Lndroid.Messenger: start texting sats today!

Lndroid.Messenger is the first app that connects to the Lndroid.Wallet over API and lets you exchange messages over Bitcoin Lightning Network. Here is how to start texting sats on Android:

• Install testnet beta release of the Lndroid.Wallet from PlayStore. The wallet is developer-focused, which is a kind way to say totally lacking UX for now.
• Start, create a wallet, wait until it synchronizes with the network.
• Get some testnet sats, click "Receive coins", use the address to get some coins from a friend, or from a faucet like this.
• Wait until transaction is confirmed and the wallet shows some non-zero Blockchain balance.
• Now we need to create a channel on the Lightning Network. First, connect to some node (choose Peers in menu, and then Connect peer). You can connect to any testnet node you know, or to lndroid.org node: pubkey 02bcd28003802ee4e2cf3b214ae5c02d1e700c6c03e2940bc5b2ca2cb76567026f, address: 176.9.28.137.
• To create a channel, go to Channels, Create channel, paste the pubkey of the peer you connected to, set amount to at least 20000 sats. You must choose to make the channel private, otherwise you'll have issues routing payments/messages. This is a temporary limitation, so bear with me.
• Wait until the channel is created, your Lightning balance should become non-zero.
• Now, install Lndroid.Messenger testnet release from PlayStore.
• Start it, follow the instructions to connect the app to the wallet.
• Currently you can only exchange messages with someone if they are added to your contact list, and you are added to theirs. So, find a friend who would follow this same process to get their messenger set up.
• Choose Share contact in the messenger. A lightning payment request is created with your private channels as routing hints. Routing hints are very important for routing between mobile nodes, and including public channels as hints is not currently supported, so that's why we needed a private channel.
• Let someone use the payment request to add you as a contact. If you're lonely, just send me your payreq on twitter and I'll add you.
• Now add your friend to your contact list, click Add contact, paste the payreq or scan the QR code. If you're still lonely, add me:

  lntb1p08xasvpp5edena635wr9uld8tm55esgpmwqu5ymd0kvnfn5k7ht3ctnd3zlasdqh2d5xzun9vssxxmmww3skxaqcqzpgxqpprzjq27d9qqrsqhwfck08vs54ewq9508qrrvq03fgz79kt9zedm9vupx7xtarqqqqfcqqqqqqqlgqqqqqqgq9qsp5rqle4lc8857qq0vgqw06xfs83nqrpafcwr7xsdmeww68z28fw85q9qy9qsqn8pn3l0uau8ssdaww0mkxn3q6aj07ll8s76w86t0ktz54gzzaewnrwx6m8uztlxm7gjam3l449l97hlpyf46wlpwt57aj64ymay0h6qq9pssmk

• Now, finally... Text some sats!

Having trouble or got some feedback? Tweet me here @LndroidOrg, or drop an email to messenger@lndroid.org.