Help, and how to reach us.

• Open Lantern on both phones and give it 10–20 seconds.
• Check Bluetooth is on in Settings → Bluetooth, and allowed for Lantern in Settings → Privacy & Security → Bluetooth.
• Bring them closer. Walls, floors and bodies cut Bluetooth range a lot. Start in the same room.
• Don't swipe Lantern away in the app switcher. iOS stops Bluetooth for apps you close that way. Just lock your phone instead, and Lantern keeps relaying.
• The top bar shows BLE and a number: that's how many phones you're linked to right now.

• Allow notifications for Lantern in iOS Settings → Notifications → Lantern.
• In Lantern, open Settings → Notifications and check the kinds you want are on. You can send yourself a test notification there.
• A Focus mode or Do Not Disturb can hold notifications back.
• Lantern has to be running, so don't swipe it away (see above).

When mobile signal and Wi-Fi have both been gone for 30 seconds, Lantern switches to outage mode: the radio listens for 2 seconds, then sleeps for 14, while staying connected to phones it already knows. That uses much less power than searching all the time. You can force either mode in Settings → Mesh & radio → Power mode. iOS Low Power Mode helps too.

To see outage mode without a power cut, flip the Cut the power switch on the main screen. It only changes your phone, as a drill.

Every message is signed with the sender's key. “Unverified” means your phone hasn't received that sender's key yet, usually because they're several hops away. It normally clears within a minute. Pairing with someone by QR code verifies them for good.

Anyone can pick any house name. If a phone you haven't paired with uses the same name as someone you have paired with, or live with, Lantern adds “(not paired)” so it can't pass as them. Be careful what you share with it.

Private messages need both of you to trust each other: either you've both scanned each other's code, or you're in the same household. Your phone also needs to hear theirs once, directly or through other phones, to fetch their keys. A one-way scan isn't enough. That's deliberate: it stops strangers messaging you privately.

To join, scan the household code from the House tab of a phone that's already in it, using Lantern or the iPhone Camera app. If a code opens Lantern from the Camera app or a link, Lantern asks before joining.

To leave, use House tab → ⋯ → Leave household. Leaving forgets the key on your phone only. If a phone is lost or someone shouldn't be in the household any more, create a new household and have everyone else scan the new code. There's no way yet to remove one phone from an existing household.

Open Settings → You. In a household that's your own name, and the street sees it with your house's, like “Sarah · Mill Cottage”. On your own, it's your house's name. Neighbours and your household see the change straight away; people who paired with you keep the name they scanned.

Everyone in the house needs to be in the same household. A household is one house on the street, however many phones it has.

1. On the phone that started your household: House tab → Invite to show its code.
2. On each other phone: if it started a household of its own, House tab → ⋯ → Leave household. Then, under Join my household, tap Scan and scan the code.
3. On every phone, Settings → You: put in just your own name, like “Sarah”.

Neighbours' maps catch up as soon as each phone has sent something.

Tap their house on the map or in the Street tab, then Block or Report…. In a private conversation, use the ⋯ menu. Blocking hides them on your phone straight away, and they're not told. You can unblock in Settings → Contacts & blocking.

Report… prepares an email to us with the details. Include anything that helps us understand what happened. Because there are no servers, we can't remove messages from other people's phones, but we read every report within 24 hours. You can also hide everyone you haven't paired with: Settings → Security & privacy → Show street messages from.

Yes: Settings → Mesh & radio → Relay for neighbours. Your own messages still go out, but your phone stops carrying anyone else's, which makes the mesh weaker for your street. Your phone can't read the encrypted messages it carries.

Add a Lantern widget to your Home Screen or Lock Screen (touch and hold an empty spot, then Edit → Add Widget), or add Lantern's controls to Control Center or the Action button. I'm OK checks you in straight away without opening Lantern, and so does saying “I'm OK in Lantern” to Siri. Need help always opens Lantern and asks before sending, so a stray tap can't send a help call.

