Jack Dorsey engaged on Bluetooth messaging app, Bitchat

Block CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey wrote in an X publish 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 opposite mixture of phrases that it appears like).

Bitchat is a messaging app that operates via 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 usually 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 via friends to increase as much as 300 meters, or 984 ft.

One of the in style Bluetooth messaging apps, Bridgefy, was notably used throughout pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, since its means to perform with out the web makes it tougher for Chinese language authorities to detect. Each Bridgefy and Bitchat say they’re end-to-end encrypted.

Coincidentally, Bridgefy is funded partly by one other Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone. However Dorsey’s newfound foray into growing Bitchat is smart, given his long-term pursuits in decentralizing tech — he’s an enormous proponent of Bitcoin, and he initially based the challenge that may develop 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 through Apple’s Testflight, however the take a look at is now full after hitting its 10,000-user most. He mentioned on X that the app remains to be beneath evaluate earlier than will probably be launched.