A second lock only phones hold
Each room has a key that stays on members' phones and never goes on a radio. If someone finds or borrows a radio, they still cannot read your messages.
Android and iPhone app for Meshtastic radios
Off the grid.
Still together.
Firepit is a private group chat and live map that works over small radios. Talk with your group and see where everyone is, even where phones have no signal. No internet, no accounts, no servers.
You need a radio for this.A phone alone cannot do it. Off the grid, each person needs a Meshtastic-compatible LoRa radio, paired with their phone.
Now in initial field tests. Release when the main tests pass.
01What is Firepit
Group chat and a live map, carried by radio.
Each person carries a small Meshtastic radio, connected to their phone by Bluetooth. The radios pass messages to each other over kilometres of forest, mountain or festival field. Firepit makes this easy for everyone: join a room by scanning a code, chat with your group, and see everyone on a map.
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No signal needed
The radios reach for kilometres and pass messages on for each other. No phone towers, Wi-Fi or internet needed.
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Private by design
Messages, locations and pins are encrypted on your phone before they leave it. The radios that carry them cannot read them.
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Android and iPhone
Android and iPhone users chat in the same rooms. Both apps work the same way.
02What you need
A phone is not enough. Each person needs a radio.
With no signal, phones cannot reach each other. A small LoRa radio that runs Meshtastic can: it sends your messages for kilometres, and your phone talks to it by Bluetooth. Firepit is the app on your phone. The radio is a separate device that you buy, one for each person.
Your phoneAndroid or iPhone, with Firepit
A Meshtastic radioOne for each person, bought separately
Chat and a map, off the gridNo SIM, no Wi-Fi, no account
Radios come in many shapes.
Here are four popular ones. It is not a full list: any radio that runs Meshtastic and has Bluetooth should work with Firepit.
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LILYGO
T-Echo
A pocket radio with a screen
A small case with an e-paper screen and a tall antenna. The screen shows the radio's own status. Everything else you do in Firepit.
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RAKwireless
WisMesh Tag
A flat tag with no screen
A button on the front, a few small lights and nothing to read. Hang it on a bag and leave it there: your phone is its screen.
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Seeed Studio
SenseCAP T1000-E
A tracker the size of a bank card
A thin card with one button, a buzzer and a magnetic charging cable. It slips into a pocket and stays out of the way.
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Heltec
WiFi LoRa 32 V3
A bare board with a small screen
Usually the lowest price. A board with a small screen and a wire antenna: add a battery and a case, and it does the same job.
Before you buy a radio
- It runs Meshtastic, on firmware 2.7 or newer.
- It has Bluetooth, so it can pair with your phone.
- It is made for the radio band of your country, such as 868 MHz in Europe or 915 MHz in the United States.
- There is one for each person in the group.
Not needed on the radio: a screen, GPS or a keyboard. Your phone does all of that.
Meshtastic keeps a list of the radios that run it.
See the list on meshtastic.org03Built on Meshtastic
Meshtastic is the network. Firepit is the conversation.
Meshtastic is a free, open-source project that turns small, low-cost LoRa radios into a mesh network. Each radio passes on the messages it hears, so people stay in touch over kilometres without phone signal or internet.
Firepit is an independent app that works with any Meshtastic radio. It is not part of the Meshtastic project.
Visit meshtastic.org-
Free and open source
Built in the open by volunteers. The software is free for anyone to use.
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Radios from many makers
Small, low-cost LoRa radios, many with GPS and a battery that lasts for days.
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No licence in most countries
It uses radio bands that anyone may use in most of the world.
04Why it was created
Phones lose signal right where groups spread out.
At festivals, on long trails and in the mountains, phones lose signal just when people drift apart. Meshtastic radios solve the hardest part: a network that needs no towers.
But using them as a group chat was hard to set up, and less private than it looks. Anyone who gets hold of a friend's radio can read the whole group's messages.
Firepit was made to fix both: simple enough for everyone around the fire, and private enough that what people say stays on their phones.
No accounts, no servers, no sign-up. Just a room, a few friends and a mesh.
05How it works
Sealed on one phone. Opened on another.
Your phone connects to your radio by Bluetooth. The radios talk to each other over LoRa and pass messages along. Firepit encrypts every message before it leaves your phone, so no radio on the way can read it, not even your own.
Ryan's phoneSeals it with the room keyOpens it with the room key
Bluetooth
Ryan's radioAdds the channel layerRemoves the channel layer
LoRa
Any radioPasses it on, can't open it
LoRa
Maya's radioRemoves the channel layerAdds the channel layer
Bluetooth
Maya's phoneOpens it with the room keySeals it with the room key
Words"Hi Maya! Where are you?"
