Peer-to-peer text messaging offshore?

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

No, but you can send text any cell phone or email...so you could text or email them from InReach. They can respond...though its a little clunky since they must use a web site link included in the message.

Actually, if you text a cell phone number from InReach, they can reply directly from their mobile. They don't need to go to the website. The website is only required if you messaged them to an email address. InReach doesn't allow a direct email back without going through the portal.

The downside with InReach messaging is the delay. Typically it is set to a 10 minute send/receive interval for messages.. So you can send, wait up to 10 minutes, then the person replies some time later and you wait up to 10 minutes from that point before you get the reply.

You can set the InReach message retrieve interval to Continuous which makes it much better but drains battery a bunch. In our boat, we left the InReach plugged in all the time, and when I got into an actual conversation with someone I would change it to continuous. Then back to 10 minutes when I was no longer actively texting.

[svmobert]

To fully answer this question.. If you want to be able to text/SMS other people's cellular and satellite devices phones there are several options..

1.) SPOTX (which has a keyboard built in like a blackberry) is a small handheld satellite messenger using the Globalstar satellite network. It's coverage is wide but not truly global. But it's cheaper than Iridium based devices to buy, and service plans are cheaper. You can send and receive short messages from the device to other devices.

2.) Garmin InReach (formerly Delorme). Like a SPOTX but no keyboard. But it does have bluetooth so you can use the iPhone/Android app to send/receive messages. It uses the Iridium Satellite network so it's global, but generally costs more to buy and use than a SPOTX.

3.) Sat Phone - Globalstar (GSP-1600, GSP-1700), Inmarsat (ISatPhone), or Iridium Phone (9555, 9575, etc). A full satellite phone will have SMS messaging also. They are old-school triple-tap style where you have to his the same key a few times to get to the alphabetical letter you want. Globalstar again has wide coverage but not entirely global. Inmarsat is global with the exception of the poles, and Iridium is fully global. Price is commenserate with coverage area.

4.) Satellite Hotspot - Globalstar Sat-Fi/Sat-Fi2, Iridium Go!, Redport Glow. Using an app on your smartphone or tablet you can make calls, send/receive text messages, and send/receive email and even weather data and other files, depending on your airtime plan and extra services. In any case, all of these devices will allow you to send and receive SMS/Text messages with others.

Basically, most satellite messengers, phones and hotspot devices can send and receive SMS/Text messages between each other and also with cellular phones. There are some strange nuances depending on the device but nothing insurmountable.

For example. The Iridium Go! can handle messages longer than 160 characters similarly to how a cell phone handles them, by chunking them up. But an InReach will choke on a multi-part message. So a message over 160 characters sent from a Go! to an InReach will come in garbled. If the same person resends the message manually as multiple smaller messages they come in fine.. Globalstar seems to have a smaller SMS message size limit compared to Iridium and Inmarsat.

InReach, Iridium, Inmarsat, and Iridium all have a publicly accessible web page for sending messages to their devices from a computer.

Lastly, if you are looking for something to send messages in a group format, like Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp group conversations.. None of these devices handle that well. But as I mentioned in another reply, I will have a solution to this soon that will allow and control Whatsapp and FB Messenger over satellite devices that have open network connections, like Fleet One which you can get relatively inexpensively now.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Sea-TechSystems

Actually, if you text a cell phone number from InReach, they can reply directly from their mobile. They don't need to go to the website. The website is only required if you messaged them to an email address. InReach doesn't allow a direct email back without going through the portal.

The downside with InReach messaging is the delay. Typically it is set to a 10 minute send/receive interval for messages.. So you can send, wait up to 10 minutes, then the person replies some time later and you wait up to 10 minutes from that point before you get the reply.

You can set the InReach message retrieve interval to Continuous which makes it much better but drains battery a bunch. In our boat, we left the InReach plugged in all the time, and when I got into an actual conversation with someone I would change it to continuous. Then back to 10 minutes when I was no longer actively texting.

I guess I swapped the text/email response process...still a bit tedious to me vs just sending a direct reply.

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by john61ct

actual mesh networking is supposed to mean no service provider needed, nothing to do with satellites or the internet

Like what the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and LibraryBox projects envisioned*

Here's a couple recent productized technology launches

https://www.google.com/search?q=sonn...a+mesh+network

Yes, that was what I was talking about. Networking without a centralized service provider but rather with every node being a potential service provider, preferrably on top of existing lower level infrastructure..

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by Sea-TechSystems

I am working on a solution for Whatsapp over Iridium with one of my partners. But right now it wouldn't work with Iridium Go!, but I can do it with nearly any other satellite solution. There is an Iridium Go! like device that allows for the Iridium Go! unlimited plan where it would work. Anyway, once I finish testing the solution I expect to be offering the package. I believe I can enable FB Messenger as well. The solution will limit the types of messages than can be sent, ie: text is good, but pictures/videos would be blocked by default for bandwidth reasons.

Having cruised with others down into Central America and finding that most of our fellow cruisers ended up on Whatsapp, and actually Cellular providers outside of the US provide unlimited Facebook and Whatsapp on their otherwise non-unlimited data plans, combining this with satellite would be pretty slick.

Anyway, I will keep the forum posted on this, hopefully with a full solution in the next month or two.

