Block CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey wrote in an X post on Sunday night time that he spent his weekend creating an app referred to as Bitchat (presumably a mixture of the phrases “bit” and “chat,” and never the other combination of words that it seems to be like).
Bitchat is a messaging app that operates by way of Bluetooth mesh networks, permitting customers to ship messages with out Wi-Fi or cell reception. Due to Bluetooth’s technical limitations, this sort of app typically solely works at a spread of round 100 meters, making it helpful for conditions like discovering associates at a busy music pageant the place cell service is spotty. Nevertheless, Dorsey claims that his app has an prolonged vary, relaying messages by way of friends to increase as much as 300 meters, or 984 toes.
Probably the most widespread Bluetooth messaging apps, Bridgefy, was notably used throughout pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, since its capability to operate with out the web makes it more durable for Chinese language authorities to detect. Each Bridgefy and Bitchat say they’re end-to-end encrypted.
Coincidentally, Bridgefy is funded partially by one other Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone. However Dorsey’s newfound foray into creating Bitchat is smart, given his long-term pursuits in decentralizing tech — he’s a large proponent of Bitcoin, and he initially based the challenge that may turn into Bluesky whereas he was CEO of Twitter. Dorsey is now not affiliated with Bluesky because it operates now.
Dorsey opened Bitchat to beta testers by way of Apple’s Testflight, however the check is now full after hitting its 10,000-user most. He mentioned on X that the app continues to be underneath review earlier than will probably be launched.