Briar Is in Maintenance Mode

Briar, the privacy-focused messaging app built for tough situations, has posted what reads like a breakup text and a comeback announcement at the same time. The team says the project is still alive, but only in maintenance mode for now — meaning security fixes and bug repairs, not big shiny new features. Behind the scenes, the developers admit they wrestled for years with major headaches like battery drain, spotty background message delivery on Android, missing basics like backups and file sharing, and a clunky contact system. At one point, they even decided to shut it down entirely before supportive users and continued signups pulled them back from the edge.

Naturally, the comments turned into a mini wake. One blunt reaction declared Briar is “basically dead,” arguing messaging apps live or die by one brutal fact: if your friends won’t use them, nothing else matters. Others pushed back by blaming the real villain — phone makers and app stores. One commenter basically screamed, “it’s not Briar, it’s Apple and Google,” saying the big mobile platforms make apps like this painfully hard to keep running in the background. Then came the bigger ideological fight: is this just one app fading out, or proof that tiny open-source tools can’t survive on donations alone? Even the “what now?” crowd showed up fast, tossing out alternatives like Meshtastic and Berty like they were backup contestants on a reality show. The vibe: half funeral, half rally cry, with a side of “we told you mobile platforms ruin everything.”