Pheme is an iOS app that allows users to communicate without internet or cell services. Secure chats and a global chatroom with anyone nearby are enabled via a mesh network that transmits messages via Bluetooth. The Pheme team hopes to empower people by providing means of communication that is not bound to traditional infrastructure, while enabling them to maintain their desired level of privacy by encrypting and storing data locally rather than in one company-controlled source. Without further ado, let’s get started!
Clone our GitHub repository from https://github.com/mhutsell/Pheme.git, leave a star, and install the app via XCode with a device connection. Or reach out to any one of our amazing Pheme team members — we would love to install it for you! Sorry, as this is currently a dev-oriented installation process.
The first time you open our app, you will need to pick a fancy nickname that you won’t regret, because you won’t be able to change it later without deleting the app. Because of the nature of our app, the account you create is only accessible in the device you “sign up” with, so there is no need for a password. After your first sign-in, you only need to click “Login” and you are ready to use the app!
To add a contact, go to the setting page via the navigation bar at the bottom, click the QR code symbol and allow access to the camera. Then, the camera will show up and you will be able to add contact via scanning your friends’ QR codes in the setting page! If you are scanned by your friends first, you can either scan their QR code back to initiate the conversation, or you can just wait for the first message from them, which will populate their contact automatically!
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You are able to send text messages, emojis, and images just like any other messaging app. The cool thing about Pheme is that you will only use Bluetooth. The message sending feature relies on passing your messages in encryption from phone to phone (for the phones that have downloaded our app) until it reaches your device. It’s thus possible that your messages won’t be received if there are too few users nearby. So, invite your friends to install our app so that we can build a better Pheme community!
You are also able to send messages to all users nearby in the global chatroom. Unfortunately, for privacy concerns, you won’t be able to add contact via the chatroom. If you don’t feel like receiving messages that are hopefully friendly from the local neighborhood, feel free to disable the global chatroom in the setting page!
Help Others – when on (default), your app rebroadcasts messages for other people, the core idea of the app. If you’re running low on battery, you can do this to not help others (please don’t). You will still receive the messages sent to you when “help others” is set off.
Enable global chatroom – Enable the previously described local Chatroom feature (on by default).
Current Max Messages in Queue – Edit how many messages your phone rebroadcasts in one go – a higher number means you rebroadcast more, but a lower one makes messages send faster and take up less space.
