diff --git a/docs/software/TODO.md b/docs/software/TODO.md
index dfef0427..622a95af 100644
--- a/docs/software/TODO.md
+++ b/docs/software/TODO.md
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ You probably don't care about this section - skip to the next one.
 * DONE fix setch-fast in python tool
 * age out pendingrequests in the python API
 * DONE stress test channel download from python, sometimes it seems like we don't get all replies, bug was due to simultaneous android connection
-* combine acks and responses in a single message if possible (do routing plugin LAST and drop ACK if someone else has already replied)
+* DONE combine acks and responses in a single message if possible (do routing plugin LAST and drop ACK if someone else has already replied)
 * DONE don't send packets we received from the phone BACK TOWARDS THE PHONE (possibly use fromnode 0 for packets the phone sends?)
 * fix 1.1.50 android debug panel display
 * DONE warn in android app about unset regions
diff --git a/src/mesh/FloodingRouter.cpp b/src/mesh/FloodingRouter.cpp
index 049d038c..491501e9 100644
--- a/src/mesh/FloodingRouter.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh/FloodingRouter.cpp
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ void FloodingRouter::sniffReceived(const MeshPacket *p, const Routing *c)
 {
     // If a broadcast, possibly _also_ send copies out into the mesh.
     // (FIXME, do something smarter than naive flooding here)
-    if (p->to == NODENUM_BROADCAST && p->hop_limit > 0 && p->from != getNodeNum()) {
+    if (p->to == NODENUM_BROADCAST && p->hop_limit > 0 && getFrom(p) != getNodeNum()) {
         if (p->id != 0) {
             MeshPacket *tosend = packetPool.allocCopy(*p); // keep a copy because we will be sending it
 
diff --git a/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.cpp b/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.cpp
index 34aaa236..562f31c7 100644
--- a/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.cpp
@@ -1,23 +1,28 @@
 #include "MeshPlugin.h"
-#include "NodeDB.h"
 #include "MeshService.h"
+#include "NodeDB.h"
 #include <assert.h>
 
 std::vector<MeshPlugin *> *MeshPlugin::plugins;
 
 const MeshPacket *MeshPlugin::currentRequest;
 
+/**
+ * If any of the current chain of plugins has already sent a reply, it will be here.  This is useful to allow
+ * the RoutingPlugin to avoid sending redundant acks
+ */
+ MeshPacket *MeshPlugin::currentReply;
+
 MeshPlugin::MeshPlugin(const char *_name) : name(_name)
 {
     // Can't trust static initalizer order, so we check each time
-    if(!plugins)
+    if (!plugins)
         plugins = new std::vector<MeshPlugin *>();
 
     plugins->push_back(this);
 }
 
-void MeshPlugin::setup() {
-}
+void MeshPlugin::setup() {}
 
 MeshPlugin::~MeshPlugin()
 {
@@ -31,6 +36,8 @@ void MeshPlugin::callPlugins(const MeshPacket &mp)
 
     assert(mp.which_payloadVariant == MeshPacket_decoded_tag); // I think we are guarnteed the packet is decoded by this point?
 
+    currentReply = NULL; // No reply yet
+
     // Was this message directed to us specifically?  Will be false if we are sniffing someone elses packets
     auto ourNodeNum = nodeDB.getNodeNum();
     bool toUs = mp.to == NODENUM_BROADCAST || mp.to == ourNodeNum;
@@ -48,15 +55,16 @@ void MeshPlugin::callPlugins(const MeshPacket &mp)
             bool handled = pi.handleReceived(mp);
 
             // Possibly send replies (but only if the message was directed to us specifically, i.e. not for promiscious sniffing)
+            // also: we only let the one plugin send a reply, once that happens, remaining plugins are not considered
 
-            // NOTE: we send a reply *even if the (non broadcast) request was from us* which is unfortunate but necessary because currently when the phone 
-            // sends things, it sends things using the local node ID as the from address.  A better solution (FIXME) would be to let phones
-            // have their own distinct addresses and we 'route' to them like any other node.
-            if (mp.decoded.want_response && toUs && (getFrom(&mp) != ourNodeNum || mp.to == ourNodeNum)) {
+            // NOTE: we send a reply *even if the (non broadcast) request was from us* which is unfortunate but necessary because
+            // currently when the phone sends things, it sends things using the local node ID as the from address.  A better
+            // solution (FIXME) would be to let phones have their own distinct addresses and we 'route' to them like any other
+            // node.
+            if (mp.decoded.want_response && toUs && (getFrom(&mp) != ourNodeNum || mp.to == ourNodeNum) && !currentReply) {
                 pi.sendResponse(mp);
                 DEBUG_MSG("Plugin %s sent a response\n", pi.name);
-            }
-            else {
+            } else {
                 DEBUG_MSG("Plugin %s considered\n", pi.name);
             }
             if (handled) {
@@ -64,11 +72,17 @@ void MeshPlugin::callPlugins(const MeshPacket &mp)
                 break;
             }
         }
-       
+
         pi.currentRequest = NULL;
     }
 
