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- It can communicate with any other existing [LXMF](https://github.com/markqvist/lxmf) client, such as [Sideband](https://github.com/markqvist/Sideband/) and [Nomadnet](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet).
- It can download files and browse micron pages (decentralised websites) hosted on [Nomad Network](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet) nodes.
- Supports sending and receiving messages between [Reticulum MeshChat](https://github.com/liamcottle/reticulum-meshchat), [Sideband](https://github.com/markqvist/Sideband/) and [Nomadnet](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet).
- Using a microphone requires using the web ui over localhost or https, due to [AudioWorklet](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/AudioWorklet) secure context.
- I have tested two-way audio calls over LoRa with a single hop. It works well when a [reasonable bitrate](https://unsigned.io/understanding-lora-parameters/) is configured on the RNode.
Once you've downloaded, installed and launched Reticulum MeshChat, there's a few things you need to do in order to start communicating with other people on the network.
On the Reticulum Network, anyone can have any number of Identities. You may opt to use your real name, or you may decide to be completely anonymous. The choice is yours.
A Reticulum Identity is a public/private key-pair. You control the private key used to generate destination addresses, encrypt content and prove receipt of data with unforgeable delivery acknowledgements.
Your public key is shared with the network when you send an announce, and allows others on the network to automatically discover a route to a destination you control.
At this time, Reticulum MeshChat generates a new Identity the first time you launch it. A future update will allow you to create and manage multiple identities.
The next thing you should do, is set a display name. Your display name is what everyone else on the network will see when looking for someone to communicate with from the Peers list.
You can do this in the `My Identity` section in the bottom left corner. Enter a new display name, and then press `Save`.
**Send an Announce**
When using the Reticulum Network, in order to be contactable, you need to send an `Announce`. You can send an announce as often, or as infrequently as you like.
Sending an announce allows other peers on the network to discover the next-hop across the network their packets should take to arrive at a destination that your identity controls.
If you never send an announce, you will be invisible and no one will ever be able to send anything to you.
When you move across the network, and change entrypoints, such as moving from your home WiFi network, to plugging in to an Ethernet port in a local library or even climbing a mountain and using an RNode over LoRa radio, other peers on the network will only know the previous path to your destinations.
To allow them to discover the new path their packets should take to reach you, you should send an announce.
In the Reticulum Network, you can control an unlimited number of destination addresses. One of these can be an [LXMF](https://github.com/markqvist/lxmf) delivery address.
Your Reticulum Identity allows you to have an LXMF address. Think of an LXMF address as your very own, secure, end-to-end encrypted, unspoofable, email address routed over a mesh network.
When someone else on the network announces themselves (more specifically, their LXMF address), they will show up in the Peers tab.
You can click on any of these discovered peers to open a messaging interface. From here, you can send text messages, files and inline images. If they respond, their messages will show up there too.
As well as being able to announce your LXMF address and discover others, Reticulum MeshChat can also discover [Nomad Network](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet) nodes hosted by other users. From the Nodes tab, you are free to explore pages and download files they may be publicly sharing on the network.
A future update is planned to allow you to host your own Node and share pages and files with other peers on the network. For now, you could use the official [Nomad Network](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet) client to do this.
Remember, in order to connect with other peers or nodes, they must announce on the network. So don't forget to announce if you want to be discovered!
> TODO: this section is yet to be written. For now, you can check out the [official documentation for configuring interfaces](https://reticulum.network/manual/interfaces.html) in the Reticulum config file. This file is located at `~/.reticulum/config`
It is possible to run on Android from source, using Termux. You will need to install a few extra dependencies and make a change to `requirements.txt`.
```
pkg install git
pkg install rust
pkg install python-pip
pkg install binutils
pkg install build-essential
```
You should now be able to follow the [how to use it](#how-to-use-it) instructions above.
Before running `pip install -r requirements.txt`, you will need to comment out the `cx_freeze` dependency. It failed to build on my Android tablet, and is not actually required for running from source.
```
nano requirements.txt
```
Ensure the `cx_freeze` line is updated to `#cx_freeze`
> Note: Building wheel for cryptography may take a while on Android.
Once MeshChat is running via Termux, open your favourite Android web browser, and navigate to http://localhost:8000
> Note: The default `AutoInterface` may not work on your Android device. You will need to configure another interface such as `TCPClientInterface`.
If you would like to generate a new identity, you can use the [rnid](https://reticulum.network/manual/using.html#the-rnid-utility) utility provided by Reticulum.
To run as a standalone application, we need to compile the python script and dependencies to an executable with [cxfreeze](https://github.com/marcelotduarte/cx_Freeze) and then build an [Electron](https://www.electronjs.org/) app which includes a bundled browser that can interact with the compiled python executable.
This allows for the entire application to be run by double clicking a single file without the need for a user to manually install python, nor run any commands in a command line application.
> Note: cxfreeze only supports building an executable for the current platform. You will need a Mac to build for Mac, and a Windows PC to build for Windows.
I build the vite app everytime without hot reload, since MeshChat expects everything over its own port, not the vite server port. I will attempt to fix this in the future.
- LXMF clients are likely to have [this default limit](https://github.com/markqvist/LXMF/blob/master/LXMF/LXMRouter.py#L35), and your messages will [fail to send](https://github.com/markqvist/LXMF/blob/master/LXMF/LXMRouter.py#L1026).
