Chats

The most essential portion of using goTenna is the ability to chat offline. With chats we can send and receive text chats, map objects, my location, automatic location sharing and frequency sets.

• Contacts can be imported from the End User Device- This can be useful for issued devices that are both in and out of signal coverage areas

Emergency

• • Unencrypted and received by anyone with a goTenna in the area with your frequency set. In settings you can set up what you want your emergency chat to broadcast. 

Broadcast

1. • Broadcasts messages to everyone with the same frequency set. Will be repeated for up to 6 hops. Not encrypted natively, but can toggle encryption in settings encompass all broadcast messages, this will make broadcast messages (including PLI updates) AES 256 encrypted.
   • Easy way to add contacts - broadcast your name.

Add contact through chat

1. • If you do not know the phone number or GID for all your contacts/team members you can tab “Comms Check” in the top right hand corner. Everyone that selects “Comms Check” will have their contact information appear in chat, making it easy to add them.

Group Chat

1. 1. • Select a group of contacts to start a single chat with multiple persons. Natively elliptic curve 384-bit encryption.

1-to-1 Chat.

1. • Chat with one other individual, natively elliptic curve 384-bit encryption.

Troubleshooting

Problem 1: I tried to send a 1-to1 chat but it was unsuccessful

Solution:

• Check the contact to ensure the country code has not duplicated.  Sometimes the app pulls in the country code and also adds it to the goTenna contact
• Send a broadcast message
• This will identify the sender’s correct contact as they provisioned it during the setup process

Problem 2: I want to send a message to someone with a GID

Solution:

GID contacts can be stored locally to the app

• The user can manually input this GID into their contacts by navigating to the menu and selecting contacts
• The user can also create a new contact from a broadcast or 1-to-1 message by long pressing on the contact and selecting create new contact

Problem 3: My Messages aren’t getting through to anyone

Solution:

• Ensure that the user has selected the correct frequency set
• Ensure that the user has the correct encryption key selected
• Testing with unencrypted messages is recommended
• Ensure that the user has verified their Phone number; if they are out of coverage area when they provisioned their goTenna advise the user to logout and setup with a GID

Problem 4: What is an Emergency Chat?

Solution: Emergency chats are a special function for emergency use only

• When activated the emergency chat will broadcast the last known location and a user programmable message every 20 seconds until the unit dies or emergency chat is turned off