Send a tiny, recognizable preview of an ATAK Quick Pic over the mesh — with its capture location and viewing direction. Several ultra-compact methods (1-bit and grayscale rasters, plus a vector sketch mode) are being trialled so a teammate can place a useful preview on the map off-grid. It never sends the original photo, only the compressed preview.
Make the mesh a first-class transport for the ATAK plugins teams already rely on. We're trialling integration with the UAS Tool — so a drone's position is visible across the entire mesh in real time — and with Data Sync, letting the mesh become part of a data-sync channel. More popular plugins follow as each integration is validated, so off-grid teams keep the workflows they know.
When a node acknowledges a packet, it can also report how well it heard that packet — strong or marginal. Folding that signal quality back into the ACK turns routine traffic into continuous link awareness, so you learn who hears you well and who is on the edge of the mesh, without sending anything extra.
See the mesh, not just the map. A real-time signal heatmap overlays reachability across the terrain — who you can reach cleanly, who is marginal, and who has dropped out of range — so the team can position, relay and plan around the actual shape of the network instead of guessing.
Bring LANCE to the desktop. A WinTAK plugin will let laptops connect a Meshtastic radio and join the mesh directly — usable as a bridge too. Plan a mission at the PC, then provision it out over the mesh to the team in the field, with the same Lite-family data and zero-config approach.
For organizations, LANCE will support custom branding of the plugin, organization-specific icon sets, and the ability to switch off features that aren't needed — a leaner, simpler interface tailored to a unit's role, training level and standard operating procedures.
Operator-triggered range tests and trace-route diagnostics, a redacted emission inventory, port-policy controls and conservative, advisory mesh recommendations — plus a tactical CLIENT_HIDDEN radio role. Designed to strengthen diagnostics without overclaiming privacy, and to never emit diagnostic traffic without operator intent.
We're researching our own firmware for the radios, purpose-built around the way LANCE actually uses the hardware. The goal: tighter integration, faster onboarding and headroom for optimizations that a general-purpose firmware can't reach — while keeping the same simple, plug-in-and-go experience.
Beyond Meshtastic, we're investigating support for other resilient transports — including MeshCore and the Reticulum network stack — so LANCE can carry the same Lite-family tactical data across whichever off-grid network a team already runs.
Roadmap items are directional, not promises, and dates aren't fixed. LANCE ships capabilities once they're field-validated — the current feature set is what's in the app today.
LANCE is built hand in hand with the people who carry it. If there's a capability you need — a new object type, a workflow, a radio or a transport — tell us. Real field requests move things up the list.
Thanks for helping shape LANCE — we read every idea and weigh it against field demand.