MeshOS 1.5 for the LilyGo T-Deck and the forthcoming Elecrow ThinkNode M9 has dropped - and by the time we sat down to write this post it was already 1.5.9, which tells you everything about the pace of this release. Grab your copy now from the MeshCore Configurator.
This may be the last time you ever need the online tool to update: MeshOS now updates itself over the air. When a new version lands your device offers it to you, shows the release notes, and installs it over WiFi - straight from Settings. SD card installs still work too, so there is no computer required either way.
This one has been a marathon. Here are the highlights.
The chat interface, reborn
The whole messaging experience has been overhauled. Conversations now flow as coloured speech bubbles - every sender gets their own consistent colour, so a busy public channel reads at a glance. Delivery ticks and repeat reports show which repeaters actually carried your message, and press-to-reply keeps conversations threaded.
The chat bar is a proper text field now: a rounded input box with a live cursor, tap-to-place editing and - on the T-Deck - send-location, emoji and send buttons built right in. On the M9, sharing your location is a dedicated hardware button - one press and it drops into the chat. A WhatsApp-style chats list ties it all together with avatars, message previews, unread badges and long-press to hide, mute or delete.
Over 250 high-quality emoji
The old 30-emoji set is history. MeshOS now ships more than 250 full-colour, anti-aliased emoji in a fullscreen paged picker - flick through by finger, trackball or joypad.
Text sizes for every eyeball
Chat text now comes in Normal, Medium, Large, XL and even XXL - with a choice of Classic or Modern fonts. The biggest sizes will really come into their own on larger-display devices later down the line, but even on the T-Deck they transform readability at arm's length.
A map that fetches its own tiles
The map has had a complete overhaul. Turn WiFi on and it auto-downloads map tiles on demand, straight to the SD card - pan around and the tiles just appear, at every zoom level from world view down to street level. Updated markers, compass support, and tap any node to view its info card right on the map. You can also drop a pin to mark a spot - a camp, a car, a repeater site - and easily navigate back to it later. There is still a built-in worldwide dark style for when you have no tiles at all, so the map is never blank.
On the Elecrow M9 there is also a dedicated GPS status screen with live satellite detail and compass support - the compass drives your position arrow on the map, so it points the way you are facing even when you are standing still.
Full 16-bit colour, everywhere
Under the hood the display pipeline moved to a full 16-bit framebuffer, so the whole UI - menus, icons, avatars, emoji, map - renders in rich colour with none of the old banding. The home menu shows it off nicely.
Control Centre and a customisable clock
Swipe down on the T-Deck (or press the speech-bubble button on the M9) for the new Control Centre: WiFi, Sound, Bluetooth and GPS toggles plus screen-brightness and volume sliders. Notification panels pop on the home screen, and the switchable always-on clock screen - with mesh signal and battery - now takes custom wallpapers too.
CoreBrowser
Yes, your mesh radio has a web browser now. CoreBrowser is a tiny built-in browser for mesh-friendly pages served from meshcore.co.uk - news and info from HQ, loaded over WiFi (high speed mesh data transfer coming soon, exclusively to MeshOS). Stay up to date with the latest mesh news, anytime, right from your device.
The image viewer
And it can show pictures: tap an image link in any message - shared via a service like postimages.org - and it opens right on the device in CoreBrowser's image viewer. You can even save one to the SD card or set it as your wallpaper.
Room server support - yes, about time!
MeshOS now speaks to room servers: log in, chat, and sync the history you missed. Replies, mentions and emoji all work exactly like a normal channel - and with a spare device you can even run a room of your own.
Repeater management, all grown up
Log into one of your repeaters and you get a full management screen: status, neighbours, send advert, clock sync and a raw CLI - plus remote configuration of name, location, radio settings, TX power, advert interval and more. Change the password or reboot it, all over the mesh.
Heard list overhaul
The Heard list got the full treatment: avatar rows like Contacts, public-key prefixes, centred signal bars, distance and last-heard times, type-to-search, and a Map button that jumps straight to any node with a fix. Pick your contacts from one list, stored on the SD card.
Power tools
The MeshCore Terminal - the first full MeshCore terminal on an embedded device - keeps growing, with everything on the mesh flowing through its multi-colour live history. And there is a built-in file manager for the SD card now, plus one-press screenshots (which is exactly how every image in this post was taken).
And loads more
- Share your location into any chat, and tap a received location to see it pinned on the map
- QR viewer for links in messages - scan with your phone to open
- Channel participants list with on-device user blocking
- Smoother scrolling and a faster render pipeline throughout
- Screen brightness control, auto-dim, and per-channel notification controls
There is probably loads more we have forgotten - this one has been a marathon release. Flash it from the Configurator today, and from here on your device will keep itself up to date. Enjoy!