Recent user-facing changes from roughly the last 12 months. Newest at the top.
Sep 2026 — Firmware Updates — Factory Erase now uses the OTAFIX bootloader's own erase when the radio's bootloader supports it: one file for every board, and the installed firmware is kept, so the radio boots factory-fresh instead of needing firmware reinstalled. Older bootloaders are unchanged.
Sep 2026 — Firmware Updates — The bootloader board list and erase files are now fetched from meshtastic.org in the background rather than being fixed at each app release, so newly supported boards work without an app update. The app still ships with a copy and falls back to it when offline. Five more boards are supported as a result.
Aug 2026 — Settings — New Waypoints notification setting: received-waypoint alerts can be switched off on their own. Reaction alerts follow the existing message notification settings.
Jul 2026 — Settings — Packet Authenticity: on firmware that reports XEdDSA support, Security settings gains a Protection Level of Compatible, Balanced, or Strict, controlling whether your radio accepts mesh packets it cannot cryptographically authenticate; Strict asks for confirmation first, and the setting matches the Meshtastic app for Android.
Jul 2026 — Bluetooth Device Connection — Connect now shows an inline "Bluetooth is off" row in Available Radios when Bluetooth is disabled, with a tap-to-open-Settings shortcut — previously there was no in-app signal once the system Bluetooth power alert was suppressed.
Jul 2026 — Messages — Received tapback reactions now notify (e.g. "Alice reacted 👍 to …"), matching iMessage and Meshtastic-Android; muted conversations are respected, the unread-badge behavior is unchanged, and reactions to messages your radio never saw are stored silently.
Jul 2026 — Local Mesh Discovery — Mesh beacons: scans capture beacons advertising a mesh (message, channel, region, preset) and show them in the results. Public-channel presets are auto-added to the scan and pre-selected next time; custom-channel beacons are tuned into directly (name + key) so even private meshes are found. Each beaconed channel gets a Switch to this channel button to join it.
Jul 2026 — Map & Waypoints — Precise locations only: a new Map Options toggle hides nodes that broadcast an approximate (reduced-precision) location — the ones drawn with a translucent precision circle — so the mesh map shows only nodes reporting an exact position.
Jul 2026 — Lockdown Mode — Support for hardened lockdown-firmware radios: set or enter the device passphrase in a full-screen prompt, with per-radio Keychain passphrase storage and silent re-unlock, optional session limits (boots, hours, per-boot cap), and Lock Now / Forget Stored Passphrase in Security settings.
Jun 2026 — Map & Waypoints — Waypoint geofences: give a waypoint a circular radius and/or a bounding box and get a local alert when nodes enter or leave it, optionally limited to your favorites.
Jun 2026 — Nodes — Local display names: give any node a local nickname shown in place of its long name across the node list, node detail, and messages. Set it from the long-press menu or the Name row in Node Detail — local-only, never sent over the mesh.
Jun 2026 — Map & Waypoints — Trace routes on the map: signal-colored, directional outbound/return lines (green→red by hop SNR) with a guided 3D satellite flyover and speed control, opened with Show on Map.
Jun 2026 — Messages — Packet signing (firmware 2.8+): verified, signed broadcast messages now show a green shield, and Message Details reveals "Signed · verified". The encryption lock (private DMs) is unchanged; unsigned traffic is never flagged.
Jun 2026 — Nodes — Signed node: nodes that sign their broadcasts show a green shield "Signed node — Verified automatically" row in the detail view (firmware 2.8+), reflecting automatic, radio-observed trust.
Jun 2026 — Settings — LoRa region/preset compatibility (firmware 2.8+): the Presets picker is filtered to those legal for the selected region, switches to the region default when needed, and warns on licensed amateur (ham) bands. The new 2.8 ham/narrow regions and presets are hidden on 2.7.x and earlier radios.
Jun 2026 — Settings — Traffic Management updated for the 2.8 firmware schema: features are now enabled implicitly by a non-zero value; the precision-bits and hop-management options were removed.
Jun 2026 — Nodes — Persistent node filters: online, favorites, distance, hops, roles, and connection-type filters are now remembered between launches and shared across the Nodes list, Messages contacts, and map. Search text still clears on relaunch.
Jun 2026 — Getting Started — Redesigned first-launch setup: a clearer guided flow for Bluetooth, Local Network, Notifications, Location, and Siri permissions with colored icons and per-notification toggles.
Jun 2026 — MQTT — MQTT client proxy improvements: per-channel downlink subscriptions, zero-hop injection to prevent RF re-broadcast, password masking, and removal of the deprecated JSON mode toggle.
Jun 2026 — Settings — Packet Stream: watch mesh packets cross the network live in the Debug Logs view, paced for readability, with collapsible Categories and Log Levels filters.
May 2026 — Settings — Audio Module Config: Codec2 voice communication settings, only available on 2.4 GHz radios (LORA_24 region).
May 2026 — Settings — Neighbor Info Module Config: neighbor info broadcasting with configurable update interval (4–72 hours).
May 2026 — Settings — Pax Counter: added Wi-Fi and BLE RSSI threshold fields for device counting sensitivity.
May 2026 — Settings — Compass Orientation: new 8-option picker in Display config for radios mounted at non-standard angles.
May 2026 — Translate — Docs Translation Pipeline: community-sourced translations shared via CDN so future users get instant localized docs.
May 2026 — Translate — Automatic Documentation Translation: on iOS 26+, in-app docs are translated into your device language using the Apple Translation framework.
May 2026 — Documentation — Ask Chirpy: on iOS 26+, tap the sparkle icon in the docs to ask an on-device AI assistant grounded in this documentation; with internet it may also reference meshtastic.org sources.
May 2026 — Messages — Message Formatting Toolbar (iOS 18+/macOS 15+): bold, italic, strikethrough, code, and link formatting with live preview.
May 2026 — Nodes — Node List Layout: switchable Complete and Compact density modes; Compact reduces row height for large meshes.
May 2026 — Units, Measurement & Locale — New page explaining how the app automatically adapts temperatures, distances, speeds, and times to your device's regional settings.
May 2026 — Messages — Channel conversations now load the most recent 50 messages with a Load More button for older history.
May 2026 — CarPlay — Direct message list is now capped at 200 users sorted by most recent, improving performance on large meshes.
May 2026 — Translate — New page explaining how to contribute app translations via Xcode string catalogs.
May 2026 — Signal Meter — New deep-dive page explaining how the LoRa signal quality meter works, why negative SNR values are normal, and how to interpret RSSI vs. SNR.
May 2026 — Apple Watch App — New page covering the companion watch app: node list, fox hunt compass, and how it syncs with your iPhone.
Apr 2026 — CarPlay — New page documenting CarPlay support: channels, direct messages, Siri voice commands, and Live Activity.
Apr 2026 — Discovery — New page covering the local mesh discovery scanner for mapping nearby nodes.