Communication App Works without a Cellular Network

technologyreview.com

13 points·Libertatea··6 comments

I think the fundamental issue with mesh tech like this is that it requires quite a high uptake for it to be effective. I can see it being useful in an office environment, where IT policy can dictate what apps people use on their work mobile devices, but I can't really see this catching on with the not so technically literate average Joe. It's an amazing idea and I can think of a lot of really useful applications for it (Disaster recovery springs to mind, earthquakes etc), but I just don't think that people will jump on the bandwagon of Mesh Networking.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if Facebook were to use this technology in their mobile app. I'd imagine that you'd be as close to saturation as your going to get.

This isn't an app for causal use. It's an app specifically for places where the network is going down. Like you said, disasters, or...

- Cruise Ships (notoriously a problem keeping up with your kids)

- Stadiums

- Group camping - etc

Or any place where word can spread, "hey, get this app, it provides what we need."

I've been dying for something like this and considered developing it myself, but it's such a hard problem to do well.

Yeap. Case in point: http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/16/tech/mobile/tomorrow-transform...

Mesh networks are a great idea in principle, but the range would need to be extended to a few hundred meters for it to be really useful.

Is this new? FireChat does exactly this - chat over an ad-hoc mesh network - and that came out months ago, maybe even a year ago.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com