Hi guys. I’m thinking of picking up a pair for a cruise. I know from within the boat it might not work. But if I send a message from one gotenna, will it keep trying to send it until the other gotenna mesh gets within range or the other use receives it? In this case, is the device storing the message to be sent or is my phone going to keep trying? Can anyone explain this process? Or is this like a radio walkie talkie where if there is no recipient immediately the message is lost for good?
Your goTenna will try sending a message twice. If there is no goTenna Mesh within range, that’s it.
You can hit the Resend option and send it again without needing to reenter the message, though.
If the person on the other end does have their GTM on, but is not actively watching for messages or responding to the alerts it generates, the device will store the message until the recipient looks at the app.
It happens pretty quickly, in about 15 to 30 seconds if the first send doesn’t get an indication it was received by the recipient or a nearby node for forwarding. Until that happens, it will show as still trying to send. Until it fails to go through twice it will indicate it is still trying to send, then as ogb9 noted it will indicate that the message either failed or went through.
One caveat on the confirmations it gives - or rather the indication that it failed to go through. The confirmation message has to negotiate its way back through whatever relays it used to get to the recipient. This works really well with direct messages or ones with just a relay or two. Lengthier relay chains up to the max of 6 hops may not be so certain. The message may have gone through, but the confirmation could have run into a problem getting back to you, in which case it will show that the message was unconfirmed when it actually made it. Not a big deal, but this happens sometimes, especially if you happen to be moving during this process.