Briar

Briar is a messaging app from the Briar Project, whose code is copyrighted by Sublime Software Ltd. The README says who it is for: “activists, journalists, and anyone else who needs a safe, easy and robust way to communicate.” It works unlike other messengers: “Briar doesn’t rely on a central server - messages are synchronized directly between the users’ devices.” If the internet is down, it syncs over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi; if it’s up, it connects through Tor. Version 1.5.23 came out on 27 October 2026.

What it does

• Private messages with pictures, and messages that delete themselves after a set time.
• Private groups, forums and blogs shared between your contacts, and RSS feeds fetched through Tor.
• Introductions: you can introduce two of your contacts so they can add each other without meeting.
• Adding contacts by scanning each other’s QR code in person, or by exchanging links at a distance.
• No calls: there are no voice or video calls, and the app doesn’t ask for the microphone.

How messages travel

There is no central Briar server that stores or passes on your messages; over the internet, the connection runs through the Tor network’s relays. From the 1.5.23 code and the project’s documentation:

• Tor is on by default, including over mobile data. The project’s FAQ: “All of the IP addresses that Briar connects to are Tor relays.” With the automatic setting, Briar turns on bridges in countries where Tor is often blocked: Belarus, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iran, Myanmar, Russia and Turkmenistan, judged from your mobile network, SIM card or system language. You can choose bridges, no bridges or no internet at all in the settings.
• The same Wi-Fi network: on by default, so two phones on one network sync without the internet.
• Bluetooth: off until you use one of the features that need it, such as adding a contact who is next to you.
• USB stick or SD card: as a last resort, Briar writes the waiting messages, encrypted, to a file your contact imports.

Because messages go straight from phone to phone, both of you have to be online at the same time. The optional Briar Mailbox, a separate app for a spare phone, stores messages for you until you come online.

What else goes online

Crash reports and feedback are sent only when you tap send, encrypted and through Tor to the developers’ onion address. There is no update check, analytics or advertising in the release, and our scan found no trackers. RSS feeds you subscribe to are fetched every 30 minutes, also through Tor.

The permissions it asks for

Twenty-three, most of them for its offline connections: Bluetooth and nearby devices for syncing and adding contacts, Wi-Fi state and nearby Wi-Fi devices for sharing the app over a hotspot, and the camera for scanning a contact’s QR code. Location is listed only for Android 6 to 12, where Android requires it for finding Bluetooth devices; the FAQ says Briar “doesn’t store, track or share your location in any way other than discovering Bluetooth devices.” It also asks to run in the background without battery restrictions, so messages keep arriving. Briar blocks screenshots of itself, so that Android’s recent-apps view doesn’t keep images of your chats.

About this file

• This is the developer’s own build of version 1.5.23, signed by the Briar Project. F-Droid builds Briar from source, checks that the result matches, and ships the developer-signed file; it is byte for byte the APK on briarproject.org. Briar’s own F-Droid repository has the same file, so all three update one another. The only functional change from 1.5.22 checks an attachment’s conversation, type and sender before deleting it, preventing a malformed attachment reference from deleting another stored message.
• Google Play has the same package name; we can’t check the key Play uses, so we can’t say whether the Play version will install over this one. Briar isn’t on GitHub Releases or IzzyOnDroid.
• The 50.7 MB file runs on Android 5.0 and later, on ARM and x86, 32- and 64-bit; much of the size is Tor and its bridge software, included once for each of the four processor types. Our scan found no trackers.
• Briar is licensed under the GPL-3.0 or later. The app blocks screenshots, so the images on this page are promotional pictures from briarproject.org, whose content is licensed under CC BY 4.0, © Sublime Software Ltd; the current version may look different.

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017); armeabi-v7a (32-bit ARM, older and budget phones); x86 (32-bit Intel, emulators); x86_64 (64-bit Intel, emulators and Chromebooks).

Versions currently kept in the F-Droid repository. We host and check only the newest one. Full changelog.