## Offband Meshcore 1.6.0

The first stable release of the 1.5.0 line and the production successor to 1.4.0. One
of our largest releases: a full contacts overhaul, stock-compatible config and identity
portability, region radio presets, self-healing contact sync, and a deep pass on
Bluetooth reliability. Over 100 changes since the 1.5.0 beta.

### Contacts, reworked

- Tap a **contact shared on a channel** to add it, from an inline **Add Contact** card
  (#610), and **share your own contact into a channel** from the + picker (#611).
- **Contact QR**: show your contact as a QR and scan someone else's to add them,
  reachable from the contacts menu or the key field (#629).
- **Add by public key**: type or paste a key (#628), or add from a key alone before
  any advert arrives (#627).
- **Cross-client with stock MeshCore**: Offband parses and emits the stock
  contact-share URI, so contacts move both ways between Offband and stock (#625, #626),
  and pasted shares in our own channel format are accepted too (#611).
- Each contact shows **how far its identity is confirmed** (#630), and names are
  handled correctly on the wire (no truncation mid-character) (#636).
- **Channel senders**: add, view, or block a sender from an avatar tap or long-press,
  with clear messaging when a name is unknown or an add fails (#565).

### Bring your setup with you

- **Stock-compatible config export and import**: move a radio's full configuration in
  and out in the exact format stock MeshCore uses, wired into Settings
  (#572, #573, #574, #575, #576).
- **Identity export/import** for your connector, with an auto-add hop limit (#578).

### Radio presets

- A **preset picker grouped by region** and labeled by source, crediting Liam Cottle /
  MeshCore for the upstream presets (#727, #728, #729, #731).
- Apply a preset's path hash to a **companion, observer, repeater, or room server**
  (#730, #735, #649), with the picker built into repeater and room-server settings
  (#734). Region matching accounts for the path-hash mode, so a USA radio is not
  mislabeled as Canada (#747).

### Sync that heals itself

- Offband **detects a short contact sync and recovers it** with paced, capped
  re-syncs and per-key checks, then shows a banner with the recovered count and which
  contacts are genuinely gone (#762, #763, #764, #674).
- A short or unreadable sync **never overwrites your saved contacts** (#671, #673), a
  silent contact stream ends on its own after 30 seconds (#672), and only one contact
  request runs at a time (#672).
- **Apply a remote radio setting temporarily** (tempradio) (#662), and **manage a
  sensor like a repeater** (#745).

### Bluetooth reliability

- The composer is no longer locked by an unreported BLE MTU. Offband reports the
  negotiated MTU on **Linux** (#717) and **Windows** (through a vendored BLE plugin
  with live MTU updates) (#686), and lifts the floor that locked it on **web** (#718).
  If a link genuinely cannot carry a message, it explains why instead of showing a
  dead field (#684).
- Sturdier connects and disconnects: bounded GATT-133 retry with readable errors
  (#698), an unconfirmed disconnect now retries and warns instead of being swallowed
  (#697), and leaked GATT handles are closed (#696).
- USB serial no longer drops bytes: mutexes initialize before the reader runs, and
  each callback drains fully (#710, #711).

### Delivery and messaging fixes

- Delivered direct messages are no longer marked failed: send correlation adopts the
  radio's own ACK hash (#581).
- Late repeater replies go to the app log, not your screen (#589).

### Also new since 1.4.0 (the 1.5.0 beta groundwork)

- An **Experimental section** unlocked by a 7-tap on the Build row; disabling it clears
  every experimental toggle (#509, #553).
- **OKIMesh CoreScope** (Experimental): per-packet observer counts from OKIMesh's
  CoreScope service. It needs forthcoming Offband firmware and stays inert until then,
  and now cleanly distinguishes not-found from unreachable (#549, #550, #678).
- An **About screen** in its own Settings category (#526, #527), **top-of-screen
  toast** notifications announced to screen readers (#638), and a refreshed **web
  identity** (#608).

### Known issues

- On Windows, BLE Disconnect can still leave the radio held by the OS until you replug
  (#688).

Offband is open source and always will be. If you would like to help keep it going,
there is a donation page at https://offband.org/donate. Thank you for being part of it.