Is it safe ? Does it do everything it says it do ? If so how is it popular yet ? Like does it have any catches or something ?https://f-droid.org/packages/org.briarproject.briar.android/
I've been using it for comms with some friends and family when we're out of conventional network range. It works great, the pairing process is a bit of a barrier for securitu-muggles, but it works perfectly.
My only annoyance is that I can't run the mailbox program on a regular Linux/docker server.
AFAIK it's only available as an android application. But I haven't looked into compiling it locally or anything. It might he possible.
https://www.messenger-matrix.de/messenger-matrix-en.html
^^ Good comparison with other IMs.
I wish I could, but desktop application is limited in functionality and I don't know how to make the mobile app function properly (Waydroid doesn't allow bluetooth use). I don't have a mobile device I can make as private as my desktop, so I would not want to have my chats there.
Briar was nice for chatting when you only have Bluetooth connectivity. Messaging otherwise is subpar