In today’s world, messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and iMessage rely heavily on internet connections and mobile data to send texts, photos, and videos. But what happens if you lose access to Wi-Fi or cellular networks? Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and the visionary behind the digital payments company Block, has launched a new app called Bit Chat — a messenger that works entirely without the internet, mobile data, or cell towers.
Bit Chat uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a technology built into almost every smartphone. BLE is commonly used for connecting fitness trackers, smartwatches, and other gadgets with low power consumption. What makes Bit Chat special is how it uses BLE to create a mesh network — a network where devices communicate directly with each other, passing messages along like a relay race.
When you send a message with Bit Chat, your phone breaks the message into tiny encrypted packets and broadcasts them as Bluetooth signals. Nearby phones with Bit Chat pick up these signals and pass the packets along to others. This hopping continues until the message reaches the intended recipient. This means your phone isn’t just a messenger; it’s also a part of a bigger communication web.
The Bluetooth range for a single device is about 30 meters, but thanks to this mesh network, messages can travel much farther, jumping between multiple devices. In dense environments — such as concerts, college campuses, or busy city centers — this network can cover a surprisingly wide area, allowing messages to reach users without any traditional network support.
Bit Chat prioritizes privacy and security. Unlike most messaging apps, it does not require phone numbers, email addresses, or user accounts. This removes any central point of data collection or storage, making it much harder for governments, companies, or hackers to track users.
Messages sent via Bit Chat are encrypted end-to-end using strong cryptographic methods (Curve25519 for key exchange and AES-GCM for message encryption). This means that even though your message may pass through many phones before arriving at its destination, no device except the intended recipient can read it.
Moreover, Bit Chat includes features like password-protected channels for secure group communication and a Panic Mode. Panic Mode lets you quickly wipe all app data from your phone by tapping the app logo three times — useful if you need to protect sensitive information immediately.
Bit Chat’s offline design shines brightest in certain real-world situations:
Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes often disrupt mobile and internet networks. Bit Chat can keep people connected when traditional communication methods fail, potentially helping rescue efforts and coordination.
Protests and Political Unrest: In places where governments shut down the internet or monitor communications, Bit Chat offers a censorship-resistant channel for activists and communities to share information safely.
Remote Locations: Many rural or isolated areas lack reliable cellular service or internet access. Bit Chat can bridge this gap, allowing people to communicate locally without expensive infrastructure.
Large Gatherings: Events with many attendees, like festivals or conferences, often overwhelm network capacity. Bit Chat provides an alternative communication path that doesn’t depend on overloaded cell towers.
Despite its innovation, Bit Chat does have some limitations:
Range Dependency: Bluetooth’s limited range means the mesh network’s effectiveness depends heavily on having many users nearby. In sparsely populated areas or where few people have the app installed, messages may not travel far.
Speed and Reliability: Because messages hop between devices, delivery can be slower than traditional internet-based apps. If some users disable Bluetooth or close the app, message transmission might be interrupted.
Limited Features: Bit Chat focuses on core messaging and privacy, so it doesn’t offer features like cloud backups, message search, or read receipts. This is a trade-off for its offline, decentralized nature.
Battery Use: Continuous Bluetooth operation can drain battery faster, though BLE is designed to minimize this impact.
Jack Dorsey reportedly built Bit Chat over a weekend using an AI-powered coding assistant called Goose. The app was developed in Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android, with plans to expand to macOS. After launching a beta on Apple’s TestFlight with a 10,000-user limit, the app quickly attracted attention for its novel approach.
The Bit Chat team is also working on adding Wi-Fi Direct support. Wi-Fi Direct allows devices to connect directly over Wi-Fi without an internet connection, potentially increasing range and data transfer speed beyond Bluetooth’s limits.
Bit Chat fits into a broader vision of decentralized, user-controlled technology. As concerns grow about privacy, censorship, and corporate control of online communication, tools like Bit Chat empower users to connect without relying on centralized servers or service providers.
It challenges the idea that communication must depend on big internet companies or governments. Instead, it offers a community-driven, peer-to-peer network where every user helps keep the conversation alive.
While Bit Chat is not positioned to replace popular messaging apps for everyday use, its resilience, privacy, and offline capabilities make it a powerful tool in situations where connectivity is uncertain or restricted.
Jack Dorsey’s Bit Chat represents a bold, new way to communicate, no Wi-Fi, no mobile data, no problem. By leveraging existing smartphone technology and a decentralized mesh network, Bit Chat allows encrypted messages to travel across devices, even when traditional networks fail.
It’s a promising glimpse at how technology can adapt to real-world challenges, providing privacy, resilience, and freedom in communication. As Bit Chat continues to develop and gain users, it could become an essential lifeline in emergencies, protests, remote regions, and crowded events, helping us stay connected when we need it most.