Out of the box, it can be useful depending on the infrastructure of your area. I live in the Seattle area and we have a strong Meshtastic network here. I can occasionally even can see ACKs / testing from Vancouver CA. I own a node that sits at home all day and there's always messages being received in the public LongFast channels. The protocol makes use of all nodes for any type of messaging, so private channels also benefit.

As for files, not possible out of the box for most people, but tools like ATAK-Civ can make use of 'data packages' and send them over radio. I've used it to successfully send memes and map files in testing.

LoRa is optimised for low power usage and range. Not for moving 1TB 4k videos over the air.

So if you want to move your home videos from one place to another, or if you want to have a wireless security camera with 1080p streamed video, it's the wrong choice.

But if you want to have a battery powered motion detector + environment sensor in an off grid shed 1km that way, LoRa is perfect for that.

For example: I have a Meshtastic device in my car with a small 18650 battery + plugged in to the car's USB that charges it when it's turned on. It reports the car's location and internal temperature to a Meshtastic channel. It also works as a router so if I'm inside a store with my T1000-E, it can't reach the local relay, BUT it can reach my car, which in turn can reach the relay, which again is in range of my home node - which is connected to Home Assistant.

Yes, I could just send an IM, but where's the fun in that? =)

It's not ideal for file transfer due to low speeds. But it's great for things like having a bunch of battery powered sensors in a field somewhere that report some telemetry every hour. Or in the meshtastic case, sharing your location and short text messages in areas without cell service.

"It depends". Out-of-the-box Meshtastic configurations are tailored more for relatively infrequent and short plaintext messages. You can look at nominal data rates here: https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/radio-settings/#data-ra...

It is intentionally designed for longer range, with lower datarates, with lower power consumption. It's in the name. "LOng RAnge".

Not to be too annoying but "Radio like LoRa" reads to me as "microwave" which includes "WiFi" which is plausibly something you use for file transfer all the time. So some more clarification would be helpful.

A big use for LoRa is sensor telemetry. Anything with low data speeds and are impractical to cover with a wired or Wi-Fi connections. Perfect for Ag and remote monitoring. Definitely not just a toy.

peopple have done loop to loop picture or video transfers so far, but usually higher bandwith is better, Lora supports 2.4ghz so probably do able in that range

There’s a lot of space between “file transfer” and “toy”.

If power goes out, or the internet, or both, I can still contact my entire family spread all around my city, because I gave them all a node to set up in their attic / on their roof. Additionally, they all got a t-deck charged and ready to go.

When shit hits the fan, at least we can find each other.