Practise a power cut with your street

How to run it

1. Agree a time with your household and the neighbours you've invited: a group chat, a note through the door, or a word over the fence.
2. Everyone opens Lantern. Tap I have Lantern: open it above and the drill guide walks you through it, ticking off each step as you go (it's in Settings → Power cut drill any time after). Or tap Practise a power cut on the street map. Either way Lantern switches into its power-cut mode and saves battery, just as it would in a real cut, while the mains stay on.
3. Check in. Tap I'm OK, or Have supplies with a note: a torch, spare batteries, a camping stove. Someone else in your house checks in too, from the House tab on their phone.
4. Hear your neighbours. Phones from other houses show up on your street map. If one end of the street can't reach the other, a phone in a house in between joins them up.
5. Send one message to the street and watch it arrive on the others' phones. Each message shows how many hops it took, house to house.
6. Tap End practice when the guide says “Drill done”.

Not set up yet?

1. Install Lantern on your iPhone (iOS 26 or later). It's free, with no account and no ads. Android is on its way.
2. Set up your household: the first phone in your house starts it and everyone else scans its code, so your home counts once on the street.
3. Invite your neighbours: in Lantern, tap Invite (top right), then Your street, for a QR code, a link, a door card or an NFC sticker.

• ⚡
  Works in a power cutNo mobile signal, no Wi-Fi, no internet needed: every phone relays for the others.
• ✋
  Check in, ask for helpTell the street you're OK, that you need help, or what you can share.
• 🔒
  Private by designNo servers, no account, no tracking. Private messages are end-to-end encrypted.