Lantern: Power Outage Chat

When the power goes and the mobile signal goes with it, Lantern keeps your block talking. Lantern turns the iPhones on your street into a small radio network. Each phone talks to the ones nearby over Bluetooth and passes messages on, so neighbors can check in, ask for help and share what they have. No mobile signal, no Wi-Fi, no internet, no server. THREE BUTTONS THAT MATTER In an outage nobody wants to type, so they're always at the bottom of the screen: • I'm OK: a green light over your house on every phone nearby. • Need help: your house pulses red, with a note if you add one. • Have generator, water or heat: tell the street what you can share. You can still message the whole street, or one house. FIND THEM IN THE DARK Can't see the house you're looking for? Ask a contact if you can find them. On iPhones with Ultra Wideband, an arrow points the way and counts down the meters. On others, Lantern tells you warmer or colder. Only with their yes, only while Lantern is open on both phones, for ten minutes at most. YOUR STREET IN 3D Every neighbor's status glows over their house. Your street starts as one home and grows into a hamlet, village, town and city as neighbors join. INVITE THE STREET The people you live with come first: they scan your house code. Then the street: a QR code, a link, a door card or an NFC sticker on your gate. PRACTICE AN OUTAGE Run the power outage drill with the power still on: Lantern ticks off each step as your house and your neighbors check in. HOW IT WORKS • Phone to phone over Bluetooth, roughly 30 meters a hop, relayed up to 7 hops. • Phones keep recent messages for 12 hours and pass them on to anyone who comes into range. • When signal and Wi-Fi have both been gone for 30 seconds, outage mode saves your battery. • It keeps relaying with your phone locked, and a neighbor's help request arrives as a notification. • iPhone 12 and later also link over Wi-Fi Aware. YOUR HOUSEHOLD AND PRIVATE MESSAGES Everyone in your house scans one code, so your house is one home on the street with its own encrypted channel. Message a paired neighbor or anyone in your household one to one, or send them a photo, end-to-end encrypted with a post-quantum key exchange and a new key for every message. Phones in between carry them but can't read them. Compare safety numbers, and set messages to disappear. LOCK SCREEN, WATCH AND WIDGETS Open Lantern in an outage and your Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island show who needs help, with I'm OK one tap away. Check in from your wrist, a widget, Control Center, the Action button or Siri. The watch answers a help call with "On my way" and replies privately. SEND NEWS OUT Lantern writes a short report of your house and street for you to send with Messages to family elsewhere, or a paired neighbor with signal can send it for you. On iPhone 14 and later, Messages can use satellite where Apple offers it. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no sign-up, no phone number. • No servers: Lantern never connects to the internet. • No location, no analytics, no ads, no tracking. • Your keys are made on your phone and never leave it. • Every message is signed, so nobody can ask for help pretending to be you. • Street messages and check-ins are readable by everyone nearby, on purpose: a help request works best when the whole street sees it. YOU'RE IN CONTROL Block and report anyone from their card. Filter the street to verified senders or your contacts. Lock Lantern with Face ID, hide lock-screen previews, and erase everything in one step. GOOD TO KNOW • Lantern is not an emergency service and can't call for help. If life is at risk, call 911 (999 or 112 outside the US) from any phone that has a signal. • It needs at least two iPhones in range, both running Lantern. Set it up with your household and the houses either side before you need it. • Leave Lantern running in the background. If you swipe it away, iOS stops its Bluetooth until you open it again.