First draft of 1.2 release announcement

content/news/2019-briar-1.2-released-remote-contacts.md

+---
+aliases:
+- /news/2019-briar-1.2-released-remote-contacts.html
+date: 2019-10-01T00:00:00+02:00
+title: 'Briar 1.2 released, allowing you to add people without meeting them'
+---
+
+### Press Release
+
+##### October 1 2019
+
+The Briar Project released version 1.2 of its Android app today.
+This release allows users to add each other securely without needing to meet in person.
+
+With earlier versions of the app,
+people could already add someone remotely by getting an introduction from a mutual trusted contact.
+However, most people found this inconvenient
+and requested an easier and more direct way of adding contacts.
+The developers hope that Briar will be useful for an even larger set of users now.
+
+The new version provides a special link for each user
+that two users need to exchange (over other channels) in order to add each other.
+
+Since Briar is protecting metadata and contact relationships,
+it does not use the phone's address book to harvest contacts.
+To allow people to add contacts without leaking metadata,
+behind the scenes - the app opens
+a dedicated [Tor Onion Service](https://2019.www.torproject.org/docs/onion-services.html.en).
+The onion service is only used to add this one single contact
+by exchanging cryptographic keys and other information.
+It will be discarded once the contact was added.
+
+As with all other apps, when adding contacts remotely, there is the possibility
+that a [man-in-the-middle attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack)
+compromises the contact relationship.
+Instead of adding the correct contact, the attacker is added thus defeating end-to-end encryption.
+Users at risk of such attacks are advised to continue adding each other in person.
+
+The design and and user testing of this new feature
+was carried out by [Ura](https://www.ura.design).
+Work on this feature was supported by the [Open Technology Fund](https://www.opentech.fund/).
+
+
+### Media
+
+{{< screenshots
+    "12_add_contact_options.png"
+    "12_add_contact_remotely.png"
+    "12_add_contact_remotely_nickname.png"
+    "12_add_contact_pending.png"
+    >}}
+
+### About Briar
+
+Briar is a messaging app designed for activists, journalists,
+and anyone else who needs a safe, easy and robust way to communicate.
+Unlike traditional messaging tools such as email, Twitter or Telegram,
+Briar doesn't rely on a central server -
+messages are synchronized directly between the users' devices.
+If the internet's down,
+Briar can sync via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, keeping the information flowing in a crisis.
+If the internet's up, Briar can sync via the Tor network, protecting users
+and their relationships from surveillance.
+
+{{% funding %}}
+
+{{< contact  >}}
+
+Twitter: [@BriarApp](https://twitter.com/BriarApp)

content/page/about.md

@@ -55,13 +55,7 @@ Group, Tor and free software projects.
 
 #### Funding
 
-Briar has received funding from [Small
-Media](https://smallmedia.org.uk/), the [Open Internet Tools
-Project](https://web.archive.org/web/20160413063937/https://www.openitp.org/),
-[Access](https://accessnow.org/), the [Open Technology
-Fund](https://www.opentech.fund/), the [Prototype
-Fund](https://prototypefund.de/), and
-[Internews](https://www.internews.org/).
+{{% funding %}}
 
 #### Contact
 

layouts/shortcodes/funding.md

+Briar has received funding from [Small Media](https://smallmedia.org.uk/),
+the [Open Internet Tools Project](https://web.archive.org/web/20160413063937/https://www.openitp.org/),
+[Access](https://accessnow.org/),
+the [Open Technology Fund](https://www.opentech.fund/),
+the [Prototype Fund](https://prototypefund.de/),
+and [Internews](https://www.internews.org/).
\ No newline at end of file

layouts/shortcodes/screenshots.html

+<div id="screenshots">
+{{ range $.Params }}
+    <a href="/img/screenshots/{{ . }}"><img src="/img/screenshots/{{ . }}"></a>
+{{ end }}
+</div>