This guide walks you through getting your LoRa board running as a personal MeshCore companion on an Android phone in five steps.
1 — Install the app
Download the MeshCore Companion App for Android from Google Play or F-Droid. The app is open-source and free.
2 — Prepare your hardware
Power on your LoRa board (e.g. Heltec V3, RAK4631, LilyGo T-Beam). See our hardware overview for the full list of recommended boards. If your board does not yet run MeshCore firmware, use the official online flasher or our WiFi flasher.
3 — Bluetooth pairing
Open the app, grant location and Bluetooth permissions (Android cannot scan BLE without location access) and tap Add device. Your board shows up with a name like Companion-XXXXX. Select it and confirm pairing.
4 — Disable battery optimisation
To prevent Android from killing the app in the background, go to Battery → App battery usage and set MeshCore to Unrestricted. Otherwise you will miss messages while the screen is off.
5 — Send your first message
The app now shows nearby nodes. Pick a repeater or companion and send a test message. The status indicator tells you whether the message was delivered.
Troubleshooting
- Pairing fails: enable location permission for the app
- No nodes in the list: you are out of range of a repeater — check the live map for the closest one
- Messages do not arrive: check battery optimisation, restart the app
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