Frequently asked questions.

Real questions, plain answers. No legalese. No "we may collect at our discretion."

What is Lattice for?

Sending messages between phones when the internet doesn't work. Government internet shutdowns, regional outages, festival crowds with overloaded towers, disasters. Most days you'll keep using whatever messenger you already use. Lattice sits in the background until you need it.

What does Lattice do that WhatsApp doesn't?

Work without an internet connection. Work without an account. Work without a phone number. Work without any company server in the middle. That's the core of it. WhatsApp is faster and has billions of users; we're not trying to replace it.

Why is the battery worse than WhatsApp?

Because we have to scan for nearby phones. WhatsApp gets a push from a server when there's a message for you. We don't have a server, so your phone has to look for messages itself. We minimise this with adaptive scan rates and dormancy modes (WP-03) — typical foreground use is 2% per hour, background is 4–8% per day, dormant is under 1% per day. Honest about it; never going to be as cheap as a server-pushed messenger.

Can the government read my messages?

Not in transit, no. End-to-end encryption with hybrid classical + post-quantum cryptography means even an attacker who records every byte of your traffic cannot read it. If they take your phone while it's unlocked, yes — they can read whatever's on the screen, same as any messenger. If they take your phone locked and forced you to unlock it under duress, our duress-PIN feature wipes the device instead of unlocking. Full threat model.

What happens if I lose my phone?

Your Lattice identity is a 12-word phrase, generated once on your phone. If you wrote it down, you can restore on a new phone — you'll have to ask your contacts to re-add you, but your account exists again. If you didn't write it down, it's gone forever and you start over. We can't help you recover, because we don't have a copy. Nobody has a copy. That's the point.

Does Lattice work everywhere?

No. It's density-dependent. If you're the only Lattice user for ten kilometres, the mesh has nothing to mesh with. Range is real: Bluetooth is roughly 30 metres, Wi-Fi Aware roughly 200 metres. The way Lattice gets longer reach is by hopping between phones, so the more nearby Lattice users, the further your message can travel. Why physics says so.

Why don't I have notifications when the app is closed?

iOS specifically. Apple's platform restrictions limit what a backgrounded app can do — they don't let us run a long-lived radio scanner indefinitely without the user actively using the app, because that would drain battery. We use every legitimate hook (BLE state preservation, background fetch) but can't promise the same reliability as a server-pushed messenger. Android has fewer restrictions and is much closer to 100%. Documented honestly so you're not surprised.

Is Lattice tracking me?

No. Zero telemetry. No analytics. No crash reports that leave your phone. The source code is public so you can verify this yourself. We don't have a server to send data to even if we wanted to.

Can my conversations be subpoenaed?

There is no Lattice company server holding your messages. If a court served us a subpoena tomorrow, the only honest response is "we have nothing to hand over because there is nothing to hand over." Your messages live on your phone and on the people you sent them to. Subpoena them.

What if Lattice the company disappears?

The app keeps working. The protocol is documented in public RFCs. The source code is public. Anyone can fork it, anyone can compile it, anyone can keep maintaining it. Your contacts and your identity are on your phone — losing the company doesn't lose your data.

What's the difference between Lattice and Signal?

Signal needs the internet. Lattice doesn't. Signal has voice calls and a billion users. Lattice has neither. Use Signal for daily messaging. Use Lattice for the day Signal stops working. They're complementary, not competing.

Why not just use SMS in an emergency?

SMS goes through the cell tower. If the tower is down (disaster), if the network is congested (festival), if the government has switched the cell network off (shutdown), or if the recipient is overseas without roaming, SMS doesn't work either. Lattice still does because it's phone-to-phone direct.

Who's behind Lattice?

It's an open-source project (MPL-2.0), built by an independent developer who'll be named publicly when v1.0 ships. We don't take money from advertisers. We don't sell data. We don't have any. We may eventually take grant funding from organisations that fund this kind of work (Open Tech Fund, Sovereign Tech Fund, Mozilla). We will not run ads, charge subscriptions, or introduce a "Lattice Pro" tier. If you'd like to help, drop a note in our Matrix room.

Is there a cost?

No. The app is free. The source is free. There is no premium tier and no plan to add one.

Have you been audited?

Pre-v1.0 audit is being commissioned with one of Trail of Bits, Cure53, or Latacora. Audit reports will be published in full once any unfixed critical issues are fixed.

I have a security concern. Who do I email?

our Matrix room, encrypted to our published PGP key. Disclosure policy.

What's the deal with Lattice Invites?

It's how you add someone you can't physically meet. You generate a one-time link, send it to them via WhatsApp/SMS/email, then call them on the phone and compare four words on each of your screens. The four words are the safety check — they catch any tampering with the link in transit. Full mechanic in WP-02.

Why do I have to do a "monthly check-in"?

Because the worst possible time to discover that your Lattice line to your mum is broken is the day you actually need it. Once a month is just often enough to keep the lines warm. Five seconds of your day; one tap. Optional, but recommended.