Can anyone suggest an offline local voice chat app for Android and iOS? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by watty@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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It really seems like I ought to be able to connect a few devices locally via Bluetooth or teathering, and be able to have an open voice chat between those devices without an internet connection, and without push-to-talk.

Anyone aware of something like this that works? I've tried a few candidates, but I haven't had much luck getting something to work.

For extra context on why I want this: I lead a sport kite team, and as the leader, I give vocal commands to tell the rest of the team what to do, and keep us coordinated. We usually use walkie talkies for this, but the one-way communication, the limited non-PTT support, and potential international regulation problems make this workable but not ideal.

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[-] Rain@lm.melonbread.dev 11 points 1 year ago

You could host a mumble server on a LAN

[-] watty@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Ohh, I'd never heard of Mumble. Just did a quick look, and I could see how I could rig something together with a raspberry pi and some peripherals to make this work. It's certainly worth investigating.

Thank you for the suggestion!

[-] jet@hackertalks.com 7 points 1 year ago

The two things that immediately came to my mind were briar and Berty. I just tested both out for your use case and neither of them have voice messages. But they do have text messages and meshing.

[-] watty@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Yea, I've looked at those too. If they just had voice chat, they could be a winner

[-] jackpot@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

how far away does bluetooth even work? i mean could you not just use signal or session or some onlime option?

[-] watty@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Bluetooth can get a couple hundred feet of range, which would be plenty.

I don't want to rely on an online option, because this is often used on the coast or internationally where cell service may be unreliable or non-existent.

this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023

33 points (94.6% liked)

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