CruiseMesh

David M Jacobson

About this app

Text your family when there's no signal.

CruiseMesh sends messages straight between phones: over Bluetooth when you're near each other, and over the local Wi-Fi you're both already on, like a ship's network. No cell service, internet package, or accounts required.

It was built for a cruise, where a family gets scattered across a ship and the onboard messaging plan costs money per phone, per day.

How your message gets there

• Nearby, your phone hands the message to theirs directly over Bluetooth.
• On the same Wi-Fi network, phones find each other and deliver right away, with no internet package involved.
• Out of range, the message can ride along on another family member's phone that has CruiseMesh, and finish the trip when that phone gets near the person you wrote to.
• With a Shore Pass, whenever any phone in your family gets online, it sends the whole family's waiting messages, including ones it's carrying for someone else, and reaches family back home too.

Messages can take a few minutes to arrive when everyone is spread out. That's normal, and the app shows you where each one stands: sent, delivered, and read.

What you get

• One-to-one chats and group chats
• Delivery and read receipts
• Photos, with drawing on top
• Short voice messages, recorded by holding a button
• A backup you protect with a passphrase, so a new phone can pick up your identity and contacts
• Block and report, on every contact

Private by design

Every message is encrypted end to end, on your phone, before it goes anywhere. Phones that help carry it can't read it. Neither can we.

There are no accounts and no phone numbers. Your identity is a key made on your phone the first time you open the app. There's nothing to sign up for and nothing to sign in to.

You add people in person, by scanning each other's code, or by an invitation from someone you already trust. Strangers can't message you, can't find you, and can't see you in any list. There is no public feed, no directory, and no nearby-strangers chat.

No ads, no tracking, no analytics. We don't collect your data, because the app doesn't send it to us.

What it needs:

• Two phones. CruiseMesh only talks to other phones running CruiseMesh, so bring the people you want to message with.
• Add each other as contacts in person, by scanning each other's codes. That needs no signal, just the two of you in the same place, so trade codes before everyone scatters.
• Everything above is free. Bluetooth and local Wi-Fi delivery, encryption, receipts, and groups are never paywalled, and there's no limit on contacts or groups.
• A Shore Pass is the one paid part. It's what lets messages travel over the internet when your family is far apart or someone's at home. It's optional, you buy it at cruisemesh.app, and one pass covers your whole family. Everyone shares it. If you'd rather run the internet piece yourself, the software for it is free and open source.
• Bluetooth and background permissions are what make delivery work while your phone is in your pocket. The app explains what each one buys before it asks.

Try it in five minutes

Install it on two phones, add each other, put both in airplane mode, then turn Bluetooth back on. Send a message and it arrives with no internet involved at all. That's the same delivery your family gets at sea.

CruiseMesh is open source, and anyone can read exactly how the encryption works.

Questions: [e-mail]

What’s new

First release. Message your family on board, even without wifi or a data plan.