APRS Connect

Status

APRS Connect is released on Android, on iPhone, on Windows and in a web browser, and still being built. This page says what is working, what is still being built, and what each release carried, so you know what you're installing rather than what we'd like it to be.

Working today

  • On Google Play and the App Store. Both apps are published and installable: get them here. The iPhone app is at 1.13.0, released on the App Store on 28 September 2026. The current Android release on Google Play is 1.8.0, with over-the-air updates since, the latest on 27 September 2026.
  • In a web browser. The same app runs at app.aprsconnect.com with nothing to install, on a computer, a tablet or a phone. Everything that runs over APRS-IS works in any current browser. Chrome and Edge on a computer also connect to USB serial TNCs and Bluetooth LE TNCs, read a USB GPS receiver, and can install it as an app with its own window. It runs only while its tab is open, and the audio modem, Bluetooth Classic and network TNCs are not in it. Pro there belongs to your account: subscribe from the app's Pro screen, which takes the payment on aprsconnect.com, or sign in to an account that has Pro from a phone. In a browser has the whole list.
  • On Windows. APRS Connect for Windows is a download from this site for Windows 10 and Windows 11, at version 1.14.0. It is the same app in a window of its own. It connects to APRS-IS directly and to USB serial, Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE and network KISS TNCs, keeps receiving and beaconing from the tray when its window is closed, starts with Windows unless you turn that off, and updates itself. The audio modem and the Tidradio TD-H9 are not in it. On Windows has the whole list.
  • Free over APRS-IS. Messaging, services, nets, the map, stations, the packet log, pinned stations and the grid square tools all work without needing APRS Connect Pro. APRS Connect Pro ($3.99/month or $29.99/year, after a 7-day free trial) switches on the radio channels, offline region downloads, the radar layer, track export, extra beacon profiles, capture replay, retry when heard, mobiles nearby, the digipeater coverage map, the IGate and the digipeater. The full split is on the free and Pro page.
  • Messaging. Threads per station, delivery state, automatic retry on a schedule you can change, a choice of which links a message goes out on, archiving, and blocking.
  • Radio links. KISS TNCs over Bluetooth Classic, BLE, USB serial, and TCP; a built-in AFSK audio modem that needs no TNC; and APRS-IS with a server-side filter. Several can run at once, as named channels. The iPhone app connects to BLE KISS TNCs, KISS over TCP, APRS-IS and the audio modem, which keys the radio by VOX; Bluetooth Classic and USB serial TNCs are Android-only.
  • IGate and digipeater. The phone can gate what the radio hears to APRS-IS, transmit internet traffic only for stations it has heard directly, and repeat packets as a fill-in or wide-area digipeater that stays quiet when another digipeater already covered the packet.
  • Background reception. On Android, packets keep arriving with the app in the background, behind a visible notification, with gaps in coverage marked in the log rather than hidden. On iPhone, beaconing carries on in the background and receiving pauses until you return to the app.
  • Map. Vector basemap from our own tile host, APRS symbols for stations, objects and beacons, an offline tile cache you size yourself, and downloadable offline regions for North America and Europe.
  • Packet log. Every frame kept, including each copy of a packet that arrives more than once, an inspector that decodes it, reception charts, retention windows you set, and import or replay of a capture file.
  • Services. Guided screens for 22 APRS services, with the raw command always visible.
  • Backup. Full export and import of the on-device database as JSON, and a station's track as GPX or KML.
  • Nine languages. English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish and Malay, on every screen.
  • Its own device identifiers. Packets from the app go out under the APSTKA (Android), APSTKI (iOS), APSTKW (Windows) and APSTKB (browser) identifiers, so a station heard from APRS Connect is attributable. They are in the public APRS device list, so other software names the app too.

In progress

  • Android Auto, which puts the app's map on a car's screen. It is built and is part of 1.12.5, which has been submitted to Google Play and has not been released yet.
  • Wider coverage of the APRS message services, each one verified against the live bot before it ships.
  • Translations checked by native speakers. The nine languages are complete, but machine-assisted; corrections are welcome on the support page.
  • General polish.

Releases

Every release, newest first, with what it carried. The version on the About screen tells you which one you are running, and an over-the-air update adds its ID beside the version. The timeline is the same releases the other way up, from the first commit, with the milestones in between.

