CUPERTINO, Kalifornia (PNN) - October 1, 2014 - FireChat is a chatting app. After registering with a name - no email address or other personal identifiers required - you’re dropped into a fast-moving chatroom of “Everyone” using it in your country. The interesting aspect, however, is the “Nearby” option. Here, the app uses Apple’s Multipeer Connectivity framework, essentially a peer-to-peer feature that lets you share messages (and soon photos) with other app users nearby, regardless of whether you have an actual Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
This means you’re able to send and receive messages even when you don’t have a data connection. FireChat accomplishes this magic by allowing each device to connect directly to others nearby using Bluetooth, peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, or traditional Wi-Fi networks. Because you’re connecting directly with other users, you don’t actually need to be connected over Wi-Fi or a cellular network.
Basically, your phone goes through separate discover and session phases. In the former, the app browses for other users nearby while simultaneously broadcasting to peers that it is available to connect. This allows you to be invited into a “session” with multiple users all daisy-chained together. Once a session invitation is accepted, you can directly communicate with those other users independent of a cellular signal or Wi-Fi access. This creates what’s known as a wireless mesh network.
In a world in which people are worried about a crackdown on Internet access itself by desperate, authoritarian governments, the idea of mesh-nets is one of the more interesting solutions to come along.
Those in countries limiting their users’ access to the Internet or social media could also spread their message without fear of recourse. There is no way to tie an individual to his or her device other than with a username, which you can change at will. Messages also get deleted as soon as you close the app: anonymous and ephemeral. The only hitch is in Nearby mode you don’t have any choice over who receives your messages - they go out to anyone within range.
It appears that FireChat is being utilized heavily in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters are using it to communicate amidst fears of network shutdowns.
It’s also been used by Iraqis and Taiwanese students during their anti-Beijing Sunflower Movement.
Aside from not being reliant on the Internet (which some governments restrict), it is more clandestine and less traceable.
The advances happening in technology are simply incredible.
