ABOUT MESHTRIKE · WHY WE BUILT IT

Networks go dark. People keep talking.

Towers overload, storms knock them down, and sometimes someone switches them off. Meshtrike exists so the people standing around you are still in reach when that happens.

Read the story What we stand for
Illustration: a city at night under a dead cell tower marked with a cross. Below, a crowd holds up phones that link to each other in a glowing mesh, passing sealed envelopes along. No internet permission Apache-2.0 0 trackers

01 · WHY WE BUILT IT

It always fails at the worst moment.

We kept seeing the same thing in very different places. The network goes, and people standing a few metres apart can’t send each other a single line of text.

  1. Illustration: a festival crowd under stage lights holding up phones linked by a glowing mesh, next to a cell tower with an overloaded signal warning. FESTIVALS

    Fifty thousand phones. One tower.

    The headliner comes on, everyone reaches for their phone, and the nearest tower gives up. Texts stall, calls drop, and the friend you lost by the stage might as well be in another city.

    Phones within 10–30 m link directly

  2. Illustration: a giant power switch turned off above a dark city and a dead cell tower, while people in the street below stay linked phone to phone. PROTESTS AND SHUTDOWNS

    Someone flips the switch.

    Networks get throttled or switched off on purpose, often exactly when people most need to find each other and stay safe. A messenger that depends on that network goes quiet with it.

    Sealed end to end, relays can’t read it

  3. Illustration: a storm with lightning over a small town and a toppled cell tower. A radio antenna on one roof sends signals to the neighbouring houses. STORMS

    Storms take the towers first.

    Wind, floods and earthquakes knock out power and masts long before anything is repaired. The people who most need to check in are the ones with no bars at all.

    A LoRa radio reaches kilometres

  4. Illustration: a hiker on a hill at sunset and a sailing boat on the water below, linked across the distance by a long-range radio signal carrying a sealed envelope. TRAILS AND BOATS

    Some places never had signal.

    Trails, valleys, boats and camps. Beautiful places, and dead zones where a simple “I’m fine, back by six” has no way to travel.

    Carried for up to 72 hours

THE IDEA

People standing next to each other can still talk.

Every phone already has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios that can reach the next phone directly. So we let phones carry sealed messages for each other, hop by hop, until they reach the right person. No tower, no server, and nobody in between can read them.

See how the mesh works
Illustration: two people side by side with their phones held out, a sealed envelope passing between the phones, inside a wider web of connected phones. Up to 7 hops · 72 hours

02 · WHAT WE STAND FOR

Seven things we stand for.

Not slogans. Each one is a decision already made in the code, so it can’t quietly change later.

  • 01 / 07
    Always on

    Privacy is not a setting.

    The rules are built into every screen: no names in notifications, no screenshots, nothing that reveals who talks to whom. There is no switch that turns them off.

  • 02 / 07

    No accounts. No servers needed.

    No phone number, no email, no sign-up. Your identity is a key made on your phone, and there is no Meshtrike server to hack or subpoena.

  • 03 / 07

    Open source, and verifiable.

    Every line is public under Apache-2.0. Every real APK is signed with one release key, and anyone can check their copy.

  • 04 / 07

    Honest about limits.

    We say what Meshtrike can’t protect you from, and that it hasn’t been independently audited yet. Read the limits.

  • 05 / 07

    Built for the worst day.

    Duress PIN, panic wipe, High-Risk mode, and QR handoff when radio is jammed. Features for the days you hope never come.

  • 06 / 07

    Free. No ads. No tracking.

    Free to download, with no analytics, no crash reporting and nothing sent home. The build checks for trackers on every change.

  • 07 / 07
    No sign-up

    Made for everyone.

    No SIM, no number and no account to lose. Pseudonyms are welcome, one APK can be passed phone to phone, and anyone can help translate it.

03 · WHAT WE WILL NEVER DO

Never.

Promises are cheap, so here are only the ones Meshtrike already keeps today. Hover a line, or read the code, and hold us to every one of them.

