What you need
Testing a mesh needs two iPhones. One alone cannot demonstrate anything, for the reason set out in how it works: there has to be somebody to hand the payment to.
- Two iPhones, both on iOS 16 or newer
- Both registered for install. Send the device IDs over and they get added
- A small amount of real NIM on the sending phone. A few coins is plenty
- Bluetooth on, both phones, and the app open in the foreground on both
This is real mainnet money. There is no test mode. Send amounts you would not mind losing while we find the rough edges, because finding them is the point of a public alpha.
The test that proves it
- Install on both phones. Open the install page in Safari on each. Chrome and Brave cannot install it, which is an Apple restriction rather than a choice.
- Open the app on both and leave it in the foreground. iOS suspends background apps, and a suspended phone stops relaying.
- Put phone A in airplane mode, then switch Bluetooth back on. Airplane mode turns Bluetooth off with everything else, so you have to re-enable it. This is the step people miss.
- Leave phone B online. It is the gateway. Wi-Fi or cellular, either works.
- Wait for both to say meshed. The status line at the bottom of the home screen tells you when they have found each other.
- Send from phone A. Any amount, to any address. Phone A has no internet at all.
- Watch it settle. The payment crosses to phone B over Bluetooth, phone B broadcasts it, and a receipt travels back. Phone A flips from pending to settled without ever having a connection.
Then look the transaction up on a block explorer. It is an ordinary Nimiq transaction and it will be sitting there like any other.
When it does not work
Both phones say searching forever
Usually one phone went to sleep or got backgrounded. Wake both, keep the app on screen, and give it a few seconds.
The sending phone never leaves pending
Check the receiving phone actually has internet. The mesh can carry a payment perfectly and still have nowhere to hand it off.
Nothing happens at all in airplane mode
Check Bluetooth is genuinely back on. Airplane mode disables it, and the app cannot mesh without it.
What is worth reporting
Anything that surprised you is worth knowing about, but these are the most useful:
- A payment that never settled, with roughly how long you waited
- A status line that said one thing while the app did another
- Anything that made you unsure whether your money was safe
- The moment you first got confused, whatever it was
That last one matters more than it sounds. Most of what is wrong with an alpha is not a crash, it is a screen that assumed you already knew how the thing worked.
How to tell us
There is a report button in the corner of every page here. Tap it, then either talk or type. It attaches what the browser saw at that moment, so you do not have to describe the technical part, and it files the report for you. No account, nothing to sign up for.
Reporting from the app itself is better when you can. The report picks up the errors and failed requests behind the screen you were looking at, which is usually the half that explains what went wrong.