Choose what widgets show in Settings → Widgets & controls: names and notes, names only, or just counts. They never show more than your Lock-screen previews allow, and with App lock on they show counts only.

Lantern on Apple Watch is a companion to your iPhone: it shows your street, your household and your private messages, and lets you check in, reply and answer a help call with On my way. Add a Lantern complication to see your status and how many neighbours need help on your watch face.

To install it: on your iPhone, open the Watch app → My Watch → Available Apps. Your iPhone does the radio work, so keep it nearby. To keep private message text off your wrist, turn off Settings → Apple Watch → Private messages on Apple Watch.

Your keys are kept on this phone only, on purpose, so they don't move to a new phone or come back from a backup. On the new phone, set Lantern up again, rejoin your household, and pair again with neighbours. Private conversation history doesn't move either.

Settings → Data & storage → Erase everything removes your keys, household, pairings, the people you send news to, private conversations and settings, and starts Lantern again with a new identity. Copies already on other people's phones, such as street messages you sent, can't be removed. See the privacy policy.

Open Settings → Mesh & radio → Satellite & outside. Lantern writes a short report of you, your house and the street, and you choose whether it includes your household and the street. You choose who gets it, either from Contacts (iOS shows Lantern only the number or email you tap) or by typing a number. Apple's Messages app opens with the text, and nothing is sent until you tap Send.

No signal on your phone? Ask a neighbour you've paired with, or someone in your household, who does have signal. The request reaches them end-to-end encrypted, they see the message and who it's for, and they tap Send in their Messages app. You're told when it has gone.

Tap the street summary at the top of the Street screen to open Street milestones, then Invite neighbours. You can show a QR code, send a link, print a door card (A6, four to a sheet of A4, fine in black and white) or write the link to a blank NFC sticker (NTAG213 or bigger) for a door, gate or lamppost.

A neighbour scans or taps it with their iPhone camera. With Lantern installed, Lantern opens and asks before pairing you. Without it, they see the Lantern App Clip or our invite page, which explain Lantern and link to the App Store. After they install and set up, Lantern asks them about your invite. Anyone with the invite can pair with you, so put it where your neighbours will find it.

Your street grows on screen as more homes join: a home on its own, then a hamlet (2 homes), a village (7), a town (33) and a city (73). People in one household count as one home. The summary at the top of the Street screen shows how many more homes you need for the next size, and there are fireworks when your street reaches a new one. Every new home is also another relay, so messages reach further in a power cut.

Tap a paired neighbour or household member on the street, then the find button (or Find nearby in your private conversation). They're asked to share for 10 minutes. On iPhones with Ultra Wideband (iPhone 11 and later, except iPhone SE and iPhone 16e), Lantern then shows an arrow and how far away they are. Hold your phone upright and move it slowly so the camera can help with direction. On other iPhones, or when Ultra Wideband can't get a fix, Lantern shows warmer or colder from Bluetooth signal strength.

Both of you need Lantern open, and you need to be within Bluetooth range (about 30 metres). If you've asked for help and left When I ask for help, contacts can find me on, your contacts can find you without you having to answer.

Not by itself: iOS doesn't let apps use satellite. On iPhone 14 and later, Apple's Messages app can send texts by satellite in some countries, so news you send out with Messages may go that way when there's no signal. Emergency SOS by satellite is part of iOS, not Lantern.

A second radio, alongside Bluetooth: phone-to-phone Wi-Fi with no router and no internet. It needs iPhone 12 or later and iOS 26 on both phones, and it only works between phones you've paired once through Apple's pairing sheet, in Settings → Mesh & radio → Wi-Fi Aware. It carries the same signed and encrypted messages as Bluetooth. To remove a pairing, use iOS Settings → Privacy & Security.

No. Lantern talks phone to phone over Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi Aware if you pair. It has no servers, no account, and never asks for your location. The only thing that ever leaves through the phone network is news you choose to send yourself with the Messages app.