2900 days ago, I had an idea for an app that enabled phone-to-phone messaging without the internet.
I called it Tin-Can.
Tin-Can is a one-to-many messaging system like Twitter, but without using the internet. Messages hop between phones using BLE. There is no central database. There is no user registration. Usernames have a random string associated with them to ensure they are unique. You can change your username any time.
Tin-Can has likes/dislikes and threads. You can follow specific users, and you can export and share your data with someone over email/sms/etc.
Here's the backstory:
JakobVirgil tried to build it with me. We had a successful kickstarter, and raised $1800.
Watch the kickstarter video steve made. It's awesome.
Anyhow, JV hit a wall, and insomniasexx joined the effort with a mutual friend of ours. We finally got an Android version built and were featured in Ars Technica and I was interviewed on Marketplace Tech. Heady times...
Unfortunately, we had to use WiFi to sync at the time, and functionality was very fragmented across Android devices. Tin-Can kinda sucked.
However, time passed, and low energy blue tooth (BLE) arose as a uniform near field standard. I could not let Tin-Can die. After much time, effort, and wrangling with the Apple app store, Tin-Can is now available on iOS and Android. It is better than ever.
Try it out. Let's hope we never really need it!