Indexed

Bru

Android
Android
Indexed

Bru is a Bidirectional Remote Uplink for your Android Phone.

It links your phone to a client in your browser over a direct, end-to-end-encrypted connection, so you can deal with your phone without picking it up. There is no account to create, no server holding your messages.

FEATURES

  • Read and send SMS. Handle conversations with a real keyboard instead of reaching for your phone.
  • Share a clipboard. Send text and images in either direction. No more retyping addresses or emailing yourself long links.
  • Send and receive files both ways.
  • 100% self hostable.
  • Hackable, build your own client!

HOW IT WORKS

Install the app, and visit https://bru.works.

Pairing is a one-time QR code scan. After that your phone and your client find each other directly using iroh, which establishes an authenticated, end-to-end-encrypted connection between the two devices.

Your messages are never uploaded anywhere. There is no Bru account, no Bru server storing your data, and no analytics or tracking of any kind.

ABOUT THE PERMISSIONS

Bru asks for the following permissions

  • SMS (read and send). The core feature. Messages are read from the phone's own SMS store and relayed only to the client you paired with.
  • Contacts. Used solely to show names instead of bare phone numbers. Contact data is never sent anywhere else.
  • Camera. Used to scan the pairing QR code. Can be done with a pairing code instead.

PHILOSOPHY

  • Bru is free software, both as in beer and as in speech.
  • The app contains no proprietary libraries, advertising, or trackers.
  • The whole stack can be self-hosted.
  • Everything is open, you can write your own client.