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Meshtastic is gaining popularity faster than I had ever thought. It is a great way to send messages to people off-grid or with no cell or internet service. You can build your own (check this post) or you can buy one (AFFILIATE LINK) already built on different sites. What makes these quite unique is it is open source, it works well, and I have been quite happy with the Meshtastic platform. You do need an iOS or Android device (phone or tablet), but you can shut off cell and WiFi, and just leave Bluetooth on to use this.
Once the Meshtastic device pairs with your phone using the Meshtastic app (do not pair the Meshtastic device in your phone configuration), you can start to discover the other nodes, and start communicating with them. You can communicate on a public channel (encrypted, but everyone can see it), a private channel (encrypted, so only people with shared private channel can decrypt and see the message), and direct message (encrypted). Public and Private channels are group messaging, and direct message is one to one messaging. The encryption has its weaknesses, but I won’t go into details on that topic, and it is good enough for most people.
Communication range varies on terrain, equipment, and line of sight, but if all those are favorable, you can get quite a distance with these (I have been successfully able to communicate between two devices at over 1 mile with a ton of obstructions including a steel wall). With solid line of sight, and a good antenna, I was able to get 15 miles and the coverage was still good. I may eventually conduct a more comprehensive distance test.
This would be good enough to send a text message to someone during adventuring outings, especially if there is no cell or internet coverage. A Meshtastic router can be configured, set at a higher elevation with a good antenna, and the group should get good distance of coverage to be able to message each other or the entire group.
I’d say either build one or buy one (AFFILIATE LINK) built and see how it can be useful for you. I use it primarily for adventuring out in the middle of nowhere so I can message people that go on different hikes, but all converge back to basecamp.
