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Forget the Meshtastic App Flaresat Does It Better (adrelien.com)

submitted 1 day ago by adrelien@lemmy.radio to c/amateur_radio@lemmy.radio

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Stop fighting with ATAK plugins. Flaresat is the missing map layer for Meshtastic. Get real-time tracking, shared pins, and live routes over LoRa mesh, setup takes 2 minutes. No sideloading, no servers, just instant off-grid coordination on iOS & Android. The game has changed.

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[–] GorGor@startrek.website 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Looks really slick, there are some really nice looking features shown. I do have some concerns though.

First, it requires playstore to be installed. I try to degoogle my device as much as possible so Im not sure this would even work with MicroG Services.

Second it seems like a proprietary software built on Open Source platform. Right now they claim they dont do anything with our data, but that is one policy update from, 'actually the data we have been collecting is now actually worth something sooo....'

Lastly, as a proprietary software company they have this pesky link at the bottom of their page Pricing. Currently it doesnt link to anything, and honestly that has me more worried than if it just showed a page that said we are trying to figure out how to make money off our users, and we dont know how yet. I dont have an issue paying for software I use. There are a couple open source projects I pay monthly/yearly fees to. I just prefer it to be up front. If they said they were open sourcing the code and want a subscription fee, I would be on board. No plan is kinda sketchy.

[–] adrelien@lemmy.radio 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Alright let me address you concerns, cuz I am the solo dev behind it, it is not a company or nothing. I can public the APK if there is enough demand, the app build and distributed on Google Play because this is where most people are.

As for you data, I really have no intent to sell anyone data, as matter of fact I am even now trying to move the off-grid group feature outside the auth so you don't have to give any information.

For pricing the blog was clear yes there will be paid feature, at the end I am not like Meshtastic team with many people working on they getting funding. I am doing this full time so some help financially would be nice. but also I was clear on what will be paid. only cloud relay, sync etc features going to be paid. you want to keep data on your device totally free. it is not costing me anything.

be patient with me and easy, I am solo dev trying to figure it out after I lost my job :)

[–] knightly@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago

Good luck!

[–] drkt@scribe.disroot.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's very cool but you need to implement an OpenStreetMap layer because Google Maps is useless, here.

I feel like the usefulness is severely hampered by requiring an account, also. I can't just ask my buddy to install this app and lets go. He has to go through a whole process involving email, and that's something we need to sort out before we leave home. It's already a hard sell to make people carry an extra device.

[–] adrelien@lemmy.radio 3 points 1 day ago

100% Next update I need to address the map, just using apple and google map was easy way to get the app out there, as for sign up, I am trying to move the off grid feature away from auth. But also at some point you might want to sign up for the upcoming relay feature and sync back up etc ONLY if you opt in.