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# Retichat-android Testing Needed

_Showcase · started by jrl290 on Thu, May 28, 2026 4:26 PM_

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## Original post

**jrl290** · Thu, May 28, 2026 4:26 PM

I now have released an Android version of my Retichat LXMF/RFed client on Github (and soon Google Play store):

https://github.com/jrl290/Retichat-android/releases/tag/v0.1.1

All open source. Heavily AI written (yes I am an app developer of 15 years)

I did a more detailed description of Retichat and RFed on the iOS release post here:

https://rns.recipes/forum/showcase/retichat-ios-testing-needed

But here are the highlights:

The design goal of Retichat is to be a (mostly) grandma friendly chat app, hiding most of Reticulum's complexity behind familiar chat interface.

Secondary to that goal is to showcase a subscription-centric distribution mechanism called RFed, which is an extension to LXMF store-and-forward server and is heavily based on it. In Retichat, this enables chatroom "Channels" that can be either public or private, but is designed to be generic for other uses

And the two other unique features are a Group mode that requires no extra infrastructure and adds minimal extra protocol, and true mobile push notification. Push notification requires RFed but enables mobile clients to avoid having a constant background connection which is a major battery drain and isn't allowed on Apple devices

Everything is early but definitely converging as lessons are learned and the code gets refined

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## Reply 1

**Search** · Fri, Jun 5, 2026 1:41 PM

Reti-Chat continually crashes when I try to enter the setup to create an identity.

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## Reply 2

**jrl290** · Fri, Jun 5, 2026 2:43 PM

Just a symbol problem caused by the minify. Here's a new release: https://github.com/jrl290/Retichat-android/releases/tag/v0.1.1

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## Reply 3

**Search** · Fri, Jun 5, 2026 6:38 PM

Yes, that did solve the problem. Thank you!

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## Reply 4

**Search** · Fri, Jun 5, 2026 6:50 PM

I am curious what Groups and Channels refer to. Are channels related to RRC channels?

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## Reply 5

**jrl290** · Fri, Jun 5, 2026 7:40 PM

**Search** wrote:

> I am curious what Groups and Channels refer to. Are channels related to RRC channels?

RRC requires a server to host the channel and has control over the channel

An RFed Channel requires at least one federation node is otherwise not defined by any hardware. Much like the Reticulum network itself. The "Channel" is ephemeral. You could type anything into the address box and it would be a Channel. The key is that the RFed nodes synchronize with each other in order to distribute messages to anyone who also has that Channel address

Groups are purely adhoc. Nothing outside of the Reticulum network is required. The group participants do all of the message distribution

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## Reply 6

**Search** · Fri, Jun 5, 2026 8:57 PM

Cool - thanks for the information... I also found https://github.com/jrl290/RFed and went through the README. I admit I don't quit understand all of it but am pretty excited about the possibilties.

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## Reply 7

**batrat** · Thu, Jun 25, 2026 7:00 AM

I'm not able to connect with Retichat Android. Can't send messages and other peers don't have a path.

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## Reply 8

**circfruit** · Tue, Jun 30, 2026 6:50 AM

I tested only iOS version, but what I'd like to see is an announce button. I kind of feel handicapped without it 😄

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## Reply 9

**jrl290** · Tue, Jun 30, 2026 9:30 PM

**batrat** wrote:

> I'm not able to connect with Retichat Android. Can't send messages and other peers don't have a path.

New release available: https://github.com/jrl290/Retichat-android/releases

**circfruit** wrote:

> I tested only iOS version, but what I'd like to see is an announce button. I kind of feel handicapped without it 😄

It's a QC handicap. If you have to press the "Please work" button, it is not working as I intend it to work

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## Reply 10

**Mastodon** · Tue, Jun 30, 2026 11:23 PM

Can a channel be reached from Meshchat?

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## Reply 11

**jrl290** · Wed, Jul 1, 2026 12:34 AM

**Mastodon** wrote:

> Can a channel be reached from Meshchat?

Negative. An RFed Channel is a specific protocol that has to be implemented. And that is in the name of the core design principle of Reticulum: no intermediary node is trustworthy.

Reticulum Relay Chat offers a "hub" based chat mechanism. If you want to subscribe to a group, it has to be on that hub. That hub can shut down the chat if desired. Or it can be taken down

RFed is a federated chat implementation. It operates like LXMF store and forward. You connect to a node. All nodes synchronize with each other. The namespace of all channels is global. No one has admin rights. Private channels are the same as public channels but with a key pair that is shared out-of-band

In my view, subscriber based data transfer is a major boost to capability of the network. Right now, only my apps implement it. But time will tell if it wins in the marketplace of ideas

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## Reply 12

**batrat** · Fri, Jul 3, 2026 4:26 PM

I still can't send or receive. All other Reticulum apps work well. Could they be conflicting with Retichat? I also don't have play services installed but I doubt the app depends on them in any way?

