Former Twitter co-founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey has officially released the beta version of the Bluetooth messenger Bitchat to the App Store for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro. Previously available only through TestFlight, the app quickly reached a maximum of 10,000 participants, Engadget reports.
Bitchat allows you to exchange messages with users nearby without the need for a phone number or email. The application works over a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh network: messages are transmitted from device to device, without the need for Wi-Fi, cellular connectivity or central servers. Each smartphone becomes a node in the network, transmitting encrypted messages to other users, which allows for distances of up to 300 meters or more thanks to relay links and TTL routing.
The app is part of Dorsey's "and Other Stuff" open-source initiative. According to him, Bitchat is an experiment in Bluetooth mesh networks and autonomous storage and encryption models. Similar solutions have been around for over a decade, but Bitchat is focused on ease of use without a cellular or Wi-Fi connection — for example, during outages or outages.
Privacy is a key theme of Bitchat. The app even has a special Panic Mode feature that deletes all data after triple-tapping the logo. For now, the developers warn that some features (like private messages) have not passed an external security audit, so the app is still considered experimental.