The deal, in plain English.

Last updated 12 October 2026

These terms apply when you use the Lantern app or this website. Lantern is published by Matt Fleming (“we”, “us”). When you download Lantern from the App Store, Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies; these terms add to it. If you don't agree with them, please don't use Lantern.

1. What Lantern does, and what it can't promise

Lantern lets iPhones nearby exchange messages over Bluetooth, each phone relaying for the others, without mobile signal, Wi-Fi or internet. Whether a message gets through depends on things nobody controls: how many phones with Lantern are nearby and switched on, walls and distance, battery, Bluetooth settings, and how iOS treats apps in the background. So:

• we can't promise that any message, check-in or help request will be delivered, delivered quickly, or delivered at all;
• the range, hop count and battery figures shown in the app and on this site are estimates, not guarantees;
• Lantern only works while it is running. If you swipe it away in the app switcher, iOS stops its Bluetooth until you open it again.
• news you send to people outside the street goes through Apple's Messages app and your mobile network, under their terms, and normal charges may apply. Whether satellite messaging is offered depends on your iPhone, your region and Apple. Lantern can't send by satellite itself.

Don't rely on Lantern as your only way to get help, or to check on someone who might be in danger.

2. How you use it

Street messages and check-ins can be read by everyone on the mesh nearby. You are responsible for what you send. Don't use Lantern to:

• harass, threaten, bully or intimidate anyone;
• pretend to be someone else, or use a name meant to mislead people about who you are;
• send false help requests, or false information about an emergency;
• share content that's illegal, sexually explicit, hateful, or that encourages violence or self-harm;
• share other people's private information without their permission;
• spam the street, deliberately flood the mesh, or modify or interfere with the app or the network so that it works worse for others.

If a neighbour asks you to send news on for them, it goes out from your phone and number, so read it before you tap Send, and don't send anything you wouldn't send yourself.

You can block anyone, and report them to us, from their card or conversation in the app. Lantern has no servers, so we can't delete messages from other people's phones or remove anyone from the mesh. But we read every report, and we use what we learn to make Lantern safer. Where the law requires, we will pass information to the police.

3. Your content and your keys

What you write is yours. We never see it and we claim no rights over it. When you send something, you let the phones that receive it display it and relay it to others, which is how the mesh works.

Your keys are made on your phone and stay there. If you lose your phone, erase Lantern, or move to a new phone, we can't recover your keys, pairings or private messages, because we never had them. Pair again and rejoin your household on the new phone.

4. Privacy

Our privacy policy explains what Lantern keeps on your phone and what nearby phones receive. The short version: we don't collect anything.

5. Price, changes and availability

Lantern is free. We may update it, change features, or stop offering it. Because it doesn't depend on our servers, the copy on your phone keeps working even if we stop. You can stop using Lantern at any time: use Settings → Data & storage → Erase everything, then delete the app.

6. Warranty and liability

Lantern is provided “as is” and “as available”. As far as the law allows, we make no promises about it beyond what these terms say, and we aren't liable for any loss that comes from a message not being delivered, being delayed, or being misread, or from relying on information other people send.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that the law doesn't allow us to limit or exclude. Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer.

7. Changes to these terms, and the law

If we change these terms we'll update this page and the date at the top. If you keep using Lantern after that, the new terms apply. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live elsewhere in the UK or in the EU, you also keep the protections of your local consumer law, and you can bring a claim in your local courts.

8. Contact

Questions about these terms, or something to report: support@lanternmesh.net.