In a browser

APRS Connect also runs in a web browser, at app.aprsconnect.com. It is the same app as on Android and iPhone, with the same screens, and there is nothing to install. It suits a computer in the shack, a laptop, a Chromebook, or a look at APRS before you put anything on your phone.

It is free to use over APRS-IS, the same as the phone apps. See Free and Pro.

What you need

• A current browser. Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android or an iPhone.
• Chrome or Edge on a computer, if you want to connect a radio. Those are the browsers that can open a USB or Bluetooth LE device. See Radios below.
• An amateur radio licence, if you want to transmit, as everywhere else. Receive-only needs none.

Open the address and the app walks you through the same setup as on a phone: your callsign, an SSID and a symbol. The browser asks for two permissions of its own, the first time each is needed: location, for your beacon and the map, and notifications, for messages that arrive while the tab is in the background.

What works

Everything that runs over APRS-IS:

• Messaging, with delivery states, retries and bulletins.
• Services, nets and groups and APRS OTA.
• The map, stations and the packet log.
• Beaconing, from the browser's location, a fixed position, or a USB GPS receiver.
• Backup and restore. Files save to the computer.
• All eight languages.

A browser cannot open a connection to an APRS-IS server by itself, so in the browser APRS-IS goes through aprsconnect.com, which connects to the public aprs2.net servers for you. A club server or another port needs the phone app. Your packets go out as your station either way, under the device identifier APSTKB. See Connect to APRS-IS.

A right-click opens the menus that a long press opens on a phone.

Radios

In Chrome or Edge on a computer, the browser build connects to:

• USB serial KISS TNCs. You choose the TNC once from the browser's own list, and it reconnects by itself when it is plugged in again. See USB serial TNCs.
• Bluetooth LE KISS TNCs and LoRa APRS trackers. The browser asks you to choose the device each time the channel connects. See BLE TNCs.
• A USB GPS receiver, for a position better than the browser's own.

Radio channels are part of APRS Connect Pro, as on a phone.

Firefox and Safari have no way to open a USB or Bluetooth device, so in those the app works over APRS-IS only. For a radio on a phone or tablet, use the Android or iPhone app.

Not in the browser on any computer: the audio modem, Bluetooth Classic TNCs, KISS over TCP, the Tidradio TD-H9, and saving a Winlink password. Those need the Android or iPhone app.

Pro, and your messages

Nothing is sold in the browser. APRS Connect Pro is bought on Android or iPhone, through Google Play or the App Store, and the browser reads it from your account:

1. On the phone where you have Pro, open Settings → Account and create an account or sign in.
2. In the browser, open Settings → Account and sign in to the same account.

The browser then has Pro for as long as the account does, a free trial included. With it come your conversations, pinned stations, blocked list and settings, kept in step with your other devices. If the browser and your phone share a callsign and SSID, only one of them beacons at a time. See Sync between your devices.

Without an account the browser runs the free side of the app, and nothing asks you to sign in.

It runs while the tab is open

A web page cannot run in the background the way a phone app does. The app receives, beacons and retries only while its tab is open. Close the tab and your station goes quiet until you open it again. A tab that is open but behind another one keeps receiving.

• Notifications for messages and alerts arrive while the tab is open and not in front. Turn them on when the browser asks, or later under Settings → Messages → Browser notifications.
• Reminders, for an ISS pass or #APRSThursday, come only while the tab is open.
• One tab at a time. A second tab says the app is open in another one and offers Use here.

In Chrome or Edge you can install it as an app from the address bar. It then has its own icon and its own window, and is otherwise the same.

Where your data is kept

Your messages, packet log, stations and settings are in a database the browser keeps for this site, on this computer. They are not on our server unless you sign in and sync.

• Clearing the site's data in the browser removes them. So does a private window, when it closes. Keep a backup, or sign in.
• The map keeps the tiles you have viewed, up to the size you set under Settings → Map cache. With Pro, whole offline regions are stored in the browser too. The browser can clear either one itself when the computer runs short of storage.

Updates

There is nothing to update by hand. The app checks the site for a newer version a few minutes after it opens and every six hours after that. A tab in the background, with no radio connected and nothing being sent, reloads itself onto it. Otherwise About shows A newer version is ready with a RELOAD button, and reloading loses nothing.

Last updated 8 October 2026