Talken

Talken is a peer-to-peer, offline-first messaging system. It is designed to work without any central server. It can work inside a local WiFi network, a personal hotspot, or over Bluetooth. The goal is to make devices communicate directly with each other and, when necessary, relay messages through other devices nearby.

This is not a traditional chat app with a server. Talken is a core library that client apps (mobile, desktop, CLI) can embed. The clients will provide the user interface and storage, while Talken focuses on:

• Peer discovery
• Peer-to-peer message delivery
• Routing through other peers (multi-hop)
• Key generation and basic encryption
• Offline-first communication

Important: At this stage, Talken is in early development. Only documentation, design notes and planning are available. The actual core implementation is coming step by step.

Why Talken?

Talken is designed for situations where there is no internet or no reliable connection:

• Camping, events, isolated environments
• Places with network shutdowns
• Private local networks

In the future, Talken may also work over the internet, but for now the focus is offline-only.

How it works (concept)

• Each device runs Talken.
• Each device generates a public/private key pair that identifies it.
• Devices discover each other on the local network (LAN or hotspot).
• If two devices are in range, they can exchange messages directly.
• If they are not in range, the message can hop through other devices until it reaches the destination.

Multi-hop example

A ---- B ---- D ---- C

If A wants to send a message to C:

1. A checks its list of neighbors. A only knows B.
2. A asks B if it knows C.
3. B knows D, and D knows C. So the message is sent step by step:

A -> B -> D -> C

Each peer forwards the message to the next peer it knows.

If the recipient is offline, a peer can store the message temporarily and deliver it later (store-and-forward).

flow

[ A ]  --->  [ B ]  --->  [ D ]  --->  [ C ]
   \______________________________________/
            multi-hop relay

Key ideas

• There is no central server.
• The network is formed by devices themselves.
• Routing is dynamic. Every device keeps a list of nearby peers and updates it over time.
• When the path is not direct, messages are sent through intermediate peers.

Status

Right now, Talken is in the planning and design stage. The code is not ready yet. The project structure, issues and drafts are being organized here:

https://github.com/users/m-mdy-m/projects/5

Contribution

You can open issues for:

• Missing features
• Design suggestions
• Questions about the architecture

Pull requests are welcome once the core structure is ready.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.