  • iOS 1.13.0, 28 September 2026. Messages from every SSID of a station share one conversation, and a reply goes to the SSID that wrote last; Settings, Messages turns it off. With Pro, the conversations of your other callsigns can be merged into your station's. The RF / IS indicator is on Map, Stations and Packets as well as Messages. The Tidradio TD-H9 connects over Bluetooth LE.
  • 1.8.0 update, 27 September 2026, over the air on Google Play. Messages from every SSID of a station share one conversation. With Pro, messages sent to your other SSIDs can be received and answered on the phone, in conversations of their own or merged into your station's. The RF / IS indicator on Map, Stations and Packets. Your station answers ?APRSS, ?APRST and ?IGATE queries, and devices sharing a callsign no longer knock each other off APRS-IS. Every channel can send a record of what it did to support. A beacon button in the APRS OTA conversation. Packet paths on the map run all the way to the station that heard the packet. Fixes across the IGate, the digipeater, beacons, messages, Bluetooth radios and the B.B. Link. The TD-H9 and LoRa APRS trackers need a newer Android build than 1.8.0, so they are not in this update.
  • iOS 1.12.5, 24 September 2026. Your station answers ?APRSS, ?APRST and ?IGATE queries from other stations, and Settings, Privacy turns that off. Devices sharing a callsign no longer knock each other off APRS-IS, and the Radio screen says when another login keeps doing it. Acks for messages your IGate passes to the internet come back over the air. Fixes across the IGate, the digipeater, beacons, messages, Bluetooth radios and the Packets tab.
  • 1.8.0 update, 23 September 2026, over the air on Google Play. Optional accounts, signed in with a password or an emailed link. With Pro and an account, your messages, conversations, pinned stations, blocked list and settings stay the same on every device, and when two of your devices share a callsign only one of them beacons. With Pro, the Rest of the world layer puts stations heard anywhere on APRS-IS on the map. Station details in tabs, with the same view from a map marker. Buttons have names in TalkBack. A What's new sheet after an update. Saving the packet log to a folder no longer fails partway.
  • iOS 1.12.4, by 23 September 2026. With Pro, messages sent to your other SSIDs can be received and answered on the phone. Every channel can send a record of what it did, including the packets it sent and received, to support. A beacon button in the APRS OTA conversation. Packet paths on the map run all the way to the station that heard the packet, and every route is drawn. Fixes for B.B. Link connections, wind arrows, and restarting from About to apply an update.
  • iOS 1.12.1, 22 September 2026. A Bluetooth LE radio that has to be paired, such as a BTECH UV-PRO, gets about a minute for it instead of five seconds.
  • iOS 1.12.0, 21 September 2026. Optional accounts, signed in with a password or an emailed link. With Pro and an account, your messages, conversations, pinned stations, blocked list and settings stay the same on every device, and when two of your devices share a callsign only one of them beacons. With Pro, the Rest of the world layer puts stations heard anywhere on APRS-IS on the map. Station details in tabs, with the same view from a map marker. LoRa APRS trackers over Bluetooth LE, and a LoRa iGate's text feed over Network TNC. From Android's 16 September update: a setting for where messages go, the APRS OTA chase list from aprsota.org with a map of each op, every copy of a packet kept, and more than one reminder before an ISS pass. Buttons have names in VoiceOver, and a What's new sheet after an update.
  • iOS 1.10.4, 17 September 2026. The first App Store release. The iPhone app connects to BLE KISS TNCs, KISS over TCP, APRS-IS and the audio modem, which keys the radio by VOX.
  • 1.8.0 update, 16 September 2026, delivered over the air rather than through Google Play, so the version still reads 1.8.0. A setting for where messages go: on the radio first, on APRS-IS first, on one link only, or on all links at once. A retry schedule you set. A weekly #APRSThursday reminder. For the ISS: its position on the map, more than one reminder before a pass, and a link to spaceaprs.com. For APRS OTA: a chase list read from aprsota.org, a map of each op with the distance to every station, a BLAST box, and a wrap-up that counts the calls the bot left unanswered. The packet page links to what it names and shows every decoded field, and every copy of a packet is kept. A Mobilinkd TNC's battery level on the Radio screen. Web addresses in messages open in the browser. The offline map catalogue covers Europe, and the map has its own light and dark theme. Settings is grouped by topic, one card per section, and Pro features show a lock. Fixes include a black screen on a new install, a frozen APRS-IS connection that was not restarted while a radio was up, and background beaconing losing access to GPS. The update post lists every change and how to check that you have it.
  • 1.8.0, 7 September 2026. The phone can be an IGate, in either direction, transmitting only for stations it has heard directly; and a digipeater, fill-in or wide-area, that waits and stays quiet when another digipeater already repeated the packet. A coverage heat map on the map tab of where signals have provably reached a digipeater from: yours, everyone's, or one digipeater's own footprint. Pin a station: it sorts to the top, is followed on APRS-IS wherever it goes, and the view filter can narrow everything to pinned stations. A grid square screen with your own locator and the distance and bearing to any other, worked out on the phone. The tab bar is yours to arrange: swipe up for a drawer of every screen, and drag tiles onto the bar. IGate, the digipeater and the coverage map are Pro; pins and grid squares are free.
  • 1.7.0, 3 September 2026. A failed message can wait for its station and retry when it is next heard, with a waiting list screen (Pro). Mobiles nearby: a notification when a moving station comes close enough to work (Pro). Beaconing is consented to on the station setup step, and the home screen says when it is off. Position comes from Android's own location services on phones without Google Play services. A net room says how many are on the net now.
  • 1.6.0, 2 September 2026. The app is free over APRS-IS, and APRS Connect Pro carries the radio channels, offline region downloads, the radar layer, track export, extra beacon profiles and capture replay, with a 7-day trial. Every screen reads from the seven language catalogues. Retention windows for the packet log and for trails, set separately, and clearing the log no longer erases the trails. The channel filter chips narrow with a tap and add with another. A message's detail lists every copy that went out. First iOS build submitted to Apple.
  • 1.5.0, 1 September 2026. The iOS port: CoreBluetooth BLE, a platform sweep, and the first iOS build. On Android, the BLE scan control became a full-width button, the app transmits under its own APSTK device identifiers, and the subscription wall gained an export door so your data leaves even after expiry.
  • 1.4.0, 31 August 2026. Map tiles served from our own host, downloadable offline regions, the bundled map style, and import of your own map file.
  • 1.3.0, 29 August 2026. The interface refresh. BLE KISS TNCs (a Mobilinkd TNC4 in LE mode, a B.B. Link). A keep-screen-on setting: off, on the map, or always. An APRS OTA host can see what they said back to each chaser.
  • 1.2.0, 28 August 2026. The AFSK audio modem, which needs no TNC. Named channels: several radios at once, each any type. Six languages behind a switch. Messages can go out without a sequence number.
  • 1.1.0, 27 August 2026. Track export as GPX or KML. One background-running switch, on by default. Available worldwide.
  • 1.0.0, 26 August 2026. First public release on Google Play.

Last updated 8 October 2026. If something here is out of date, tell us. It should be accurate or it isn't worth publishing.