This is one way you can use the rf95modem firmware.
It turns your lora esp32/cortex-m0 board just into a modem that can be accessed via usb/serial or bluetooth low energy (or even WiFi) and can be paired with any device and speaks the same text-based command "language" via all its different configurable interface options.
Nothing app specific is stored on the microcontroller and no extra drivers are needed on the actual applications' device, so it can easily be passed around between different users or attached to IoT sensors to form D2D networks.
But for mass adoption lora has a bit too many limitations such as bandwidth, duty-cycle restrictions and also the energy consumption if you have devices constantly listening and not going into deep sleep.
Nevertheless, there are usecases where it is super helpful to have relatively affordable long range communication devices that you can easily attach to almost any system.
Making LoRa (not LoRaWAN) available to smartphones can also be achieved through general purpose modem firmwares for, e.g., esp32 boards that also contain lora transceivers.
The rf95modem firmware exposes LoRa for D2D communication via serial/usb or BLE with AT modem commands and works with many different boards. https://github.com/gh0st42/rf95modem
Well, I started this in 2017 and the first public release was in 2018, so it's been around for quite a while and also predates Andreas video.
Furthermore, it is not meant (just) for messaging, one of our example apps was indeed a messenger but the firmware itself just gives easy ways to send and receive data. We wanted to keep any application logic out of the firmware to make it general purpose (and maintainable).
GoTenna is definitely similar in its use-case and appearance.
The problem with GoTenna is similar to FireChat for offline communication: they are closed ecosystems, single purpose and cannot easily be changed to fit specific needs.
If you need something consumer-grade, ready to use: go for GoTenna (or Sonnet or maybe even a Garmin InReach or Spot X).
We propose different proof of concepts in the paper that are nowhere near the product quality of commercial solutions. Also, the chat application is single-hop and does not yet use a DTN underlay, at least not in the published version.
But all code is open and can easily be extended. Even better, the rf95modem firmware is designed to be used as-is. Once loaded on a LoRa board anyone can implement anything over device-to-device LoRa, be it a msg app, local news broadcast, IoT monitoring. This works via AT commands over USB serial interface, local esp32 WiFi or BLE.
That's great! A known shortcoming of Gotenna is that it assumes civilization (play/app store, Internet access) in order to set it the device, which isn't totally reassuring to go off into the wilderness with (its primary use case).
One of the paper authors here and the one mainly responsible for the rf95modem firmware.
The idea was not only to provide another msg app but a platform that can easily be used for different applications. One use-case in the paper is the chat app, the dtn part is not directly connected to the chat app but also uses the LoRa modem.
The modem firmware (initially developed in 2017/2018) is even more general purpose and is currently used in many different ways in different projects and prototypes. The main selling point is that one can easily connect cheap LoRa hardware to smartphones and desktop computers without microcontroller programming or providing specific device drivers.
Thus, the same modem can be used for messaging as well as environmental monitoring or other IoT applications without the need to reprogram the LoRa modules.
But for mass adoption lora has a bit too many limitations such as bandwidth, duty-cycle restrictions and also the energy consumption if you have devices constantly listening and not going into deep sleep.
Nevertheless, there are usecases where it is super helpful to have relatively affordable long range communication devices that you can easily attach to almost any system.