Message Continuity

Message Continuity keeps your conversations complete when the radio path isn’t available. Radio is always tried first. When your radio can’t reach, the app can carry APRS messages over the internet and hold anything you miss until you’re back, so messages still find you.

When it steps in

Message Continuity can help when:

• Your radio is out of range or off.
• Your phone isn’t connected to the radio.
• The app isn’t in the foreground, or you’re temporarily offline.

What it does

Sending

After radio retries are exhausted, the app can send your message over the internet so it still has a path to the recipient.

Receiving while the app is running

With no radio connection, the app can watch for messages addressed to you over the internet and deliver them in the app.

Receiving when the app isn’t active

When the phone is locked or the app isn’t running, there’s no radio path and iOS may suspend the app. The service holds messages addressed to your callsign, including any SSID variation, and can send a push notification to wake your phone so an alert appears. Whenever the app launches or returns to the foreground, it checks for anything it missed, downloads it, and sends any required acknowledgements.

If your phone is offline for a while, such as when Airplane Mode is on, or if a conversation is muted and its notifications are suppressed, nothing is lost. The app catches up and retrieves any pending messages the next time it connects.

Acknowledgements happen on your device

The acknowledgement is sent only once a message actually reaches your device, never by the server on your behalf. This matters when your phone is out of signal or left behind:

• The app doesn’t acknowledge the message, because it never reached its final destination, your device. That’s the intended behavior.
• The sender sees the message as unacknowledged, the same as if you weren’t running any store-and-forward service.
• The message stays safely stored, waiting for you the moment your phone has internet again.

How this differs from a query-based service

Some operators are used to query-based services such as QRX, where you ask an inbox for held messages. Two differences are worth knowing:

• Retrieval happens through the app over the internet, not by directly querying a mailbox. Some services let you request messages from a radio, but those requests are still routed through an iGate and delivered over the internet.
• The sender doesn’t receive a courtesy “recipient is offline, message held” reply while you’re away. Your messages remain safely stored and waiting; the sender simply isn’t told that they were held.

Turning it off

Turn off Settings → Message Continuity for radio-only behavior. With it off, the app doesn’t use the internet or push delivery for missed messages.