Team on the map
Every teammate is a coloured point on the OsmAnd map that moves as their radio reports in. Each person keeps the same colour everywhere.
Your Meshtastic team, live on the OsmAnd map.
MeshAnd is a free Android app that connects to your own Meshtastic radio over Bluetooth and puts everyone in your mesh on the map you already navigate with. No internet. No mobile coverage. No extra map app to juggle.
- Android 7.0 or newer
- A Meshtastic radio
- OsmAnd, free or Pro
- Free and open source
How it works
From radio to map, without the internet
Meshtastic radios are cheap, run for days on a battery and pass GPS positions and messages to each other over long-range LoRa radio, kilometres apart, where phones have no signal. MeshAnd brings those positions into OsmAnd, where your offline maps, tracks and navigation already live.
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Radios talk over LoRa
Each person carries a Meshtastic radio with GPS. The radios share positions over a private channel, hopping through each other to reach further.
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MeshAnd listens over Bluetooth
MeshAnd connects to your own radio, picks up everyone it hears, and keeps the link alive in your pocket with the screen off.
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OsmAnd shows the team
Every teammate appears on the OsmAnd map as a coloured point that moves as their radio reports in. You keep using OsmAnd as usual.
Features
Everything happens on the map you already use
Team list inside OsmAnd
A map widget and a menu item list everyone nearest first, with distance. One tap shows them on the map or starts navigation to them.
Trails
Tap a teammate on the map and choose Trail to see where they've been over the last 30 minutes to 6 hours, drawn in their colour, with a marker where it started.
Shared pins
Tap a place in OsmAnd, then Share → MeshAnd pin. Your team gets a notification
and a pin on their map, sent as a tiny text message: meshand: 41.75002,44.77124.
Chat Next version
Every channel on your radio has its own conversation, and direct messages to one person get theirs. You see when a message was delivered or relayed, and get a notification for new ones.
Phone GPS for your radio Next version
If your radio's GPS is stuck indoors, in a car or broken, MeshAnd can give it your phone's location. The radio shares it with the team on its usual schedule. Off until you switch it on.
Is the GPS working?
See when your radio last got a new GPS position and how many satellites it sees. Teammates whose radio keeps re-sending an old position are flagged "GPS not updating".
Quiet-teammate alerts
Choose who to watch, and get a notification if someone hasn't been heard for 15 minutes to 2 hours.
Radio details Next version
See your radio's battery (or "Plugged in"), how busy the channel is, your own airtime, how long it has been running, and its hardware, firmware, role and LoRa settings.
- Stays connected in your pocket. Works with the screen off, reconnects by itself and remembers your radio.
- Remembers trails and pins across restarts, with one button to clear them.
- Only shows people heard in the last 24 hours, so old nodes don't clutter the map.
- Light or dark theme, or follow the phone.
- Mostly just listens. It transmits only what you choose to send, and never changes your radio's settings.
- No account, no server. Its only internet use is checking GitHub for a new version, and you can switch that off.
Chat, phone GPS and radio details are built and being field-tested. They'll arrive in the next release; the current download doesn't have them yet.
Who it's for
Small groups heading out of coverage
- Hikers, cyclists and riders who go where phones lose signal and want to know where everyone is.
- Teams with Meshtastic radios who'd rather not keep switching between a map app and a radio app.
- OsmAnd users who already navigate with its offline maps, contour lines and tracks.
- Not for iPhone. Only OsmAnd for Android lets other apps draw on its map. iPhone teammates can use the Meshtastic iOS app; their radios still show up in MeshAnd.
What you need
Three things
An Android phone
Android 7.0 or newer. Tested on Android 7 and Android 16.
A Meshtastic radio with GPS, per person
Built and tested with the LILYGO T-Beam Supreme. Other Meshtastic radios with Bluetooth and GPS should work too, including ones you build yourself.
OsmAnd
The free version from Google Play is enough. OsmAnd Pro works the same way.
Install
Up and running in five steps
Set up the radios
With the official Meshtastic app: region, a private team channel, role Client, and faster position updates. The defaults send a position only about once an hour, so read the radio setup guide for what to change and why.
Install MeshAnd
Download the APK from the latest release and open it on the phone. Android will ask you to allow installing apps from that source.
Connect to your radio
Open MeshAnd, grant the Bluetooth permission, scan, and tap your radio. On the first connection, type the 6-digit PIN shown on the radio's screen.
Allow MeshAnd in OsmAnd
Turn on Show on OsmAnd in MeshAnd. The first time, OsmAnd blocks new apps until you allow them:
OsmAnd→Menu→Plugins→MeshAnd: on
Use OsmAnd as usual
Your team appears on the map. If the "Meshtastic team" widget doesn't show, enable it under OsmAnd → Menu → Configure screen.
From then on, MeshAnd reconnects to your radio by itself. It also keeps
itself up to date: when you open it and a new version is out, it shows a Download
button (you can switch this off in Settings → About). Install the new APK over the
old one and your radio and settings are kept. Every release is signed with the same key and
comes with a .sha256 file.
Good to know
Before your first trip
Positions are only as fresh as the radios send them
A private channel and the position settings in the radio guide make a huge difference. With them, a walking teammate updates about every minute.
One phone per radio
A radio talks to only one app over Bluetooth at a time. Disconnect the Meshtastic app before connecting MeshAnd.
Battery savers
Some phones stop apps in the background. If the link drops with the screen off, exempt MeshAnd from battery optimisation.
A hobby project
MeshAnd was written entirely by an AI (Claude Code), steered by a person who tested it on real radios and phones. It works for us; read the code before trusting it with anything important.
Questions
Frequently asked
Does MeshAnd need internet or mobile coverage?
No. Positions travel between the radios over LoRa, and your phone talks to your own radio over Bluetooth. OsmAnd works offline once you've downloaded the maps for your region. MeshAnd's only internet use is its update check, which you can switch off.
Which Meshtastic radios work with MeshAnd?
MeshAnd was built and tested with the LILYGO T-Beam Supreme. Other Meshtastic radios with Bluetooth and GPS should work the same way, including ones you build yourself. Radios without GPS still appear, but have no position to put on the map.
Do I need OsmAnd Pro?
No. The free OsmAnd from Google Play is enough, and OsmAnd Pro works the same way. The first time, allow MeshAnd in OsmAnd → Menu → Plugins.
Do I still need the Meshtastic app?
Only to set up the radios: region, a private channel, role and position settings. MeshAnd never changes your radio's settings. Day to day, MeshAnd is the app connected to your radio, and a radio talks to only one app at a time.
How often do teammates move on the map?
As often as their radios send a position. With the default settings that's only about once an hour; with the settings in the radio setup guide, a walking teammate updates about every minute.
Is there an iPhone version?
No. Only OsmAnd for Android lets other apps draw on its map. Teammates with an iPhone can use the Meshtastic iOS app, and their radios still show up in MeshAnd.
Is MeshAnd free?
Yes. It's free software under the GPL-3.0, with no account and no server. The source code is on GitHub.
Guides and source
Learn more
Radio setup guideChannel, role and position settings for a moving team.
What's newChanges in every version, written for app users.
All releasesEvery version as a ready-to-install APK.
Source codeThe full app on GitHub. Pull requests welcome.
Developer guideBuilding it yourself and how the code is organised.
DiscussionsQuestions, ideas and trip reports.
Report a bugSomething not working? Open an issue.
GPL-3.0 licenseFree software: use, change and share it.