Hybrid mode

Hybrid is the have-your-cake mode: the picture goes up to cloud storage at original quality, and only a short link is transmitted over the air — about five seconds of airtime regardless of picture size.

How it works

1. You stage a picture with hybrid enabled (it’s the out-of-the-box default — the toggle is in the Transmit options).
2. On Transmit, the app uploads the file, then broadcasts the link as a short text burst — repeated a few times for reliability.
3. Any Open Signal station that decodes the burst fetches the original automatically and it appears in their Receive pane like any other picture.

No accounts, no keys, no configuration: uploads go through the Open Signal picture service out of the box.

What’s good about it

• Full quality — the receiver gets the exact file, not a compressed copy.
• Animated GIFs survive — they arrive as GIFs and play.
• Tiny airtime — kind to the band and to repeater timers.

What to know

• Both ends need internet. The RF carries only the link; a receiver without internet sees the link as text and can’t fetch the picture. For RF-only paths, use Photo mode.
• Received hybrid pictures are saved as real files in your received folder like everything else.