FireChat Launches Off-The-Grid Private Messaging For The Masses

SAN FRANCISCO, July 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Open Garden, the creator of FireChat, announces today the introduction of its new off-the-grid private messaging technology (OM). You can now send private messages to people anywhere, even if you aren't connected to the Internet or to a cellular network.

All communication apps today require Internet access and protocols. When Internet access or cellular phone networks are not available or congested, communications apps cannot work. But FireChat can. For the first time, people can now communicate using their smartphones without a data plan or even a network.

Thanks to its peer-to-peer mesh networking technology and 'store and forward' capabilities, FireChat transmits messages from phone to phone until the messages reach the intended recipient. For example, if all networks were down in a city, it would take approximately 5% of the city's population on FireChat to cover the entire city with an average message delivery time of 10 to 20 minutes.

This technology delivers a brand new way to create communication networks that do not require capital, scale infinitely and can spread rapidly.

Enabling large scale offline messaging required solving challenging technological issues including: off-the-grid identity, addressing, routing, encryption, and interoperability between operating systems. All FireChat private messages are encrypted from end to end. Only the sender and recipient can read a private message. No one else has access to the content of private messages.

"Forget SMS and IM, here comes OM. Off-the-grid messaging allows any community to create their own network for instant public and private communications, regardless of available infrastructure and traditional centralized networks," said Micha Benoliel, co-founder and CEO of Open Garden. "This innovation paves the way for the next evolution of the Internet: networks created by the people, for the people."

This technology is available now as a free application for Android and iOS devices.

You can download FireChat here: http://firech.at/

About Open Garden and FireChat
Open Garden Inc. is a San Francisco-based startup dedicated to connecting the next 5 billion mobile devices with peer-to-peer connections. FireChat is the first off-the-grid messaging app. It enables people to communicate even without any Internet or cellular connection, by allowing mobile phones to create their own peer-to-peer mesh network.

Launched in March 2014, FireChat has reached the top 10 amongst social networking apps in 124 countries around the world. FireChat was recently awarded an Innovation Award at SXSW 2015.

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SOURCE Open Garden Inc.

Related Links

http://www.opengarden.com

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