Friday, October 3, 2014

#FireChat mobile app powering #umbrella revolution in #HongKong #OccupyCentral

A Mobile Chat app called FireChat an "off-the-grid" messaging app that lets users to communicate with other users over Bluetooth without having to connect to the Internet is helping the pro democracy protesters of Hong Kong to connect with each other.

The app users don’t need WiFi or Internet connection to chat to one another on the app. They only need an another person with the same app within a 70-meter radius. It was the single most downloaded app from the Hong Kong iOS App Store. The app is also available for Android. The more users, the better the FireChat network performs, and the further the signal reaches. The device-to-device range is about 40-70 meters.

Chinese authorities are blocking Instagram on the mainland; Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo! Inc.’s Flickr and YouTube are also inaccessible in China .China shuts down access to millions of foreign sites each year. The communist rulers of China believe that uncensored access to social networks would cause social disruption and ignite protests for freedom and democracy.