Richard Anderson, Sea-Tech Systems

Great!

What do you think about the mesh networking (and maybe also edge computing) stuff? Any foreseeable developments there? If one path leads toward minimizing the message so that it will fit through the satellite link, another path could lead toward larger bandwidth applications where the satellite is skipped altogether?

One (imaginary) use case would be docking cameras streaming high quality video of the slips/piers and when the sailboat gets close enough it can subscribe to these streams to enhance the picture of everything to the one responsible for doing it. After a while maybe the dockside infrastructure (measuring current, wind etc) could talk directly to the sailboat and they'd cooperate with each other to dock the boat before waking the owner up to have his/her morning cup of tea.

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by Sea-TechSystems

To fully answer this question.. If you want to be able to text/SMS other people's cellular and satellite devices phones there are several options..

...

Lastly, if you are looking for something to send messages in a group format, like Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp group conversations.. None of these devices handle that well. But as I mentioned in another reply, I will have a solution to this soon that will allow and control Whatsapp and FB Messenger over satellite devices that have open network connections, like Fleet One which you can get relatively inexpensively now.

Thank you for your long and elaborate answer! Thanks to everyone else also taking the time to send their educated views on the topic

The WhatsApp solution does sound exciting!

When you say "open network connections", does that mean the possibility to use normal TCP/IP networking through it? And that's not possible with the Iridium GO, I guess? So if I want to hook up a Raspberry (for example) to the world, I'd need something else?

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Here's a couple recent productized technology launches

https://www.google.com/search?q=sonn...a+mesh+network

I found a boater using one of those (goTenna), but he/she seems a bit alone out there

But anyway, I think this is almost exactly what I was looking for AND they have an SDK so it's possible to develop your own apps for it. Nice.

EDIT: Sonnet mentions the possibility to connect an external antenna as well as integrate ondevice firmware. Very nice!

[Emouchet]

Another vote for InReach.

However, pair it with your phone via Bluetooth., and then do everything on the phone.
The keyboard on the InReach device is not for texting !

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

Thank you for your long and elaborate answer! Thanks to everyone else also taking the time to send their educated views on the topic

The WhatsApp solution does sound exciting!

When you say "open network connections", does that mean the possibility to use normal TCP/IP networking through it? And that's not possible with the Iridium GO, I guess? So if I want to hook up a Raspberry (for example) to the world, I'd need something else?

The Iridium Go! requires an API call to open a connection and close it. So apps have to be written specifically for the Iridium Go!. Making an always-on chat app difficult, especially when you don't control the code for the chat client.

Someone might be able to write a special chat client that would work with the Go!, but integrating it with an existing service like FB Messenger or Whatsapp would be very difficult since they are encrypted and secured and Whatsapp specifically requires SMS authentication to identify the user.

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

I found a boater using one of those (goTenna), but he/she seems a bit alone out there

But anyway, I think this is almost exactly what I was looking for AND they have an SDK so it's possible to develop your own apps for it. Nice.

EDIT: Sonnet mentions the possibility to connect an external antenna as well as integrate ondevice firmware. Very nice!

These are interesting, and the Sonnet unit might actually be pretty cool for hacking. But the range is pretty limited for crossing large bodies of water. An external antenna might help quite a bit, especially if it was actively amplified, but hard to know how far it would really go.

That said, I have been researching D-STAR lately and I think it can possibly do alot of what boaters would want with ranges of 100-200 miles between radios. There are a number of opensource and free apps on mobile devices as well as server side that have been developed already for first responders and hobbyists who use DSTAR to email, browse the web, send short messages, file reports, track locations on a map using GPS data, and all sorts of other things. You need a D-STAR radio, and generally this only works on 2 meter bands or higher (not HF) but a bit of software to build a mesh repeater network across boats and you could do some pretty cool things at much longer distances than the Gotenna and Sonnet devices.

[Bbolino]

Garmin Inreach is easy and can SMS to any mobile phone number. It is not instant - because of the way the Iridium system works it could be 15-20 minutes to transmit your text message and get a reply. Service can be purchased from any of several plans on a month to month basis

Another option is one of the Iridium devices - the Iridium One has data, voice, and SMS capabilities and works (via Bluetooth) over your existing mobile device. Its service can be bought in many different packages

There are other providers coming into the market over the next few years and Iridium is launching a whole new generation of satellites.

[NW4GT]

Winlink. https://www.winlink.org
Requires a Ham license, but with no morse code requirement anymore, anyone capable of running a live-aboard is smart enough to pass the written exams. Study guides are easy to come by nowadays too.

[Kit_L]

As SeaTech said:

[QUOTE]2.) Garmin InReach (formerly Delorme). Like a SPOTX but no keyboard. But it does have bluetooth so you can use the iPhone/Android app to send/receive messages. It uses the Iridium Satellite network so it's global, but generally costs more to buy and use than a SPOTX.[QUOTE

I bought an InReach here yesterday; a free month's subscription came with it, too. The Bluetooth connection means I can use my iPad to type the SMSs, rather than using the IR's fairly clunky interface. As we will only be using it to send my on-shore brother our lat and long (so he can custom weather forecasts for us), this is perfect.

And the other thing I like about it, which others have noted, is that you can stop and start the Iridium service at any time. This makes it an essential item in my grab bag.