  1. We will never Ask for your phone number.

    No number, no email, no sign-up. Your identity is a key on your phone.

  2. We will never Read your messages.

    They are sealed on your phone. There is no server, and no key we could use to open them.

  3. We will never Collect or sell your data.

    The app collects nothing, so there is nothing to sell. The privacy policy says so in full.

  4. We will never Add trackers, analytics or crash reporting.

    The build pipeline checks every change for telemetry packages.

  5. We will never Give the messenger internet access.

    It doesn’t hold Android’s internet permission, and the release check fails if it ever appears.

  6. We will never Put names or message text in notifications.

    Just “New message” or “Incoming call”. Never the sender, a preview or a photo.

  7. We will never Keep a record of who talks to whom.

    No message paths, no hop counts. The app doesn’t know them and never stores them.

  8. We will never Require a server.

    Community servers may help one day. None will ever be required.

  9. We will never Ship an APK that isn’t signed with our release key.

    Android refuses updates signed by anyone else, and you can check any copy yourself.

  10. We will never Call it audited before it is.

    Until an independent audit, treat Meshtrike as beta for high-risk use.

04 · THE PRINCIPLES IN CODE

Don’t take our word for it. Check.

Every principle above is enforced somewhere you can read, run or rebuild yourself.

Read the source on GitHub
  • 0internet permissions in the messengerA release check fails the build if it ever appears.
  • 162automated testsIncluding 27 end-to-end mesh scenarios and 11 internet-route tests.
  • 1release keyEvery real APK is signed with it. Check yours in the browser.
  • 0telemetry packagesAnalytics and crash reporters are blocked on every change.
$ ci/pipeline.sh
=== tests ===
# 162 tests, incl. 27 end-to-end mesh scenarios
=== telemetry ===
OK: no telemetry packages
=== manifest ===
OK: release build has no INTERNET permission

PIPELINE PASSED
Steps from the project’s own build pipeline, shortened. Everything is open source under Apache-2.0: the Rust core, the Android app, MeshGRID and this website.

05 · WHO WE ARE

Made by the Meshtrike team.

We’re a small, pseudonymous team. That’s deliberate: the people Meshtrike is for often can’t afford to be named, and the people who build it shouldn’t have to be either. So don’t take our word for anything. Judge us by the code, the whitepaper and how we handle problems.

  • Pseudonymous on purpose
  • Built in the open
  • Judged by the code
Illustration: a code terminal next to a branching commit history and a large key, standing for software built in the open.

Get in touch.

Everything happens in the open on GitHub, except security reports, which go privately first.

Pseudonyms are welcome. You never need your real name to help. Think about your own safety before you post.

06 · JOIN US

Carry the mesh with us.

A mesh is only as strong as the people in it. No sign-ups and no forms: pick something, and tell us on GitHub.

Get involved GitHub
Illustration: three satellites above a folded paper map with a route and a pin, beaming positions down to a phone that only listens.

WHAT’S NEXT

Volunteer servers, offline maps, an audit.

Field testing now. Then community servers run by volunteers, offline maps with positions straight from satellites, and an independent security audit. Later, an iPhone app.

See the roadmap

DOWNLOAD

Get it before you need it.

Install it while you still have signal, pair with your people in person, and you’re ready for when the network drops. Free, open source, no account.

Download Meshtrike Verify a download

LICENSES AND CREDITS

Standing on open shoulders.

Meshtrike and MeshGRID
Apache License 2.0. License text
Nym mixnet
The private internet route in MeshGRID uses the Nym SDK and client crates (Apache-2.0).
Other MeshGRID components
Further open-source components and their licenses (MIT, MPL-2.0 and others) are listed in MeshGRID’s NOTICE file.
LoRa radios
Long range works with radios running Meshtastic, a separate open-source project.
Maps, planned
Offline maps will use OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database License.
Fonts
Bricolage Grotesque, Geist and Geist Mono, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Served from this site, never from a third party.
Icons
Interface icons adapted from Lucide (ISC License).