Off - the - power system message app FireChat is designed for chatting in engorged space , like political protest in Hong Kong or euphony festivals in India . As the metropolis of Austin paraphernalia up to host the euphony , film , and tech festival South by Southwest , FireChat is getting quick to preface a new way to join a conversation with so - call “ chat - tags . ”

Find out where to go and what to do with FireChat ’s new hashtagged room , plunge just in clock time for South by Southwest .

FireChat ’s SXSW climb , now available foriOSand Android , allow anyone to create a new Old World chat elbow room using a hashtag . Christophe Daligault , chief marketing military officer for FireChat developer Open Garden , compare FireChat to “ a WhatsApp session with 10,000 people at the same time . ”

firechat sxsw

The newfangled schmoose - tags will create minuscule , more topical chats , so you’re able to move from the larger SXSW room to the # SXSWparties elbow room . you’re able to even thick - link to the new room you ’ve create , so people who did n’t tap the hashtag immediately to fall in your new conversation can still determine it .

“ Other networks use [ hashtags ] as a way to filter a word provender , and in our case we expend it as a way to have a live treatment around any matter , ” Daligault said .

The app is trying to catch some of the chatter commonly find on Twitter during big events . More than 665,000 tweet were beam during South by Southwest ’s synergistic share of the fete last class , and the fete is have a bun in the oven more than 80,000 attendees over the 10 - day event lineage - up . Because FireChat works without cellular or Wi - Fi connectivity , using theMultipeer Connectivity Framework on iOSand proprietary meshwork - networking tech on Android , it ’s perfect for chatter in area where your tweets might not go through .

The kick upstairs app will also make it prosperous to receive out what ’s fresh or hot at specific upshot by highlight messages like , “ George Clooney is at the Spotify House ! ” in red .

“ It ’s a agency to crowdsource the best thing to do correctly now , ” Daligault said .

SXSW organizers partnered with Eventbase to set up another app for festival - leaver that uses strategically placed iBeacons to help attendee find out what ’s going on around them . TheSXSW Go apphas a societal feature of speech that fit attendee by interests for more useful networking . you could also see who ’s around you using those iBeacons .

While the SXSW app is secure only for SXSW , FireChat is using the fete to show off its long - terminal figure potential drop . If you ’re steer to the show this yr , you could chequer out FireChat ’s SXSW elbow room onyour phone here .