Introducing Rumuki+, Online mode

Rumuki is an app that facilitates the safe-keeping of videos between two different devices, dubbed "peer-to-peer digital rights management".

Update: the features described in this post have been bundled into the core app, you no longer need a Rumuki+ subscription in order to take advantage of Online mode and video fast forwarding.

Since the app launched in February, we’ve consistently received feedback along the lines of “I want to add people who aren’t right next to me” or “Allow us to connect without any physical limitations”. Many have also downloaded Rumuki with the preconception that this is already possible - and rightfully so!

To address this, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to bring you a little something called Rumuki+. And *drumroll* I’m incredibly excited to announce its official launch today!

Here’s what Rumuki+ gets you:

• Online mode: synchronize videos remotely with any previously added device.
• Fast forward: tap the screen during playback to skip to the best part!

As the name suggests, Rumuki+ is a paid feature. Perhaps for some this comes as a positive signal - the adage ‘if you’re not paying for it, then you are the product” can be quite frightening when applied to something like Rumuki :)

Here’s how it’s priced - USD5.99 for 6 months, pay as you go.

The original feature set where videos can only be synced between two devices that are next to each other is now called Nearby mode. In contrast, Online mode lets you record videos and sync them through our servers with anyone on your device list. Just like in Nearby mode, videos are not sent with any playback grants and can’t be played by either device until a playback grant is sent.

The flow is illustrated by the storyboard below:

To clear up any uncertainty - only the device that creates the video is required to purchase Rumuki+.

So how does this all work under the hood? For starters, the following claim has been updated:

- Your videos are never sent across the internet
+ In nearby mode your videos are never sent across the internet

Yes - Online mode does mean that your encrypted videos will traverse the internet. Fear not! Rumuki has always been designed with the assumption of an insecure channel. At a high level, the only difference between Online mode and Nearby mode is the transport used to deliver things. The key exchange (QR code scanning step) remains out-of-band. Your videos are perpetually encrypted both in-transit and at-rest with a secret made up of two parts locked away separately on each device.

To dig deeper you can check out the changes that were made to rumuki-server, and the updated whitepaper. For comparison, you can also view the previous version of the whitepaper. Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use have also been updated in order to accomodate the expanded scope of Online mode, I highly recommend that you read these through if you are a Rumuki user. In the spirit of transparency - here’s a diff of the changes that were made.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading - if you have any comments or feedback please let us know at support@rumuki.com, or alternatively you can send us an anonymous message from within the Rumuki app.