-    if(!pluginFound)
+    if(currentReply) {
+        DEBUG_MSG("Sending response\n"); 
+        service.sendToMesh(currentReply);
+        currentReply = NULL;
+    }
+
+    if (!pluginFound)
         DEBUG_MSG("No plugins interested in portnum=%d\n", mp.decoded.portnum);
 }
 
@@ -76,39 +90,39 @@ void MeshPlugin::callPlugins(const MeshPacket &mp)
  * so that subclasses can (optionally) send a response back to the original sender.  Implementing this method
  * is optional
  */
-void MeshPlugin::sendResponse(const MeshPacket &req) {
+void MeshPlugin::sendResponse(const MeshPacket &req)
+{
     auto r = allocReply();
-    if(r) {
-        DEBUG_MSG("Sending response\n");
+    if (r) {
         setReplyTo(r, req);
-        service.sendToMesh(r);
-    }
-    else {
+        currentReply = r;       
+    } else {
         // Ignore - this is now expected behavior for routing plugin (because it ignores some replies)
         // DEBUG_MSG("WARNING: Client requested response but this plugin did not provide\n");
     }
 }
 
-/** set the destination and packet parameters of packet p intended as a reply to a particular "to" packet 
+/** set the destination and packet parameters of packet p intended as a reply to a particular "to" packet
  * This ensures that if the request packet was sent reliably, the reply is sent that way as well.
-*/
-void setReplyTo(MeshPacket *p, const MeshPacket &to) {
+ */
+void setReplyTo(MeshPacket *p, const MeshPacket &to)
+{
     assert(p->which_payloadVariant == MeshPacket_decoded_tag); // Should already be set by now
     p->to = getFrom(&to);
     p->want_ack = to.want_ack;
     p->decoded.request_id = to.id;
 }
 
-std::vector<MeshPlugin *> MeshPlugin::GetMeshPluginsWithUIFrames() {
+std::vector<MeshPlugin *> MeshPlugin::GetMeshPluginsWithUIFrames()
+{
 
-    std::vector<MeshPlugin *> pluginsWithUIFrames;    
+    std::vector<MeshPlugin *> pluginsWithUIFrames;
     for (auto i = plugins->begin(); i != plugins->end(); ++i) {
         auto &pi = **i;
-        if ( pi.wantUIFrame()) {
+        if (pi.wantUIFrame()) {
             DEBUG_MSG("Plugin wants a UI Frame\n");
             pluginsWithUIFrames.push_back(&pi);
         }
     }
     return pluginsWithUIFrames;
-    
 }
diff --git a/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.h b/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.h
index 7220a198..7234b6b0 100644
--- a/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.h
+++ b/src/mesh/MeshPlugin.h
@@ -82,6 +82,13 @@ class MeshPlugin
 
   private:
 
+    /**
+     * If any of the current chain of plugins has already sent a reply, it will be here.  This is useful to allow 
+     * the RoutingPlugin to avoid sending redundant acks
+     */
+    static MeshPacket *currentReply;
+    friend class ReliableRouter;  
+
     /** Messages can be received that have the want_response bit set.  If set, this callback will be invoked
      * so that subclasses can (optionally) send a response back to the original sender.  This method calls allocReply()
      * to generate the reply message, and if !NULL that message will be delivered to whoever sent req
diff --git a/src/mesh/MeshService.cpp b/src/mesh/MeshService.cpp
index f21742ea..4dcc1785 100644
--- a/src/mesh/MeshService.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh/MeshService.cpp
@@ -69,26 +69,21 @@ int MeshService::handleFromRadio(const MeshPacket *mp)
 {
     powerFSM.trigger(EVENT_RECEIVED_PACKET); // Possibly keep the node from sleeping
 
-    if (mp->from != 0) {
-        printPacket("Forwarding to phone", mp);
-        nodeDB.updateFrom(*mp); // update our DB state based off sniffing every RX packet from the radio
+    printPacket("Forwarding to phone", mp);
+    nodeDB.updateFrom(*mp); // update our DB state based off sniffing every RX packet from the radio
 
-        fromNum++;
+    fromNum++;
 
