Open Garden Inc., developer of offline networking app FireChat, today announced the release of MeshKit, a peer-to-peer mesh networking platform that takes connectivity for offline phones to a new level.

With MeshKit, a phone without a connection to a cellular network for data or voice can still connect to other nearby phones also running MeshKit or an app enabled by the platform and still receive app-driven information. The technology uses peer-to-peer mesh networking technology to allow nearby phones to talk to one another, spreading information without the need for cellular or Wi-Fi networks.

The platform works by aggregating data phone-to-phone when stable connectivity is not available. It does so by using radios in devices designed for talking to other devices, such as internal Wi-Fi nodes, Bluetooth and other wireless protocols. The platform will even store messages on phones when they are out of contact to be delivered when contact is re-established.

Open Garden predicts that areas with limited or expensive internet access will continue to see a greater number of phones as the smartphone market continues to expand. A recent Mobility Report from smartphone maker Ericsson predicted that by 2020 the world would have 6.1 billion smartphones.

Many users in connectivity-poor regions of the world such as Asia, Africa and Latin America could benefit greatly from ad hoc networks formed by nearby phones in lieu of overloaded cellular networks.

With the MeshKit software development kit, app developers can enable their own apps to use the power of crowd networking to deliver data that otherwise would not reach some users.

The company sees this platform as a path to opening up invisible or unreachable markets for app developers. After all, users with smartphones not connected 100 percent of the time won’t be able to use many apps—from messaging to information gathering—very often and therefore would not buy into them.

“Offline is the new frontier. The impossible is now possible with MeshKit: reach people on their smartphones even when they are offline,” said Paul Hainsworth, Open Garden’s chief executive officer. “App developers worldwide can now reach audiences even when they are disconnected from the internet to share rich media, enable offline transactions, and grow the number of their users in an unprecedented way.”

Open Garden expects that the MeshKit platform will give new life to apps that make payments, hail rides, use messaging services, get news updates, music and video clips in regions where connectivity is poor.

The software development kit, with libraries and example apps, is available for Android and iOS devices. MeshKit provides off-grid routing of messages and data using advanced traffic management protocols capable of multi-hop and store-and-forward messaging that can deliver data packets as large as four kilobytes. The platform is designed to be as user-invisible as possible, pairing phones seamlessly by choosing the best possible wireless communication and alerting users when nearby phones can be connected to.

For security, MeshKit also boasts end-to-end encryption for private messages and provides cryptographic authentication for all senders. As a result, even though messages may pass through strangers’ phones, it will be difficult to read private texts or fake an identity on the network.

The MeshKit platform can also transfer apps across its network and install them without the need for an internet connection. App developers can also use the mesh network to facilitate the dissemination of patches for applications. This feature, however, currently works only on Android.

Open Garden is currently seeking partners such as developers, media distributors, telecom operators and government organizations to use its MeshKit platform to produce apps that can take advantage of offline phone networks.

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