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Comment by 627467

4 years ago

So... Why does Alice and Bob need to be online to be able to communicate? Can't Alice place a message in a outbox while waiting for Bob to be online?

Also, couldn't we avoid having a server for group chat based on same idea (cache messages in outbox until other parties come online?)

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627467

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cristoperb  4 years ago

The outbox has to exist somewhere. Instead of a central server like the group chat you could use some sort of distributed storage... but then some node(s) need to be online at all times to deliver asynchronous messages.

  • xwolfi  4 years ago

    If you care abt privacy you could just wait till someone is online to send the outbox content.

    You dont need asynchronous messages to be stored centrally, but you d need both to be online at the same time at some point.

    That s a feature I never saw in a chat app, they always have a central crap keeping messages defeating any kind of serverless claim.

    • zaarn  4 years ago

      What if I have a friend who, due to timezones, is never online when I am. Or very rarely. Seems a bit ignorant of the wider needs of an internet community to not allow people to talk if they don't share enough of a timezone.

  • 627467  4 years ago

    I supposed I'm (and you seem to be) implying that in the scenario of a group made up of A, B and C, if A and C are online when A sends a message (and then A goes offline) then B can receive A's message forwarded by C. We wouldn't need a server in this case, would we?