Personal Device Roles
Personal roles are designed for individual users who want to send and receive messages. They vary in how aggressively the device relays messages for others.
Important: Your role choice affects everyone on the network. The Meshtastic project's guidance is clear: only assign Router or Repeater roles to nodes with genuinely excellent placement and reliable continuous power. Do not assign infrastructure roles to personal devices for convenience.
Client (Default)
Behavior: Sends and receives messages via the app. Rebroadcasts messagesa packet (managed flood routing) only when no other node has already rebroadcast it after the node determineshas heard it isonce the- best-positionedit relaydoes fornot pick a givensingle packet"best-positioned" (smart relay logic).relay.
Use for: Most personal handhelds and portable nodes. This is the correct default for the majority of users.
Client Mute
Behavior: Fully participates in messaging but never relays packets for other nodes.
Use for: Dense environments (city centers, events, conferences) where the channel is congested and adding another relay would make things worse. Client Mute is underappreciated - in a high-density network, switching personal devices to Client Mute can dramatically reduce channel utilization without losing any personal messaging capability.
Client Hidden
Behavior: MinimizesSuppresses presenceperiodic NodeInfo broadcasts. The node participates in messaging but does not frequentlyregularly announce its existenceexistence, so it is less likely to theappear network.in other users' node lists. (This role is firmware-version dependent.)
Use for: Privacy-conscious users who wantprefer not to usebe the mesh without being visiblelisted in others' node lists. UsefulThis foris not a covert or sensitiveanti-detection deployments.
Client Base
Behavior:mode Acts- asthe anode personalstill basetransmits station.identifiable Rebroadcastsplaintext quicklypacket headers whenever it sends, so anyone monitoring RF can see the node when it transmits. It reduces directory visibility, not radio detectability, and aggressively,metadata butcan onlystill for nodes that have been favorited/starred byreveal the user. Ignores relay requests from non-favorited nodes.
Use for: Home base stations that should prioritize relaying for a known group (family, team) without contributing to general network congestion.node.
Choosing the Right Personal Role
| Situation | Recommended Role |
|---|---|
| Default personal use | Client |
| Dense urban area or event with congestion | Client Mute |
| Client Hidden | |