# Briar 50 Hacker News commenters recommended Briar and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free, open-source encrypted messenger that works without internet via Bluetooth or local Wi-Fi, valued for censorship resistance. Main caveat: Android only, with short range and slow delivery. ## Why people recommend it - Works offline over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (5 comments): "Briar has the advantage of being usable with bluetooth and internet so it makes it much more useful." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46676228)) "Briar was unique in its ability to discover peers over local networks and Bluetooth" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48924714)) "the only one that worked at all without having a router around was Briar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46642976)) - Decentralized, hard to censor (4 comments): "And it means every person has a complete copy, so it's nearly impossible to find all copies to censor it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46644054)) "Both Session and Briar are decentralized technologies where you would never be able to approach a company" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46789489)) "Briar is/was slightly different though, being P2P and E2E encrypted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921238)) - Respected encrypted messenger (3 comments): "So it is easy to avoid making the sort of identity errors commonly made by other schemes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46645907)) "I love Briar and so tremendously excited to be reading this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46640043)) "Briar and Session are the better encrypted messengers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787002)) - Maintained, still gets security updates (2 comments): "Still receives, and for the foreseeable future will receive, security updates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48928040)) "good projects like Briar have been doing this for over 10 years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49043098)) ## What people warn about - Short Bluetooth range limits use (4 comments): "Mesh networks like Briar or Bridgefy work peer-to-peer over Bluetooth but have tiny range." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46355714)) "It's trivially jammable, as evidenced by the network not working at popular events such as Defcon with default firmware settings." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46642289)) "Bluetooth's range is far too limited for this to be useful or to make a workable mesh." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46644630)) - Android only, excludes iPhone users (2 comments): "Briar only works on Android which is going to exclude a lot of iPhone users." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46786092)) "I agree that Briar is better, but unfortunately, it can't run on iPhones." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790443)) - Metadata still leaks (3 comments): "Briar might help but Briar still leaks some metadata" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46544915)) "Briar exposes your Bluetooth MAC, and there's a bunch of nasty Bluetooth vulns waiting to be exploited." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787398)) "briar leaks some metadata from what I've heard (unconfirmed)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46548099)) - Not realtime, slow message delivery (2 comments): "Briar is an option in such cases but its not realtime." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46615851)) "It didn't work at all. Messages arrived hours later, when they arrived." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46098627)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Signal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/signal.md): 486 recommend - [Bitchat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitchat.md): 56 recommend - [Element](https://hackerapproved.com/p/element.md): 50 recommend - [Delta Chat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delta-chat.md): 48 recommend - [SimpleX Chat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/simplex.md): 45 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Briar", https://hackerapproved.com/p/briar/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).