Relaying messages in Briar app
A question often asked about using Briar is, “How do messages get relayed through the mesh if you're not directly connected to a recipient?”. Ie. when you don't have internet connectivity, which is the key use-case for Briar.
Due to privacy concerns, messages are not automagically relayed through every node in Briar. Relaying only happens when certain conditions are met, listed here in the FAQ.
The key takeaway from these conditions is that messages are only relayed through known contacts that are subscribed to the same group/forum/blog, AND that contact is the one that you introduced/introduced you to the group/forum/blog. Clarification from Briar Project – not only the one contact that first introduced, but additional introductions can be made to create additional relay paths
For forums and blogs, anyone can introduce each other to enable relay links. But for groups, only the admin can invite others. Based on the requirements logic, this means that private groups will not relay messages among its members; all messages must come directly from the admin.
Hopefully, the relaying logic will be updated in the future to support private groups as well.
For now, if you want to fully make use of the social graph and distant relaying with Briar, public messages via the forum/blog features seems the way to go.
Visit the Briar Project at https://briarproject.org/