FireChat : Chat Even Without A Network Coverage

Released by Open Garden, a start-up with just 10 employees, aims at facilitating a secured and affordable means of communicating. 

Enables users to stay in touch even when there is no internet connection or cellular service in the area.

This app hit the ios market this week and has been attracting quite a bit of attention as it uses the Multipeer Connectivity Framework, an ios feature unavailable until version 7. It establishes a Bluetooth or WiFi peer to peer connection and allows users to chat even without an internet connection.

Now comes the highlight, it allows users far from WiFi and Bluetooth range of each other to chat with each other - connected with a chain of peer to peer users, provided enough users are on FireChat. This feature is ' Wireless Mesh Networking', and has been mainstreamed in ios7.

It’s called wireless mesh networking. And Apple has mainstreamed it in iOS 7. It’s going to change everything. Here’s why.
Read more at http://www.cultofmac.com/271225/appreciated-ios-7-feature-will-change-world/#REvIo1mCQfvQzMUu.99

It’s called wireless mesh networking. And Apple has mainstreamed it in iOS 7. It’s going to change everything. Here’s why.
Read more at http://www.cultofmac.com/271225/appreciated-ios-7-feature-will-change-world/#REvIo1mCQfvQzMUu.99

Open Garden has also built into FireChat the multi-hop connection technology its Android app uses to link long chains of devices together.

Very easy to set up. Everybody just use FireChat, poof !! connectivity for everyone.

It's major use has been identified in disaster affected areas where there may be no established communication links to relief and support. This would provide connectivity even in absence of required links.

Moreover, it can be used anonymously, indicating high level of security. Nearly impossible to determine who the users are. It can't be hacked over the internet, if no internet connectivity is being used.
FireChat's reach so far is limited. When connecting off the grid, iPhone app users have only been able to send text and photos to other FireChat users within a range of 30 to 100 feet.
Google has also been planning to implement mesh networking in context of wearable devices.

Once mesh networking is available for phones running on different softwares, Android and Apple users would be able to communicate with each other, but currently it's only for ios7.

No internet connection, no network coverage: and you're still chatting!! how cool is that.

Have a look for yourselves, at how this app really works :-