Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

I'm regularly frustrated by modern phone's complete inabilities to allow any communication when outside of mobile network or Wi-Fi coverage, not even within the two large walled gardens.

It would be so easy for Apple to extend iMessage to work peer-to-peer, at least between people that have already messaged each other before and while both screens are on. That's literally how AirDrop works, and having to send a "Notes" text back and forth is just silly.

As much as people want to be "leet" and run 3rd party software, it's inherently insecure and that's why Apple shuts it down.

There was a version of Apple at a point in time where I agree with your rhetoric. They have completely lost credibility to uphold that position IMO.

Apple definitely does not spend billions guaranteeing "quality". To prove my point, where does Apple even define what they consider "quality"? How can you quantify such an aubjecrive and ambiguous term?

They spend billions paying out the 70% they don't pocket.

Heck, They don't even adhere to their own HIG nor let us revert to past (objectively higher quality) versions of iOS.

You don't need to because you compile it from source yourself

Sure you can: build it and check the hash. If the maintainer prepared for such a check ahead of time it can be as simple as:

    wget https://github.com/owner/foo-project/releases/download/.../foo
    sha256sum foo                       # make note of this 
    nix build github:owner/foo-project
    sha256sum result/bin/foo            # it should match this

Of course there's still the should-you-trust-this-code part of the problem, but at least bad guys in that case must operate in public view, which is--once again--a stronger deterrent to shenanigans than anything that happens behind closed doors at Apple.

There's no cell service or wifi at my neighborhood movie theater. If I could send her a message when she's up, I could tell my wife to bring me back a box of Sno-caps.

IMO ultimate solution is for Apple to curate some sort open source store where they vet the source and builds "in public".

But if it happens we'll have to figure out how to write partition tolerant apps, which I think would be a lot of fun. It would also make "going viral" so much more apt, as you might catch the content from people you got physically close to.

It’s not like people really have options to choose when it comes to choosing a smartphone.

It’s easy to have a growing share price when you are a duopoly. You don’t have to serve your users.

I'm not saying Apple doesn't profit from it, but they're not just pocketing every penny.

As for "quality", they mostly check that your app isn't using unauthorized APIs, or doing other scetchy stuff, like leeching all of your data. They couldn't care less if your app is bad, thats' between you and your potential users.

Does it work ? apparently so. Apple catches around 2 million apps every year that are rejected for those reasons. Android has about the same amount of apps, but there they're caught by Kaspersky (and others) after they're published.

That doesn't mean that malware isn't making its way through the App Store review, the damage will be somewhat limited if it can't use private APIs.

I should add that here in the EU, where we’ve had 3rd party app stores for over a year, nobody uses them. The absolutely biggest one, Epic Games, has attracted about 29 million users across both iOS and Android, out of a population of 450 million.

Rofl. And citation needed.

If you're hiking in the remote area youre much better off with LoRaWAN or amateur radio transceivers anyway.

I'm a bit more concerned that it is a niche application. Not having Mac myself, can't compile it without going through the hassle of getting the environment running.

It would be better if the application was built is something a bit more cross-platform, as I find the idea really good. Not sure if the "mesh network" part would work though, as you need a really high enrolled-device density in order for it to work further than just an office (it's BT after all). I guess the "Fork" button is there for a reason, or maybe a new repo with some other stack.

you can't get a build hash from a downloaded app to then compare to a source build.

That's a runtime feature, it has nothing to do with the App Store.

I also own a Linux phone, but I don't use it. Maybe one day someone will create one that's actually usable...

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/multipeerconnectiv...

I could answer "iOS may be shitty but it doesn't phone home every touch and your health data stays local". I really don't want to argue abour iOs vs Android. I used both. They are both shit made to lock their users in an ecosystem that solely benefits Google or Apple. I really couldnt care more about arguing which is worse, I would just want the market to allow something better than both for me, the user.