Sealed
9F 2C A1 07 E4 5B 3D 88 C2 1E 6B F0 57 D2 0A 39
Sealed + channel4C 09 D1 EE 7A 31 B6 05 F0 6A 2D 93 E8 14 C7 5F
Ryan's phone seals his message with the room key. Only phones in the room have this key.Maya's phone seals her reply with the room key. Only phones in the room have this key. Ryan's radio adds a second layer with the channel key, as all Meshtastic radios do.Maya's radio adds a second layer with the channel key, as all Meshtastic radios do. Radios in between pass it on. None of them can open the seal. Maya's radio removes the channel layer. Inside, the message is still sealed.Ryan's radio removes the channel layer. Inside, the reply is still sealed. Maya's phone opens it with the room key, and she can read it.Ryan's phone opens it with the room key, and he can read it. Each message is sealed on the sender's phone with the room key, wrapped by the radios in the channel key, and opened only on the other phone.
Room key: only on members' phones Channel key: on the radios
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Pair your radio
Connect your radio by Bluetooth. A new radio has no region and cannot send: Firepit proposes the one for where you are. It also checks the radio's security settings, like a weak PIN, and helps you fix them.
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Start a room
Create a private room for your group and pick its icon. Each radio holds up to seven rooms.
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Invite in person
Show the room's QR code to a friend next to you. They scan it, you both check a short key on screen, and you let them in. The room then opens on their phone by itself.
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Talk and share
Send messages, share your location for as long as you want, and drop pins on the map. Only your room can read them.
06On top of Meshtastic
Meshtastic builds the network. Firepit adds what a group needs.
Firepit works with standard Meshtastic radios on firmware 2.7 or newer, so every radio nearby helps carry your messages. Everything below is extra, and only in Firepit.
Invites that carry no key
You invite people face to face, with a QR code that changes every few seconds. A photo of the code cannot get anyone in. You let each person in yourself.
Keys that move on every hour
The keys for rooms and direct messages move on every hour, one way, and the old ones are erased. Someone who records the radio traffic and later takes a phone still cannot open the recording.
Direct messages, sealed twice
Private messages to people from your rooms, or people you added in person, are encrypted from one phone to the other. Not even the two radios can read them.
Add a person, face to face
You do not need a shared room to talk in private. Show your code, they scan it, both phones show the same short line, and you tap Add. From then on the two of you chat phone to phone.
Messages that disappear
In a direct chat, set messages to disappear after an hour, 8 hours, a day or a week. Nothing disappears before it is seen. Or delete a message from your own phone. Each phone deletes its own copy, and Firepit says it cannot prove the other one did.
Remove someone, change the lock
When you remove someone, the room gets a new key. They keep what they already saw, but cannot read anything new.
Ticks that tell the truth
Ticks only show what really happened. "Delivered to their phone" and "Read" come only from the other person's own phone. A radio's answer is shown as the radio's word, and there is no fake "online" status.
- Sending
- Sent to your radio
- Heard by the mesh
- Delivered to their phone
Location on your terms
Your rooms see where you are, encrypted like your messages, and nobody else does. Turn sharing off for one room, or pause it in one tap, even from the lock screen.
Pins only your group can see
Drop a pin with a note, like a meeting point. Only your room can see it, and only you can move or delete it.
Find a friend
Tap someone on the map, then Find. A big arrow and the distance show the way, and it says how old their last location is.
Alerts that get through
When it matters, send an alert. It reaches everyone in the room, even people who muted it, and it is encrypted like any message.
Quick replies that cost almost nothing
On my way, Where are you?, I'm here: one tap sends them. The built-in ones travel as a tiny code instead of the words, so they use less of the radio. Add your own too.
A health check for your radio
Each time you connect, Firepit checks your radio for risky settings, like a weak Bluetooth PIN or packets that other people's gateways may copy to the internet, and helps you fix them in one tap.
Every chat says who can read it
Each room shows who can read it: only the people you invited, anyone with the channel key, or everyone nearby. A direct chat with someone who uses the Meshtastic app carries a Meshtastic badge, because only the two radios protect it. Firepit never sends on a channel without encryption.
Also included
- Maps that work offline
- The online map only loads your group's area when you ask
- Chat and map side by side on tablets and foldables
- Messages delete themselves after a day, a week or a month
- Quiet rooms can be left automatically
- Pure Firepit, on by default: your radio talks only to Firepit, and still passes messages on for everyone
- Switch Pure Firepit off to chat with people who use the Meshtastic app
- Choose who passes your messages on: your group's radios only, or nearby radios too
- No message travels more than three hops, so the mesh stays clear
- Set up radios as Personal, Base or Router
- Invites that also protect against a future quantum computer
- An encrypted database on the phone
- Reply straight from a notification
- Press and hold the app icon to pause sharing, join a room or ask everyone where they are
- A list of everyone on the map, nearest first
- Light and dark mode
Gather round.
Firepit for Android and iPhone is now in initial field tests. It will be released once it passes the main tests, in English first. To use it, each person needs a Meshtastic radio on firmware 2.7 or newer.
What you need