FireChat in Hong Kong: How an app tapped its way into the protests

Peter Shadbolt, for CNN
Updated 6:01 AM EDT, Thu October 16, 2014
If the image of the barricade defined protest and dissent in the 20th century, the mobile phone is defining it in the 21st century. The ability of protesters to organize and mobilize quickly through mass communication has been critical for civil disobedience movements like 'Occupy Central' in Hong Kong.
Mesh networking —
If the image of the barricade defined protest and dissent in the 20th century, the mobile phone is defining it in the 21st century. The ability of protesters to organize and mobilize quickly through mass communication has been critical for civil disobedience movements like 'Occupy Central' in Hong Kong.
Alex Ogle/AFP/Getty Images
The FireChat app works by creating its own network outside the internet, relying simply on the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi link that exist between one phone and another.
Mesh networking —
The FireChat app works by creating its own network outside the internet, relying simply on the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi link that exist between one phone and another.
Chris McGrath/Getty
Unlike mobile and internet networks which come under strain and break down the more users tax the system, the more people in a mesh network like FireChat, the better it works.
Mesh networking —
Unlike mobile and internet networks which come under strain and break down the more users tax the system, the more people in a mesh network like FireChat, the better it works.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
The company that developed the application, Open Garden, initially struggled to keep up with its new-found popularity, adding more capacity as news of the app spread from Hong Kong to rest of the world.
Mesh networking —
The company that developed the application, Open Garden, initially struggled to keep up with its new-found popularity, adding more capacity as news of the app spread from Hong Kong to rest of the world.
AFP/Getty Images
In the first two weeks of the protests, between September 27 and October 10, the service registered 500,000 downloads in Hong Kong alone, 10.2 million chat sessions and 1.6 million chatrooms.
Mesh networking —
In the first two weeks of the protests, between September 27 and October 10, the service registered 500,000 downloads in Hong Kong alone, 10.2 million chat sessions and 1.6 million chatrooms.
AFP/Getty Images
While FireChat was a useful device for relaying information and encouragement during the early mass protests in Hong Kong, it became less useful once Occupy moved into a game of cat and mouse with the police.
Mesh networking —
While FireChat was a useful device for relaying information and encouragement during the early mass protests in Hong Kong, it became less useful once Occupy moved into a game of cat and mouse with the police.
AFP/Getty Images
FireChat's logo -- the app emerged this month as the technological glue holding Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests together and a powerful weapon in the hands of mass movements, dissidents and protesters.
Mesh networking —
FireChat's logo -- the app emerged this month as the technological glue holding Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests together and a powerful weapon in the hands of mass movements, dissidents and protesters.
open garden
FireChat is now only one of a number of apps -- Serval Mesh, Commotion and Storymaker - that are competing in the mesh-network services space.
Mesh networking —
FireChat is now only one of a number of apps -- Serval Mesh, Commotion and Storymaker - that are competing in the mesh-network services space.
Private messaging is now one of the options that FireChat is developing in the wake of the gigantic beta test its service received in the Hong Kong protests.
Mesh networking —
Private messaging is now one of the options that FireChat is developing in the wake of the gigantic beta test its service received in the Hong Kong protests.
The company said the app was never designed as a messaging tool for protesters rather as a means of providing communication for people in places where there was poor connectivity and a large population density.
Mesh networking &mda