GOTOKY Alternatives: What to Use Instead

GOTOKY promised a lot - and the idea is appealing enough that people still search for it. Because the public evidence that GOTOKY ever delivered to backers is thin (see What Happened to GOTOKY?), this focuses on achieving the same goals with current tools.

The original GOTOKY concept

GOTOKY was developed by a company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, after its founder was injured hiking with no signal to call for help. The device paired to an iOS or Android phone over Bluetooth. Paired, it was meant to allow voice calls (1-to-1 and group), texting (1-to-1 and group), an emergency location beacon that could be pressed even if the phone was dead, direction and distance to other GOTOKYs, offline topographic maps, real-time tracking and route recording. It used license-free UHF frequencies, dual-band 868 MHz (EU) / 915 MHz (US), and could store up to 1,000 messages on its own when not connected to a phone. The device had no GPS module of its own - it stored the last GPS location received from the phone.

Today's options

Smartphone + LoRa mesh

This is the closest match to the "phone + external radio + mesh" part of GOTOKY. You get group messaging and everyone's location on an offline map, relaying through other devices, with no subscription for the radio link. What to know: LoRa mesh carries text and location, not voice - so GOTOKY's "voice calls" part isn't here. See What Is a LoRa Mesh Radio?

Two-way radio

If what you wanted from GOTOKY was mainly voice at close range, a two-way radio does exactly that, simply and cheaply. The trade-off: no map, no history, no location. See LoRa Mesh vs Walkie-Talkie.

Satellite messenger or PLB

One point to be clear about GOTOKY's emergency button: as described, it alerted other GOTOKYs and stored a last location - it did not reach rescue services directly. A PLB (personal locator beacon) or a satellite messenger does: when activated, it sends a signal to a search-and-rescue network. If "being able to call for rescue" is what you need, that's a separate layer - see LoRa Mesh vs Satellite Messenger.

The other crowdfunded devices of that era

GOTOKY was in the same wave as goTenna Mesh and Sonnet. goTenna Mesh has left the consumer market; Best goTenna Mesh Alternatives walks through the same set of options.

Quick comparison

Where Nelos fits

People drawn to the idea of combining a familiar phone interface with an external off-grid radio will recognise the same model in today's LoRa mesh ecosystem. Nelos is the application layer: it runs on compatible LoRa mesh radios (using MeshCore) and gives your group messaging, location on an offline map, device trackers and a "Need Help" button that alerts the group - free, no account. Nelos does not make radios and is not "the new GOTOKY". It carries text and location, not voice.

The full picture is in the off-grid communication guide; hardware is in off-grid communication devices; and Getting Started covers setting up a group.