App to use cell phone radios to direct connect?

[Jerrad]

Are there Any apps that can facilitate communication between two or more phones by just using their radios with out cell towers or the internet? I understand there would be a limitation on range but I assume it would be better than walkie talkies and always in your pocket. Then their is the possibility of implementing a mesh network to increase range. How difficult would it be to write software for this?

 

[CodeNova]

1 minute ago, Jerrad said:

Are there Any apps that can facilitate communication between two or more phones by just using their radios with out cell towers or the internet? I understand there would be a limitation on range but I assume it would be better than walkie talkies and always in your pocket. Then their is the possibility of implementing a mesh network to increase range. How difficult would it be to write software for this?

 

They have something like that, without the mesh net. its called piratebox, its a free, opensource, portable,... hub? that might fit your needs.

[DarIin]

There'll be no apps that can do it as that's more on a firmware level, like the post above me, I'd look at a piratebox or something along those lines.

 

I know you already stated about not wanting to use Radios but you can get some high quality ones out there now.

[CodeNova]

1 minute ago, DarIin said:

There'll be no apps that can do it as that's more on a firmware level, like the post above me, I'd look at a piratebox or something along those lines.

 

I know you already stated about not wanting to use Radios but you can get some high quality ones out there now.

What about this one? app link

[DarIin]

11 hours ago, CodeNova said:

What about this one? app link

To be pedantic OP did say without internet so that rules out the WIFI aspect of the part of the app and then he said just with their radios, you could argue Bluetooth would be a radio but lets be clear, if OP meant also bluetooth he'd probably not be asking the question cause he could have googled "Apps that communicate over bluetooth" no? 

 

I'm assuming OP wants to be some range from one another which would obviously negate the need for bluetooth.

[CodeNova]

2 hours ago, DarIin said:

To be pedantic OP did say without internet so that rules out the WIFI aspect of the part of the app and then he said just with their radios.

I don't completely agree, You can have two devices (or more) communicating with each other over WiFi, without the internet. WiFi is just a standardized protocol for wireless communications.

2 hours ago, DarIin said:

I'm assuming OP wants to be some range from one another which would obviously negate the need for bluetooth.

This is why the OP suggested something with mesh capability. The range is limited to the nodes available in the area. Like if I was in the desert and wanted to use the app, I would be out of luck. However, if I was in a densely populated area among others that were using the app, the range would be limited to the furthest person/node.

[LogicalDrm]

It would need to be supported at hardware level in order to work. Cell phones operate in different frequency than radiophones. Like the modular phone Linus checked sometime ago had support on both GSM frequencies and radiophone frequencies.

[CodeNova]

Quote

Smart phone ad hoc networks leverage the existing hardware (primarily Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) in commercially available smartphones to create peer-to-peer networks without relying on cellular carrier networks, wireless access points, or traditional network infrastructure. SPANs use the mechanism behind Wi-Fi ad-hoc mode, which allows phones to talk directly among each other, through a transparent neighbor and route discovery mechanism.

Wiki source (Smart phone ad hoc network)