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One of the first uses of UnifiedPush was to self-host the whole Matrix messaging stack. In fact, we have already had someone in the UnifiedPush chat set this up on their ship [1]. Matrix + UnifiedPush would be perfect for a disconnected situation on ships (or Mars colonies :)

[1] https://matrix.to/#/!vwmBiTqilorqNCbGab:matrix.org/$hJpXxhVR...

I'm a huge fan of Matrix and the idea of UnifiedPush, but I don't quite grok what this means (and I'm reluctant to fire up my Matrix client because I'm avoiding some things). Is there any chance you can elaborate on what "self-host the whole Matrix stack" means?

I read the thread just now: ~" Self hosted matrix + UP. Nothing special there. Only issue is cert expiration for setups without connections that result in expired certs for https. That requires some work. "~

ntfy [1] would work for you entirely in the LAN, if you self-host the server and the phones are connected to the same Wifi. It'll only work for Android phones though, since iOS forces APNS for push notifications.

ntfy is also a distributor for UnifiedPush, so you're not entirely off topic here. Hehe.

Disclaimer: I am the maintainer of ntfy.

[1] https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy

Interesting thanks. Have you looked into Apple's Local Push Connectivity API? It's specifically designed for VoIP calls and text messages, but perhaps the latter is enough. Not sure if it requires you to bake in any keys at compile time, or if the iOS app could allow the end-user to configure the push server.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/l...

I have been using NTFY for months, love it!

In addition to what the others wrote (a local Matrix server and UnifiedPush provider such as ntfy would work fine), I suggest you look into p2p messaging systems such as Briar. I think Tox is also p2p?

Lastly, Secure Scuttlebutt was actually designed on a boat for sporadic internet connection and local connections, as well as sneakernet, so that would work too, but I don't think it's designed for IM. Perfect for blogs or facebook-like stuff though.

Have a member of the crew go onshore up to a Wi-Fi AP, it will act as an async data transfer for everyone. You can also exhange data with other travellers, including passing boats.

Interestingly, there are a few Matrix p2p experiments. I wish apple opened their Airdrop feature as that would make proximity networking easier, though that should be achievable with Wi-Fi NAN+P2P.

Airdrop (AWDL) is open, within iOS and macOS at least, and P2P Matrix uses it :)

Ah, thanks for the correct term. I am not sure the specification is open enough for other operating systems to support it, which is what I meant.

Among my acquaintances, I can count Apple users on a single hand (<1% of the people I know), which severly limits the usefulness of the network.

There's OWL [1] which looks promising on Linux. I hope Android devices can get something soon. I'm still a bit confused by how Linux drives Wi-Fi radio, and what is and isn't implementable in software: could older Android devices gain support for NAN and OWL through a software update? What about old computers with old Wi-Fi cards?

I first got aware of Wi-Fi NAN by chatting with neilalexander on #yggdrasil:matrix.org :)

It looks promising for advertising capabilities to nearby hosts, allowing to negotiate p2p connections.

[1]: https://owlink.org/

You can self host a Gotify server (single file executable, web interface), install the app, set it to connect to the server on the local network. Sending a message is as easy as a curl to the server. It will show up in the apps.

https://gotify.net/

https://github.com/gotify/android

The problem is that there is no iOS app. You could use the browser there but maybe ntfy would be a better fit (Android + iOS.)

ntfy is a Gotify alternative. It has an iOS app, but it still relies on Apple's push service, as it cannot open a persistent backgroung connection due to iOS restrictions.

> It would be nice to have a solution for delivering pushes internally, and also hold open a best-effort connection to a remote server that allows some notifications through.

... email?

I've been using NNTP as a Gossip-type protocol for eventually-consistent pub/sub telemetry, monitoring, and notifications between partially-connected nodes in an unstable mesh since about 1995.