Forget exorbitant roaming charges, overpriced
international data packages, or spotty internet coverage.
FireChat is the perfect travel app, allowing users to send
and receive text messages entirely without data or
internet thanks to something called mesh networking.
Basically, mesh networking allows you to communicate
wirelessly by bouncing your message from one phone
equipped with FireChat (within 210 feet of you) to
another via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth antennas.
If there aren't any connections nearby, messages are
stored until they can be sent. And don't worry:
Messages will be encrypted, so only the intended
recipient will be able to read them. The message then
keeps bouncing from phone to phone until it reaches
said recipient — and to cross oceans, for example, it'll
hop from phone to phone until it reaches one with
internet, then making its way to its final destination like
any other message.
Sure, this can take a few minutes — 10 to 20 across a
dense metro area, according to Skift — but you'll be able
to send texts from abroad without incurring roaming
charges or even from remote or blackout areas that have
little to no coverage, including planes and subways.
Of course, this means that the more people download
the app the better: According to Skift, only about 5
million mobile users worldwide have downloaded the
app, but the app's creators estimate that as long as 5%
of a city's population has it, messages can be delivered in around 10 minutes.
Originally designed for people to get in touch with each
other at crowded events, FireChat became hugely
popular in Iraq last year after the country faced
restrictions on internet use, and it was an integral part
of the 2014 Hong Kong protests and 2015 Ecuadorian
protests.
While you may continue to use Facebook Messenger or
WhatsApp when connected to the internet, what makes
FireChat so great is that it doesn't rely on any carrier
and will work anywhere.
Available on: Android and iOS .
Cost: Free
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