Nearby lets phones text each other over Bluetooth when no network exists. Messages hop from phone to phone, up to 7 hops, so a group spread along a trail or a road can stay in touch. The messages are end-to-end encrypted, and nothing is stored anywhere once you turn it off.
The situation it fits
Nobody plans an accident, but plenty of trips happen in places where a phone has no bars: the mountain pass with one tower twenty kilometers back, the ski route behind the ridge, the stretch of motorway the map calls a dead zone. On a normal day this is an inconvenience. On the day the trip goes wrong, it becomes the problem.
The pattern in almost every such story is the same. Someone stays with the injured person. Someone else goes for help, which usually means a walk, a drive, or a climb to where the phone works. Between those two people there is now no way to say "changed the plan, going to the farm with the red roof" or "how is she doing?" The group is split and silent.
Nearby fills exactly that gap. It carries text messages between beChat phones over Bluetooth, relaying through any beChat phone in between, up to 7 hops. The person who walks for help stays reachable as long as there is a chain of phones between them and the rest of the group. When they do get out and come back, or when another group member comes into range, the messages that piled up while they were gone are waiting for them.
What this looks like in practice
Six people on a hiking trail, spread out over half a kilometer. The strongest walker goes ahead to the saddle, where the map claims there is signal. Two stay behind with a twisted ankle. With Nearby on, the phones in the middle relay: the group at the back can text the people at the front without shouting down the mountain. If the plan changes at the saddle, everyone hears it while it changes, rather than an hour later.
The same shape works for a convoy on back roads, a bike group strung out on a climb, or two cars where one has broken down and the other is driving to the next village to find signal. Whoever is leaving does not leave the conversation. They leave Bluetooth range, and the conversation waits for them.
Privacy is not the reason you would turn this on after an accident, but it matters anyway. Nearby gives every phone a fresh identity each time it is switched on, and turning it off wipes the identity and every message it held. If strangers' phones relay your messages, they carry sealed packets of one fixed size with no sender and no recipient visible. What they learn about you is nothing.
Read this before you rely on it
- Nearby cannot call an ambulance. It carries text between beChat phones only. Reaching emergency services still requires a working call, and the person who goes for help is the one who makes it.
- It needs other beChat phones. A lone phone in a valley contacts nobody. The mesh is made of the phones around you, with the app installed and Nearby turned on.
- Range per hop is tens of meters. Seven hops reach further than one, but only along a chain of phones that actually exists. Do not plan around a kilometer-wide umbrella of coverage.
- Install the app before the trip. A dead zone is a bad place to discover you have no way to download anything.
- Cold and relaying both cost battery. Keep the phone warm in winter, carry a power bank, and turn Nearby off when you do not need it. That also wipes the record.
- Write down anything that must survive. Nearby keeps no history. If you need a note of what was said, it has to leave the app.
Frequently asked questions
Can you send a message without cell service or wifi?
Yes, if the person who needs to receive it is within Bluetooth range of you or within range of a chain of other beChat phones. beChat Nearby sends text messages over Bluetooth, hopping from phone to phone up to 7 hops. It works in places where the phone shows no bars: a mountain valley, a basement, a motorway cut off from the nearest tower. A phone with no beChat phones in range has no way to send anything, so it is a tool for groups, and useless to a phone that is alone.
Can beChat Nearby contact emergency services?
No. Nearby carries text messages between beChat phones only. It cannot reach an emergency number, and it cannot send a message to someone outside the mesh. If anyone in your group gets to a working phone or a place with signal, they should call the emergency services directly. Nearby keeps the group in contact while that happens.
What happens to messages sent to someone who is out of range?
The mesh stores and forwards them. If your friend walks out of Bluetooth range, messages you send them wait in the mesh and are delivered when their phone comes back into range of any beChat phone that has them. This is what makes a split group workable: the person who walks toward help still picks up everything the others sent while they were gone.
How far can a Bluetooth mesh message travel?
One hop is ordinary Bluetooth range, tens of meters in practice, more in the open with nothing in the way. A message can go further by hopping: each beChat phone in the chain relays it, up to 7 hops. A line of people spread along a trail can therefore carry a message several hundred meters past the edge of normal Bluetooth range, provided the phones between sender and receiver have the app and Nearby turned on.
Keep reading
Nearby also covers slower emergencies: festivals, where the network is full instead of absent, and natural disasters, where it is broken. The technical details are on the features page, and the app is free on Android.