Short range local chat

A few years ago between the Arab Spring and and protests in HK, a lot of cipherpunks realised that governments had no issues turning off the internet, or shutting down specifc sets of cell towers. Furthermore, everyone has smartphone that become smart bricks without being always online. Some individuals set out to change that. A corporation made the proprietary software Firechat. It was a basic chat app with a centralized server, but when there was no internet users could chat over Bluetooth, AND each device would re-broadcast messages it got to every other Bluetooth enabled phone with Firechat around it, and each recipient would do the same. So, while Bluetooth only really has a range of like 20 meters or something, the messages could reach a much greater distance through this method. It didn't create a meshnetwork, but the app worked in a mesh-like manner. Firechat saw a lot of usage in HK when the government shut down cell towers around protest sites. At the time, Cipherpunks made similar apps that were not proprietary and didn't have a central server like Rumble and Gigla. Rumble worked very well and had a modern UI. It would "chat" to the local area and rebroadcast all chats it received over Bluetooth. It also had the ablity to chat over the LAN via whatever wifi router the device is connected to much like the rendezvous protocol. I used it while camping and I liked it. However the dev got a new job that keeps him busy and the app no longer works due to Google changing how Android works internally. Gilga had a much more barebones UI and ran faster because of it. It was smaller. It billed itself as "local twitter over Bluetooth" and did that very well. But the same thing happened to it as what happened to Rumble. So what the heck happened to all this? Whats out there now? I really think this type of thing is something everyone should have on their phone just in case, but it doesn't seem like there are any out there that are active.

>>16075 We just learned if the hard way that preventing such pittiful occasions with the aid of msm works so much better. Which i guess made a lot of those apps unnecessary. Kindly, your g

>>16078 what is msm anon? I am interested in this because my country shut down internet access and cell towers in the past over protests and disturbances and a quick search only shows some kind of chemical.

>>16085 it's mainstream media, and i guess i should prob mention social media as a distinct tool too. the fact that you do get to have protests makes your gov a pretty sloppy one, with all due respect. sorry for not being crystal clear about the implied irony

>>16086 well now I feel like a fool >the fact that you do get to have protests makes your gov a pretty sloppy one the disturbances I mentioned were wide ranging terrorist attacks that shut down living an entire district for nearly a month so yeah they are pretty sloppy in preventing but they are learning to supress dissent pretty fast

I can't speak for the app itself, but there are other things like mobile relays that people can use. The limitation of bluetooth makes these items pretty purpose built and does not make for a good all around communication. There used to be an "off the grid" system that cost around 50 USD but could transmit phone signals over distances up to 5-10km IIRC when there were no signal towers (the same as if someone shut down the mobile internet). I think the idea was that you bluetooth synced your phone to the device, and then it would broadcast and relay GSM/cellular connections between other people with the device, or if around other people, I think it would act as a standalone miniature mobile signal relay.

Bluetooth and WiFi will never really work for this purpose. You need LoRa.

>>16098 Bluetooth *can* be good if each phone is rebroadcasting it. AFAIK, LoRa is proprietary and phones don't have it.

It doesn't matter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker Messages sent in Ukraine, phones being hijacked in Baltimore - they can just brick/hijack/etc your phone and fuarrrk you that way. Doesn't matter what apps you have.

>>16945 Please read the thread first, it was already mentioned in the OP that cell towers are the first things the government can fuarrrk with.

>>16949 These are local devices that hijack nearby devices directly.

What happened to that Bluetooth chat thingsthe 2016 Hong Kong protestors used to great effect?

>>16086 >the fact that you do get to have protests makes your gov a pretty sloppy one, with all due respect. depending on the country and their regime. it'd be pretty difficult to ban protests in my country unless they had a very good reason (probably terrorism... terrorism and cp is a go to for governments all over the world) with some evidence that it's reasonable re: options, okay so it's been like two years now so i don't remember that much from those lectures, but i think my lecturer mentioned that some of that mash technology that american army was developing/using(?) is actually out there (can't remember if he said it was leaked or published) so i guess people could use that? >>16098 there are those community networks often based on wifi that span over a city... i guess that should be enough for a protest for example? obviously it wouldn't be the same as internet connection for the whole country, but for organisation purposes it should be fine, no?

the term you are looking for is MANET, mobile ad-hoc network this was one of the winners at eth new york https://devpost.com/software/ultralight-beam https://github.com/ultralight-beam hopefully they continue fleshing out the spec. i, too, am surprised by the lack of a secure working implementation, seems like fairly low hanging fruit as it would just be a couple of existing technologies strung together

>>16086 >the fact that you do get to have protests makes your gov a pretty sloppy one >>16087 >but they are learning to supress dissent pretty fast Talking about oppression as though it's a good thing is not a good thing to do. What we need are protocols for peer-to-peer communication (and not just for anti-oppression. There is the case of a first party sending data from his machine via the machine of a third party (far away) relaying the message to the machine of another third party, who relayed the message to the machine of the second party (the intended recipient of the data), which was connected locally to the machine of the first party). A feature I take as necessary, to incentivize participation, is the ability to charge money (in whatever currency, whether cryptographic or classical, fiat or backed) for transmission. (On the topic of currency, a system which would make it easy for anyone to make their own currency, and not just fiat currency as most extant cryptocurrencies are, but to allow the currency be backed by something, whether goods or services (but that raises the question of surity))

I'm really surprised all the bluetooth chat things are gone. There were like 3 but then they all dropped off the face of the earth somehow.

>>16098 AirDrop and its cousins would like a word with you

PictoChat for the Nintendo DS was the first thing that came to mind.