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The Texting Network for the End of the World
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Wired
Posted: May 7th, 2026
https://www.wired.com/story/youre-not-ready-for-phone-dead-z...
Hypothetical: You wake up tomorrow morning to find [that] the internet has functionally ceased to exist. But you need to connect with people you trust to get help and survive. What do you do? Meshtastic is a program that enables devices to send text messages over long distances without needing Wi-Fi or cell service. Long range radio (LoRa) nodes help pass messages along, forming a network of devices that can talk to each other even in remote areas. Messages hop from device to device, with each node relaying messages it hasn't seen before—extending the network’s reach across miles using minimal power. That is to say, Meshtastic is designed specifically for sending text messages over free-to-use radio frequencies to both groups and individuals, even when cell service and internet connections are nowhere to be found. “The cool thing about Meshtastic is that it’s like a radio infrastructure without the infrastructure. It’s ad hoc,” says Eric Kristoff, a volunteer member of the Chicago chapter of the Mars Society. Meshtastic was created by technologist Kevin Hester in early 2020 as a way to communicate while doing “any hobby where you don’t have reliable internet access,” and it remains a grassroots endeavor, with established local communities spanning from Argentina to China that are ripe with a DIY ethos. The software itself is open source, meaning anyone can theoretically contribute, and hundreds have. A core group of volunteer developers helps maintain the Meshtastic firmware.
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