-        if (toPhoneQueue.numFree() == 0) {
-            DEBUG_MSG("NOTE: tophone queue is full, discarding oldest\n");
-            MeshPacket *d = toPhoneQueue.dequeuePtr(0);
-            if (d)
-                releaseToPool(d);
-        }
-
-        MeshPacket *copied = packetPool.allocCopy(*mp);
-        assert(toPhoneQueue.enqueue(copied, 0)); // FIXME, instead of failing for full queue, delete the oldest mssages
-    }
-    else {
-        DEBUG_MSG("Packet originally from phone, no need to send back that way...\n");
+    if (toPhoneQueue.numFree() == 0) {
+        DEBUG_MSG("NOTE: tophone queue is full, discarding oldest\n");
+        MeshPacket *d = toPhoneQueue.dequeuePtr(0);
+        if (d)
+            releaseToPool(d);
     }
 
+    MeshPacket *copied = packetPool.allocCopy(*mp);
+    assert(toPhoneQueue.enqueue(copied, 0)); // FIXME, instead of failing for full queue, delete the oldest mssages
+
     return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/mesh/PhoneAPI.cpp b/src/mesh/PhoneAPI.cpp
index a7797c25..5a7666b2 100644
--- a/src/mesh/PhoneAPI.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh/PhoneAPI.cpp
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ void PhoneAPI::handleToRadio(const uint8_t *buf, size_t bufLength)
     }
     // return (lastContactMsec != 0) &&
 
+    memset(&toRadioScratch, 0, sizeof(toRadioScratch));
     if (pb_decode_from_bytes(buf, bufLength, ToRadio_fields, &toRadioScratch)) {
         switch (toRadioScratch.which_payloadVariant) {
         case ToRadio_packet_tag: {
diff --git a/src/mesh/ProtobufPlugin.h b/src/mesh/ProtobufPlugin.h
index c68885df..30874b24 100644
--- a/src/mesh/ProtobufPlugin.h
+++ b/src/mesh/ProtobufPlugin.h
@@ -58,11 +58,12 @@ template <class T> class ProtobufPlugin : protected SinglePortPlugin
         // it would be better to update even if the message was destined to others.
 
         auto &p = mp.decoded;
-        DEBUG_MSG("Received %s from=0x%0x, id=0x%x, payloadlen=%d\n", name, mp.from, mp.id, p.payload.size);
+        DEBUG_MSG("Received %s from=0x%0x, id=0x%x, portnum=%d, payloadlen=%d\n", name, mp.from, mp.id, p.portnum, p.payload.size);
 
         T scratch;
         T *decoded = NULL; 
         if(mp.decoded.portnum == ourPortNum) {
+            memset(&scratch, 0, sizeof(scratch));
             if (pb_decode_from_bytes(p.payload.bytes, p.payload.size, fields, &scratch))
                 decoded = &scratch;
             else
diff --git a/src/mesh/ReliableRouter.cpp b/src/mesh/ReliableRouter.cpp
index 80ee9770..eb22117f 100644
--- a/src/mesh/ReliableRouter.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh/ReliableRouter.cpp
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 #include "MeshTypes.h"
 #include "configuration.h"
 #include "mesh-pb-constants.h"
+#include "MeshPlugin.h"
 
 // ReliableRouter::ReliableRouter() {}
 
@@ -26,7 +27,8 @@ ErrorCode ReliableRouter::send(MeshPacket *p)
 
 bool ReliableRouter::shouldFilterReceived(const MeshPacket *p)
 {
-    if (p->to == NODENUM_BROADCAST && getFrom(p) == getNodeNum()) {
+    // Note: do not use getFrom() here, because we want to ignore messages sent from phone
+    if (p->to == NODENUM_BROADCAST && p->from == getNodeNum()) {
         printPacket("Rx someone rebroadcasting for us", p);
 
         // We are seeing someone rebroadcast one of our broadcast attempts.
@@ -34,7 +36,8 @@ bool ReliableRouter::shouldFilterReceived(const MeshPacket *p)
         // the original sending process.
         if (stopRetransmission(getFrom(p), p->id)) {
             DEBUG_MSG("Someone is retransmitting for us, generate implicit ack\n");
-            sendAckNak(Routing_Error_NONE, getFrom(p), p->id);
+            if(p->want_ack)
+                sendAckNak(Routing_Error_NONE, getFrom(p), p->id);
         }
     }
 
