Chat Local: Offline Messaging

About this app

Chat Local is the messaging app that works when nothing else does. Using Bluetooth mesh technology, you can send messages to people nearby — no internet, no cell service, no problem. __________________________________ PERFECT FOR • Desert festivals and burns (no cell towers for miles) • Music festivals and concerts (overloaded networks) • Camping, hiking, and backpacking trips • International travel (avoid roaming) • Airplanes, basements, and parking garages • Emergency preparedness when towers are down __________________________________ HOW IT WORKS Open the app, pick a name, and start chatting. Messages travel directly between phones over Bluetooth, hopping through other users to reach people farther than Bluetooth alone would carry — and they keep arriving while Chat Local is in the background and your phone is locked. Just leave it running rather than force-quitting it. __________________________________ KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO IT Every message shows its status — sending, sent, or received by however many nearby devices confirmed it. You see what the app actually knows. (Much older versions don't send confirmations, so a message can arrive showing only "Sent".) __________________________________ FREE FEATURES • Bluetooth mesh messaging that works with no signal • Delivery confirmations • Works completely offline, including airplane mode • No account or sign-up required • Discover and preview nearby conversations • Join up to 2 conversations • Profanity filter for family-friendly chats • Battery-optimized Bluetooth Low Energy __________________________________ CHAT LOCAL PRO • Unlimited conversations instead of 2 • 400-character messages instead of 50 • 500 messages of history per conversation instead of 20 • Password-protected conversations, with a lock on each message that went out protected • Message search, with jump-to-message • Export a full conversation transcript • 10 themes, 8 chat backgrounds in light and dark, and a bubble color per person • Block anyone you'd rather not hear from • Network view of every nearby device • Keyword alerts, and notifications for new nearby conversations • Send every half second instead of every five TRY BEFORE YOU BUY Tap any locked theme, background or sender color to see it applied to your real conversation right away — no purchase, no sign-up. __________________________________ YOUR PRIVACY MATTERS • Messages never touch our servers — there are no servers • No cloud storage of any kind • No account means no personal data to breach • Every message is protected in transit by default • Optional password protection for a conversation (Pro) Conversation and display names are broadcast to nearby users so discovery works. __________________________________ GOOD TO KNOW Chat Local needs Bluetooth on and works best within roughly 10-30 meters, farther when others relay along the way. The more people nearby running it, the better it works — bring a friend. Bluetooth messaging between moving phones is never guaranteed. Range, obstacles, crowds and battery savers all affect whether a message gets through, and one that can't reach anyone won't be delivered. 2.0 makes delivery considerably more reliable, but it improves the odds rather than promising them. Never rely on Chat Local as your only way to reach someone in an emergency. Everything except buying Pro works offline, so upgrade before you leave signal; what you bought keeps working offline. Conversation passwords are never stored and can't be recovered by anyone, including us. Once you unlock a conversation, a key derived from your password is kept in the device Keychain so it stays unlocked. Pro is a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time purchase that unlocks everything forever. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings.

Chat Local 2.0 — a much better chance your message gets through while your phone is locked and in your pocket. BACKGROUND MESSAGING Chat Local now looks for and reconnects to nearby devices while it's in the background, not just while the app is open on screen. Dropped connections retry automatically. This is the big one for festivals and camping — lock the phone and put it away, and messages can still reach you. Two things worth knowing: leave Chat Local running, because force-quitting it stops delivery until you open it again; and iOS decides how long a backgrounded app keeps running, so this extends how long you stay reachable rather than making it permanent. DELIVERY RECEIPTS Your last message now shows what the app actually knows about it: sending, sent, or received by however many nearby devices confirmed it. "Sent" means it went out over the air; confirmations only come back from devices running a recent version, so a message can arrive and still show just "Sent". SHORT AUTOMATIC RETRIES If a message isn't confirmed, Chat Local now quietly resends it a few times over the following half-minute, waiting briefly if nobody is in range. A short radio hiccup now often means your message arrives seconds later instead of not at all. It's a small, finite retry budget, not an indefinite one — if nothing is reachable, the message won't be delivered. Sends interrupted by an app restart get one more try on next launch. INVITE BY QR CODE OR LINK Getting someone into a conversation used to mean reading a name out loud. Now you can show a QR code — scanned with any camera, no internet needed on either phone — and they land in the join screen with everything filled in. For someone who doesn't have the app yet, share the link. SEE WHICH MESSAGES ARE PROTECTED Every message that went out password-protected now shows a small lock next to its time, and the send button carries a lock whenever the next message you send will go out protected. No lock means no password protection. The lock is based on what was actually sent for that message rather than on a setting, so you can tell protected messages apart at a glance instead of assuming. MESSAGE SEARCH (PRO) Search any conversation and jump straight to the message you found. EXPORT CHATS (PRO) Save or share a full transcript from the conversation menu. CHAT BACKGROUNDS (PRO) Eight new designed backgrounds, each with a light and dark version. SENDER COLORS (PRO) Give everyone in a group their own bubble color — automatically, or pick one per person. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY Tap any locked theme or background to see it applied right away, before deciding. RELIABILITY Turning Bluetooth off and on (or opening the app before turning it on) no longer requires restarting the app: it re-broadcasts and reconnects by itself. If your device becomes invisible to others, the status bar says so — tap it to fix. Message sizes now adapt to what each connection can actually carry, so far fewer messages are lost on weak links. Bluetooth range, crowds, obstacles and battery savers still affect whether any given message gets through. 2.0 improves the odds a lot; it can't promise delivery. FIXES • Password-protected conversations now stay unlocked after restarting the app — enter the password once per device (it's still never stored; a key derived from it lives in your device's Keychain) • In a protected conversation, messages that can't be unlocked now show a banner with a count and a one-tap way to re-enter the password, instead of disappearing silently • Older messages are no longer deleted on the free plan — they're kept on your device, hidden, and reappear if you upgrade • Pro now keeps working with no connectivity for the full period you paid for • The nearby-devices list no longer grows without limit, and the tab count matches the list • The app opens immediately instead of waiting on the network

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1. First observed Aug 21, 2026 · 2:42 PM Free