy.nz)
submitted 2 months ago by GradleSurvivor@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.world
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I have been working on an Android App quite a while now, starting from a simple idea.

A messenger where messages travel directly between phones with no servers in between. Using direct WebRTC encrypted connections (SRTP/DTLS), there are no servers that stores, reads, or relays content. Group chats use a gossip protocol where members relay to other members.

The only infrastructure the app touches is a signalling relay to set up the connection (no message content), a push notification to wake up a sleeping phone (also no content), and a TURN relay for restricted networks (encrypted packets only).

I wrote a detailed white paper explaining the full architecture: https://www.mindtheclub.com/white-paper.html

The app is in Open Testing on Google Play (1,000 tester cap): https://www.mindtheclub.com/beta-signup.html

I’m interested in this community's perspective on whether the architecture holds up.

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[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

The core idea behind the “server-free” design is to keep users’ messages from ever touching the cloud

"but why" meme, with the the text "but why?" over an image of Ryan Reynolds in medical scrubs in the film Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle

given that the messages are encrypted, what is the advantage that you perceive in using "the cloud" (servers) only for signaling rather than transmitting the actual ciphertext through them? Wouldn't your "cloud" servers see "just the metadata" either way?

It saves some costs for you, but it comes at the cost of requiring users to be online at the same time to exchange messages... is there some other advantage that you see?

a server-side check on the Play purchase token

ah, so it will be the kind of "free open source software" which can only be used via Google Play 🙄

Separate forks aren’t interoperable

that's another thing you should inform potential users of explicitly, if you want to be honest.