@@ -60,23 +63,26 @@ void ReliableRouter::sniffReceived(const MeshPacket *p, const Routing *c)
     if (p->to == ourNode) { // ignore ack/nak/want_ack packets that are not address to us (we only handle 0 hop reliability
                             // - not DSR routing)
         if (p->want_ack) {
-            sendAckNak(Routing_Error_NONE, getFrom(p), p->id);
+            if(MeshPlugin::currentReply)
+                DEBUG_MSG("Someone else has replied to this message, no need for a 2nd ack");
+            else
+                sendAckNak(Routing_Error_NONE, getFrom(p), p->id);
         }
 
-        // If the payload is valid, look for ack/nak
-        if (c) {
-            PacketId ackId = c->error_reason == Routing_Error_NONE ? p->decoded.request_id : 0;
-            PacketId nakId = c->error_reason != Routing_Error_NONE ? p->decoded.request_id : 0;
+        // We consider an ack to be either a !routing packet with a request ID or a routing packet with !error
+        PacketId ackId = ((c && c->error_reason == Routing_Error_NONE) || !c) ? p->decoded.request_id : 0;
 
-            // We intentionally don't check wasSeenRecently, because it is harmless to delete non existent retransmission records
-            if (ackId || nakId) {
-                if (ackId) {
-                    DEBUG_MSG("Received a ack=%d, stopping retransmissions\n", ackId);
-                    stopRetransmission(p->to, ackId);
-                } else {
-                    DEBUG_MSG("Received a nak=%d, stopping retransmissions\n", nakId);
-                    stopRetransmission(p->to, nakId);
-                }
+        // A nak is a routing packt that has an  error code
+        PacketId nakId = (c && c->error_reason != Routing_Error_NONE) ? p->decoded.request_id : 0;
+
+        // We intentionally don't check wasSeenRecently, because it is harmless to delete non existent retransmission records
+        if (ackId || nakId) {
+            if (ackId) {
+                DEBUG_MSG("Received a ack for 0x%x, stopping retransmissions\n", ackId);
+                stopRetransmission(p->to, ackId);
+            } else {
+                DEBUG_MSG("Received a nak for 0x%x, stopping retransmissions\n", nakId);
+                stopRetransmission(p->to, nakId);
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/mesh/Router.cpp b/src/mesh/Router.cpp
index b4bb149d..17f6c50f 100644
--- a/src/mesh/Router.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh/Router.cpp
@@ -231,6 +231,7 @@ bool Router::perhapsDecode(MeshPacket *p)
             crypto->decrypt(p->from, p->id, p->encrypted.size, bytes);
 
             // Take those raw bytes and convert them back into a well structured protobuf we can understand
+            memset(p->decoded, 0, sizeof(p->decoded));
             if (!pb_decode_from_bytes(bytes, p->encrypted.size, Data_fields, &p->decoded)) {
                 DEBUG_MSG("Invalid protobufs in received mesh packet (bad psk?!\n");
             } else {
diff --git a/src/plugins/Plugins.cpp b/src/plugins/Plugins.cpp
index 65f1f5f0..ca4cb52f 100644
--- a/src/plugins/Plugins.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/Plugins.cpp
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
  */
 void setupPlugins()
 {
-    routingPlugin = new RoutingPlugin();
     adminPlugin = new AdminPlugin();
     nodeInfoPlugin = new NodeInfoPlugin();
     positionPlugin = new PositionPlugin();
@@ -48,4 +47,7 @@ void setupPlugins()
     // new StoreForwardPlugin();
     new EnvironmentalMeasurementPlugin();
 #endif
+
+    // NOTE! This plugin must be added LAST because it likes to check for replies from other plugins and avoid sending extra acks
+    routingPlugin = new RoutingPlugin();
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/plugins/RoutingPlugin.cpp b/src/plugins/RoutingPlugin.cpp
index 18427bdc..f6c2ea03 100644
--- a/src/plugins/RoutingPlugin.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/RoutingPlugin.cpp
@@ -9,11 +9,12 @@ RoutingPlugin *routingPlugin;
 
 bool RoutingPlugin::handleReceivedProtobuf(const MeshPacket &mp, const Routing *r)
 {
-    DEBUG_MSG("Routing sniffing", &mp);
+    printPacket("Routing sniffing", &mp);
     router->sniffReceived(&mp, r);
 
     // FIXME - move this to a non promsicious PhoneAPI plugin?
-    if (mp.to == NODENUM_BROADCAST || mp.to == nodeDB.getNodeNum()) {
+    // Note: we are careful not to send back packets that started with the phone back to the phone
+    if ((mp.to == NODENUM_BROADCAST || mp.to == nodeDB.getNodeNum()) && (mp.from != 0)) {
         printPacket("Delivering rx packet", &mp);
         service.handleFromRadio(&mp);
     }