FireChat, an iPhone app designed for anonymous hyperlocal communication, could change the way we connect with one other: It does not require an Internet connection or even a cell signal to work. Even if you’re stranded in a communications desert with no Internet access, FireChat lets you text with people nearby — and conceivably with people far away, depending on how wide a network is created through ever-expanding circles of local connections.
FireChat takes advantage of the Multipeer Connectivity Framework in iOS 7. This feature allows developers to connect devices to each other using Bluetooth, WiFi, and peer-to-peer connections.
Users must be within a maximum of 100 feet of another to use the nearby feature (though they can connect with other users around their countries through the Internet in the “Everyone” chat room); it works best when users are within 30 feet of each other. However, if there are many people using the app within a close range of each other, the network becomes larger and more robust.
FireChat users can chat and share photos with either one person or a group. Users choose a screen name and need not use their Facebook account or email address to login. There are no passwords to remember, which adds to the idea that people use the app anonymously.
– By Anand Thakkar
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