this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025
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The Signal messenger and protocol.

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https://signal.org/

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I keep reading on articles, even those from this year, that Signal has an offline communications ability.

The articles talk about "Signal Offline" as an app. But that seems the same as the main Signal app?

Additionally, is there some functionality in Signal that allows you to connect with nearby users in the event when WiFi and cellular networks are down (like via some sort of a mesh network approach or Bluetooth)?

Edit: Thanks for the information to those who replied.

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[–] LWD@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you're talking about web pages like this, I have no idea whether this was made before or after AI, but it's not true.

Most mesh network apps are pretty straightforward when they're available. The screenshots will resemble what's actually in the app store.

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Okay, thanks.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

https://briarproject.org/ is a project that does online and offline leer to peer messaging

[–] gopal@fedia.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

@ThePowerOfGeek
Not clear which article you are referring to or what you mean by offline communication ability.
By offline communication, if you mean the ability to send messages to people who might be offline when you send the messages, yes you can do that with signal. When the recipient comes online, the message will be delivered to them.
And for the last part, NO.. signal doesn't provide any peer-2-peer networking support. You need a wifi or mobile data network to connect to the signal servers.
#Briar does support peer-2-peer messaging (using bluetooth I believe).