Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has a new chat app — and it runs on Bluetooth

The decentralized chat service — which Dorsey referred to as his “weekend project” on the site now known as X — operates over Bluetooth mesh networks. It’s an encrypted, ephemeral, peer-to-peer service that doesn’t rely on any "permanent identifiers" such as email addresses or phone numbers, according to a white paper. 

Mesh networking enables users to communicate through devices that are linked locally, rather than over an internet connection.

“Bitchat enables direct peer-to-peer messaging within physical proximity, with automatic message relay extending the effective range beyond direct Bluetooth connections,” Dorsey's white paper says. A future version of the app could include support for Wi-Fi Direct. 

The paper characterizes the app as “resilient to network outages and censorship.” Bitchat’s fine print says privacy is a “fundamental human right” and adds that the service does not collect any personal data and doesn’t have any user-tracking elements. 

Bitchat’s beta on the app-testing service TestFlight is full — with 10,000 people trying it out. Dorsey said on X that the app is in review for a broader release. 

Bitchat is not the first service of its kind. FireChat and Bridgefy, encrypted messaging apps operating over Bluetooth, were widely used during pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2014 and 2022, respectively.

Matthew De Silva contributed to this article.