BirdChirp off-grid chat

BirdChirp is a new feature in BirdingApp that offers off-grid communication for birders. We know a lot of you spend time traveling in very remote areas or know at least a few places with spotty coverage. For these situations, your BirdingApp messages can instead be sent by your compatible radio directly to other nearby birders. Messages are encrypted in transit, and location pins can be shared to mark birds nearby or meeting points.

Please note this feature is experimental and still in development. It’s available in the options menu on the Convos page or Nearby Birders Chat.

M-POWERED
BirdChirp is powered by the open-source project Meshtastic®* and requires compatible radio hardware for your region. Any Meshtastic-compatible device with Bluetooth and up-to-date firmware should work with BirdingApp. The radio connects to your phone with Bluetooth, and models are available roughly as small as a credit card. There are plenty of low-cost and convenient options, such as this sleek one by seeed studio: SenseCAP Card Tracker T1000-E

Highlights

  • Long range radio network
    Depending on conditions and your hardware, you can generally expect a couple miles of range and potentially much more especially if you have line-of-sight or there are other nodes covering the area.
  • Decentralized and mesh-friendly
    There is a large existing community worldwide running Meshtastic nodes which is leveraged to relay messages for BirdChirp even though they have nothing to do with BirdingApp, so the interoperability and meshed nature should strengthen the network and provide wider coverage for all.
  • Encrypted chat and DMs
    A great benefit of this system is messages are not sent in the clear like over a typical voice radio, so there is a much greater degree of privacy.
  • GPS location support
    We support sharing of location pins. You can also share your current location with other nearby birders, depending on your device settings. We recommend using the Google Maps app to download the offline maps data of the area you will be visiting, and that will then be used by BirdingApp to have fully offline support when viewing pins or getting directions.
  • Wide selection of hardware
    There are a wide variety of radio options from larger basestations to small and affordable wearables. They should all work with BirdingApp provided they connect with Bluetooth and are on relatively recent firmware. Check out the options here

 

BirdChirp FAQs

You can start by visiting your Convos page. Then, in the upper right menu, go to BirdChrip Setup for the option to connect and begin the initial setup process. Your radio name will be changed to your BirdingApp username and the BirdChirp channel will be added, and we recommend having all other Meshtastic settings set to their defaults for initial setup.

Here’s more detail more specifically for the Seeed model T1000-E:

Turn on your radio by holding down the top circle button for just over a second. After a couple seconds it should power up with a beep. Make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your mobile device. Then, open BirdingApp and navigate to your Convos page. In the upper right menu, select BirdChirp Setup to begin the connection process. Tap Connect and wait until your radio name appears in a small box at the center. It initially looks like “Meshtastic_xxxx” with four unique digits, and the Meshtastic part will be changed to your BirdingApp username. Tap the name to proceed with setup. The default pairing code is “123456”.

BirdingApp will then restart your radio, changing its name to your BirdingApp username and adding the BirdChirp channel. This may take several seconds, so wait until it’s clear that the radio has restarted, and then tap connect again. For each setting change the radio must be restarted again, so you may need to repeat the process a few times.

If you get caught in a setting/restart loop, you may need to go into your phone’s Bluetooth settings, remove/unpair the radio, and then reconnect with BirdingApp again.
When disabled and your BirdChirp radio is connected, both normal BirdingApp messages from the internet and those heard over your BirdChirp radio will be displayed. When you send a message, it will default to sending over the internet, but if you are offline from the internet the message will be sent using your radio. When enabled, all messages are seen and sent over BirdChirp radio on all supported convos.
Airplane Mode can help, especially if you’re in a bad coverage area, by preventing any extra internet requests going on in the background that may be unable to load, and it will also improve your battery life.
Voice radios usually have more limited range and/or cumbersome licensing restrictions vs. Meshtastic-compatible radios. Voice radios generally do not allow for encrypted and private communication or support features such as location sharing. Satellite radios are a great option if you really need the emergency features. Otherwise, they have ongoing operating costs and usage limitations that Meshtastic-compatible radios do not have. The upfront cost is also much higher for satellite radios, and sometimes the weather can even prevent a reliable connection.
We try to keep it simple so BirdingApp uses a much more limited feature set based on the default settings, but you can also use Meshtastic’s Android or iOS app to set more advanced settings to your heart’s content like the frequency of your GPS location updates and different radio modes. However, radios can only connect to one app at a time.
Please contact us on the support page of the app or through our website contact form.

* Meshtastic® is a registered trademark of Meshtastic LLC. BirdingApp is not affiliated or endorsed by Meshtastic.