The first SMS gateway for MeshCore LoRa networks.
A bidirectional SMS text message gateway: Send and receive messages to and from any phone number, right from your MeshCore device. No special app required beyond what you already use for MeshCore.
Currently in beta testing exclusively in the Capital District Region of New York State.
Two paths to the same network — one from the mesh, one from any phone.
hello to the #txtmesh hashtag channel. The gateway will see you and walk you through setup.5185551234 Hey, it's Mike on the meshEach message costs 1 token. Type BAL to check your balance anytime.
a1b2c3.a1b2 Hey, are you on the mesh?No special app needed, any phone that can send a text message will work with the txtMesh gateway to send and receive messages with people on the MeshCore network.
The first service to bridge LoRa mesh radio and SMS into a single two-way messaging platform.
The first true two-way link between off-grid mesh radio and the phone network. MeshCore users text any phone number; replies come back over the air. ACK-based delivery confirmation with multi-part splitting.
Automatic session tracking for active conversations. Configurable timeouts, max session caps, and rate limiting per user.
WX command for current conditions and 3-day forecasts. PING for live firmware trace with per-hop SNR, per-leg distance, and health summary.
Failed deliveries retry with exponential backoff. Persistent queues survive restarts. Separate SMS and MeshCore retry tracking.
Per-contact ACK history drives smarter routing: adaptive timeouts from observed RTTs, flood-first bias for flaky paths, sent→acked promotion when the path is hot, reply-as-ACK from any inbound traffic, advert-triggered retry, cold-contact skip, and pre-flight trace probes.
Save friendly aliases for phone numbers and MeshCore public keys. Away mode with auto-away detection notifies senders you're offline.
Contact registry with auto-pruning. Signal test bot auto-replies on the MeshCore public channel with location, path, and distance info.
Optional bidirectional Discord relay with per-user identicons, signal footers, repeater echo counts, reaction matching, and channel auto-prune.
Designed for planned resilience, not just improvised connectivity.
When disasters strike, cell infrastructure fails — but a well-planned MeshCore network doesn't. Unlike consumer mesh systems that depend on client devices to relay messages, MeshCore is built around dedicated repeater nodes: fixed infrastructure that can be solar-powered, weatherproofed, and strategically positioned long before an emergency occurs.
txtMesh connects that planned mesh to the wider world — bridging MeshCore's radio network to the SMS network so messages can reach anyone, anywhere, on an ordinary phone.
A pre-deployed repeater backbone covers the region — hilltops, fire stations, EOC rooftops, water towers. These nodes stay on through power outages and don't depend on civilian devices being present to relay traffic.
Responders and civilians with MeshCore devices send messages across that backbone. A message addressed to a phone number routes hop-by-hop toward the txtMesh gateway at the network's edge.
The txtMesh gateway bridges the last mile. Positioned where radio coverage meets cellular coverage, it receives MeshCore DMs and delivers them as SMS to any phone number — family members, coordinators, hospitals.
Replies return the same way — an SMS response routes back through the gateway and across the mesh to the originating device. No app, no internet, no cell service required at the field end.
A search and rescue team is operating in a valley with no cell service after a storm. Their MeshCore handhelds route through two fixed repeaters on a ridgeline to reach the gateway at the incident command post. A team member sends:
The incident commander's phone buzzes with a text. They reply. The field team gets the response — no internet, no cell signal required at their end.
MeshCore is free and always will be — your messages travel over LoRa radio waves that cost nothing to send. But when a message passes between MeshCore and SMS networks, it becomes a real text message delivered to a real phone number. Every one of those texts has a cost, and that cost adds up.
Each token covers the cost of one outgoing or inbound SMS message. You buy what you need, use it when you need it, and your balance never expires.
New users get free tokens to try things out. After that, topping up takes about 30 seconds. We appreciate every person who helps keep this gateway alive.
Add SMS Gateway Tokens →Simple text commands on both sides of the bridge.
Text any of these commands to the gateway.
Recent updates to txtMesh.
path_len bitfield correctly.Real-time stats from an active txtMesh gateway.