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## Reply 13

**jrl290** · Fri, Jul 3, 2026 5:32 PM

**batrat** wrote:

> I still can't send or receive. All other Reticulum apps work well. Could they be conflicting with Retichat? I also don't have play services installed but I doubt the app depends on them in any way?

No, they wouldn't be conflicting. Play services might be required for push notifications but not for anything while the app is open.

Do you get any checkmarks on sent messages? Or is it all x's

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## Reply 14

**batrat** · Fri, Jul 3, 2026 7:34 PM

It's all x. I have (had) default tcp endpoints, auto-LAN and i2p enabled. And I've been mixing and matching them.

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## Reply 15

**jrl290** · Fri, Jul 3, 2026 8:35 PM

>I have (had) default tcp endpoints, auto-LAN and i2p enabled.

Ah, everything except tcp is stubs right now. Sorry about that. Would you try removing those and only configuring tcp manually?

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## Reply 16

**batrat** · Fri, Jul 3, 2026 9:35 PM

Ah that explains. Thank you, it works now. It seems I didn't try plain tcp after all. Anyway, nice job with the app. Just curious, what did you set for the announce interval?

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## Reply 17

**jrl290** · Fri, Jul 3, 2026 11:22 PM

It announces whenever the app foregrounds or an interface connects. Then every 30 minutes on an interface (if you left the app open the whole time) and no more than every 5 minutes on an interface

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## Reply 18

**batrat** · Sun, Jul 5, 2026 6:53 PM

Nice to know. If it is possible I would suggest adding support for UnifiedPush. Also identity management would be good but I suspect that is already on the roadmap.

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## Reply 19

**jrl290** · Mon, Jul 6, 2026 1:45 AM

I did look into UnifiedPush. Sadly:

Q: Will UnifiedPush ever work on iOS?

iOS doesn’t support running services in the background, so running a UnifiedPush distributor won’t be possible without jailbreaking or Apple’s approval for the foreseeable future. If someone has a solution, please share that in the chat.

That also means that their Android implementation also runs in the background. And that unfortunately makes it power hungry. I'm certainly not opposed to getting out of the Apple and Android ecosystems. But for this project, the goal is mainstream accessibility

Yes, identity management will be part of the app as it develops

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## Reply 20

**batrat** · Mon, Jul 6, 2026 6:02 AM

Thanks for your reply. That's understandable. I think people usually run the server side on desktop servers though. At least on my GrapheneOS, the Sunup app that receives and distributes the notifications does not consume any more battery than Play Services would.

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## Reply 21

**batrat** · Tue, Jul 7, 2026 3:12 PM

Another topic. I'm not sure changing the display name is needed. Grandma won't understand that could be announced globally and not everybody would want that. I don't think it brings much value but does needlessly sacrifice anonymity.

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## Reply 22

**jrl290** · Tue, Jul 7, 2026 8:39 PM

When I read your forum post it says "batrat" followed by "500e6ab103644d2839781081cb689906"

Would you prefer for me to only see "500e6ab103644d2839781081cb689906"?

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## Reply 23

**batrat** · Tue, Jul 7, 2026 9:07 PM

Sorry for not providing a sensible alternative, which I think would be that the person adding a contact would name that contact on their device.

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## Reply 24

**batrat** · Tue, Jul 7, 2026 9:13 PM

That obviously would be device specific which has its downsides too. Integration of Reticulum identities with a Contacts app would be cool (not the scope of this app of course).

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## Reply 25

**jrl290** · Wed, Jul 8, 2026 12:42 AM

Renaming people is in there already. It's just up to the person how they want to present themselves and how others want to label you in their contacts

But yes, I think it'll be integral to have a way to manage multiple addresses for the same person. Exactly how to go about choosing which one to message will be a very tough puzzle to solve

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## Reply 26

**batrat** · Wed, Jul 8, 2026 6:24 AM

One last thought about announces. Maybe there could be a notice warning that your display name could be globally seen by any Reticulum user? So people at least have an idea about what they are doing when they rename themselves. Announces themselves are not mentioned in the app and newcomers won't realize their presence is globally seen just by opening the app for the first time

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## Reply 27

**jrl290** · Wed, Jul 8, 2026 5:28 PM

I hear what you're saying and you're right. Let me look into it

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## Reply 28

**jrl290** · Wed, Jul 8, 2026 6:37 PM

I'm changing the way Retichat works to put FIELD_SENDER_NAME in direct message metadata instead of in LXMF announces. Non-standard, but too bad. I think you're absolutely right

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## Reply 29

**Anonymous** · Thu, Jul 9, 2026 1:15 PM

Quick test report:

I am missing the annouces. Thanks to the ability to see the announces, people can start conversations with strabgers. Also you know the network connection is working fine.

I2P is there but Tor support is missing.

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