Bitchat is a new private Bluetooth messaging app that doesn’t need the internet – here’s how it works

• Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has launched Bitchat Mesh
• The private messaging app uses Bluetooth to send texts
• It comes with plenty of privacy features

Tired of Messages and WhatsApp and ready to try something new? Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s new Bitchat Mesh app has landed on the iOS App Store, while an Android version is available on GitHub.

Download the app and you’ll find that it offers a novel way to contact friends and loved ones.

Dorsey announced Bitchat Mesh in early July. Unlike traditional messaging apps, Bitchat Mesh doesn’t rely on the internet to link up users and devices. Instead, it uses Bluetooth to relay messages from one person to another, so it should theoretically work in places where you lack internet connectivity – provided there are enough nearby Bluetooth devices to pass on your texts.

As well as this unusual distinction, Bitchat Mesh puts an emphasis on user privacy. You don’t need to register your phone number or email address with the app, nor even create an account to get started. That allows you to keep your identifying information private without being hindered.

Bitchat Mesh is also end-to-end encrypted, meaning all of your messages remain private and no one – not even Bitchat’s developer – can intercept or read them. There’s even a 'panic mode' that lets you erase all your data by triple-tapping the app’s logo.

A different way to text

Bitchat Mesh is a specialized app for people who care deeply about their privacy, and its unusual nature might prevent it from achieving the kind of mass-market saturation that rivals like WhatsApp have managed. But it could still have plenty of appeal for people who need its distinct features.

By not relying on the internet, for example, the app is more resistant to both network outages and censorship attempts than rival products might be. That could come in handy in nations run by oppressive governments or locations where you might not trust the security of more popular alternatives.

In our brief testing, Bitchat Mesh told us that there were zero other users in our vicinity, presumably because the app has only just launched. But that's likely to be an issue for many potential uses – if there’s no one around you, you might struggle to send your messages, given that the app relies on Bluetooth connections to relay texts.

Still, Bitchat Mesh can be used entirely for free, with no paywalls, subscriptions or in-app purchases yet in place, so you might want to try it out to see if it suits your needs.

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