Don't worry about going incommunicado at next week's Electric Picnic music festival if the signal drops on your phone or you've run out of data. The FireChat app will keep you in contact with pals at all times. It works by creating a local network amongst you, your friends and other users through Bluetooth and peer-to-peer WiFi.

FireChat is like a standard messaging app in that it allows you to send private messages and photos while also allowing for group chat of up to 50 people. You can also create live public chatrooms (maybe one updating folks on the cleanest toilets at the festival?).

Previously, this app has been used successfully to connect people during natural disasters including floods in Kashmir, April 2015, and in Chennai, October 2015, as well as the eruption of volcano Cotopaxi in Ecuador, August 2015, and hurricane Patricia in Mexico, October 2015. FireChat is available for free on iOS and Android.

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/firechat/id719829352?mt=8