Getting started

APRS Connect is an APRS client for Android. This guide takes you from installing the app to hearing live APRS traffic, and points you at the right guide for whatever you want to do next.

What you need

• An Android phone. The app is on Google Play; there is no iOS build yet.
• An amateur radio licence, if you want to transmit. Everything that goes on the air — messages, beacons, service commands — is signed with your callsign, and transmitting without a licence is illegal in essentially every country. Listening is different: you can run the app receive-only over the internet with no licence at all, which also lets you watch how APRS works before you are licensed.
• A radio is optional. APRS runs both over RF and over the internet backbone (APRS-IS). The app speaks to real radios through several kinds of TNC, or to APRS-IS over your phone's own connection, or both at once. You can start with internet-only and add a radio later.

First run

The app walks you through setup once, in order. Nothing transmits during any of it — a fresh install sends nothing until you explicitly turn something on.

1. Your station. Your callsign, an SSID, and a map symbol. The SSID is the number after the dash that separates this device from your other APRS stations; the screen explains the conventional choices, and the app suggests sensible defaults. How other operators see you on the map is the symbol you pick here — you can change all of it later in Settings.
2. Licensed operators only. A plain statement of what transmitting requires and what the band rules ask of you. You agree once.
3. Permissions. The app asks for four things and says what each is actually for: location (your own beacons and distances to other stations), notifications (incoming messages), nearby devices (Bluetooth TNCs), and running in the background (receiving while the screen is off). Decline any of them and the features that need them wait until you change your mind.
4. Usage data. Sharing anonymous usage statistics is a choice, presented plainly — it is off unless you turn it on, and reports never include callsigns, yours or anyone else's.

Hear your first traffic

The fastest way to see the app working is an internet connection to APRS-IS — no hardware, and traffic appears within seconds:

1. Open the Radio screen (under More on the tab bar). A fresh install already has an APRS-IS channel there, switched on and waiting for your callsign.
2. With your callsign set, it connects on its own: the app picks a regional server and derives your passcode from your callsign — you never type one.
3. Watch the Stations tab and the Map fill in with what you're hearing.

The Connect to APRS-IS guide covers filters, receive-only mode, and choosing servers. If you have a radio and a TNC, start at Connect a radio instead — Bluetooth, USB, network, and audio-cable connections each have their own guide.

Where things live

Five tabs along the bottom:

• Messages — conversation threads, one per station, with per-message delivery state.
• Map — stations, objects, and trails on a vector map that works offline once viewed.
• Stations — everything you've heard, nearest first, with full detail per station.
• Services — the directory of APRS service bots as guided screens.
• Packets — every raw frame, live, decoded field by field.

Settings, the Radio screen, backup, and the emergency beacon are under More.

Next steps

• Send your first beacon — put yourself on the map.
• Messaging — threads, delivery states, and retries.
• APRS services — weather forecasts, SMS and email gateways, and more.
• Backup — export and restore the data on the phone.

Last updated 31 August 2026