Mesh+ and the official Meshtastic app
How they differ, checked on October 27, 2026.
Mesh+ is a small, MIT-licensed Android app for Meshtastic radios, made to do one thing simply: chat with the people on your mesh. The official Meshtastic app, made by the Meshtastic project, does everything the firmware can. Both talk to the same radios on Meshtastic firmware 2.x, so you can switch from one to the other at any time.
Pick the official app when you need
- Maps, waypoints, and alerts when nodes cross a zone you draw.
- Telemetry, including air-quality sensors.
- Full device and channel configuration, and mesh discovery to find the nodes and channels around you.
- The app most of the community uses: it has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on Google Play.
Pick Mesh+ when you want
- Setup in a few steps: plug the radio in with USB-C (the phone powers it) or connect over Bluetooth, then pick your region and a name.
- All your chats in one list: the public channel, private encrypted rooms you invite people to with a QR code or a link, and direct messages, with unread badges.
- An SMS relay: when one phone on the mesh has a SIM card, people in a private room can send and receive regular text messages through it.
- Firmware updates for nRF52 radios over USB, with every version Meshtastic publishes for your board to choose from.
- Every node setting explained in plain words, a demo mode for trying the app without a radio, and an app of about 3 MB that needs Android 12 or newer.
Get them
- Mesh+: Google Play, APK, source code
- The official app: Google Play, source code
Sources: the Meshtastic-Android README (features of its 2.8 releases) and its Google Play listing, checked on October 27, 2026. Mesh+ is an independent project, not affiliated with Meshtastic LLC. Meshtastic® is a registered trademark of Meshtastic LLC.