Block CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey wrote in an X post on Sunday night that he spent his weekend creating an app called Bitchat (presumably a combination of the words “bit” and “chat,” and not the other combination of words that it looks like).
Bitchat is a messaging app that operates through Bluetooth mesh networks, allowing users to send messages without Wi-Fi or cell reception. Because of Bluetooth’s technical limitations, this kind of app generally only works at a range of around 100 meters, making it useful for situations like finding friends at a busy music festival where cell service is spotty. However, Dorsey claims that his app has an extended range, relaying messages through peers to extend up to 300 meters, or 984 feet.
One of the most popular Bluetooth messaging apps, Bridgefy, was notably used during pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, since its ability to function without the internet makes it harder for Chinese authorities to detect. Both Bridgefy and Bitchat say they are end-to-end encrypted.
Coincidentally, Bridgefy is funded in part by another Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone. But Dorsey’s newfound foray into developing Bitchat makes sense, given his long-term interests in decentralizing tech — he is a massive proponent of Bitcoin, and he originally founded the project that would become Bluesky while he was CEO of Twitter. Dorsey is no longer affiliated with Bluesky as it operates now.
Dorsey opened Bitchat to beta testers via Apple’s Testflight, but the test is now full after hitting its 10,000-user maximum. He said on X that the app is still under review before it will be released.