CRISiSLab's Simplified Android Meshtastic Client

Why are we modifying the stock client?

During meetings with local community groups focused on deploying these devices to increase disaster resiliency, they expressed that they found the Meshtastic client too verbose, complicated, and confusing. They wished for a simpler app where you could message, see your conacts, and change some simple settings.

So this project aims to strip out any unnecessary features that may cause confusion.

Documentation

The project's documentation is generated with Dokka and hosted on GitHub Pages. It is automatically updated on every push to the main branch.

View Documentation

Generating Locally

You can generate the documentation locally to preview your changes.

1. Run the Dokka task:

   ./gradlew dokkaGeneratePublicationHtml

2. View the output: The generated HTML files will be located in the build/dokka/html directory. You can open the index.html file in your browser to view the documentation.

Architecture

Modern Android Development (MAD)

The app follows modern Android development practices, built on top of a shared Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) Core:

• KMP Modules: Business logic (core:domain), data sources (core:data, core:database, core:datastore), and communications (core:network, core:ble) are entirely platform-agnostic, targeting Android and Compose Desktop.
• UI: JetBrains Compose Multiplatform (Material 3) using Compose Multiplatform resources.
• State Management: Unidirectional Data Flow (UDF) with ViewModels, Coroutines, and Flow.
• Dependency Injection: Koin with Koin Annotations (K2 Compiler Plugin).
• Navigation: JetBrains Navigation 3 (Multiplatform routing with RESTful deep linking).
• Data Layer: Repository pattern with Room KMP (local DB), DataStore (prefs), and Protobuf (device comms).

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

The BLE stack uses a multiplatform interface-driven architecture. Platform-agnostic interfaces live in commonMain, utilizing the Kable multiplatform BLE library to handle device communication across all supported targets (Android, Desktop). This provides a robust, Coroutine-based architecture for reliable device communication while remaining fully KMP compatible. See core/ble/README.md for details.

API & Integration

Developers can integrate with the Meshtastic Android app using our published API library via JitPack. This allows third-party applications (like the ATAK plugin) to communicate with the mesh service via AIDL.

For detailed integration instructions, see core/api/README.md.

Additionally, the app includes a built-in Local TAK Server feature that can be enabled in settings. This runs a local TCP server on port 8089 to allow ATAK clients to connect directly and route their traffic over the mesh.

Building the Android App

Warning

Debug and release builds can be installed concurrently. This is solely to enable smoother development, and you should avoid running both apps simultaneously. To ensure proper function, force quit the app not in use.

https://meshtastic.org/docs/development/android/

Note: when building the google flavor locally you will need to supply your own Google Maps Android SDK api key MAPS_API_KEY in local.properties in order to use Google Maps. e.g.

MAPS_API_KEY=your_google_maps_api_key_here

Repository Statistics

Copyright 2025, Meshtastic LLC. GPL-3.0 license