You can now stay in touch with nearby phone users,
but without using the cellular service or internet connection. Wondering too
good to be true? But it’s a reality, which has now been rolled out by FireChat,
a new mobile messaging application.
Only after two weeks of its release, FireChat has
managed to pin it among users searching for more secured and affordable
communication options. This free messaging app uses no magic, but the wireless
mesh networking technology, which someday will help plethora of devices to get
linked like a chain.
This amazing technology someday in future might tie
thousands of devices with built-in radios and will help in staying online, but
without paying anything. Also, disaster zones or remote areas will continue
having online communications, even without access to cellular signals and
Wi-Fi. Another feature is that conversations in these off-the grid networks
will not be hack-able by cyber attackers and spies and will not be closed by
governments trying to suppress free speech.
The sole aim of this is to create a network built by
the people for the people. FireChat could do an even better job on Android,
seeing the demographic differences that remain between the Android user base
and the iPhone users. Meanwhile, the app has already been installed on a
million iOS devices.
Smartphones running on Android are cheaper and thus
preferred by users in less-affluent places where access to the internet is
expensive. Google is among the biggest internet companies intrigued with the
potential of mesh networking to add more to the online world population.
The reach of FireChat as for now is limited. Users
of iPhone with this app have been able to send photos and text only to users
within 30 to 100 feet range. In the
meantime, Open Garden is planning to upgrade this FireChat app for iPhone to
help it connect to a chain of devices and to add to its reach.
For now, the iPhones and Android
phones with the FireChat app will not be able to involve in this off the grid
communication. However, the mesh networking will start working on phones
running on different types of operating systems, says Open Garden.
Practically, FireChat resembles the
spreadsheet and word processing programs which were released by Microsoft long
back to help in broadening the appeal to its Windows line of operating systems
on personal computers.
Meanwhile, the development of
FireChat saw acceleration due to the growing popularity of other messaging apps
like WhatsApp and Snapchat which helped smartphone users to send pictures and
text to friends and family, without requiring to pay the smartphone carriers.
Another feature of FireChat is that
anything shared via this is not saved. The content gets evaporated, once the
app is closed. This helps in adding to the anonymity of users, which is gaining
ample popularity, especially among the youth.
The number of people using FireChat
is still very limited, which means finding someone nearby using the same
service is difficult. To lure more users, FireChat offers an option as
‘everyone’, which helps in adding 80 random users in the same country and enter
a digital chat room, which will however raise the need of a cellular or Wi-Fi
connection.
The
popularity of FireChat is still growing and more and more people will start
using the service once the range gets improved and when the service gets
initiated in more places.
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