Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey launches a messaging app that doesn't require the internet

Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO and decentralisation advocate, has just launched Bitchat — a peer-to-peer messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks without the need for internet, phone numbers, or servers. It’s now in beta via TestFlight, with a technical white paper up on GitHub.

Dorsey, in a post on X, shared the details of Bitchat in a white paper.

What is Bitchat?

Bitchat is designed for privacy-first, off-grid communication. Messages are encrypted, ephemeral, and hop between nearby devices via Bluetooth. As people move, messages can relay across overlapping Bluetooth clusters, creating a living, breathing mesh network — no central authority involved. Some devices can act as “bridges” to extend the network’s range.

There are no user accounts, no identifiers, and no data collection. Dorsey’s approach echoes the peer-to-peer ethos behind earlier decentralisation projects like Bluesky and Damus, and draws parallels with Bridgefy — a similar mesh app used during the 2019 Hong Kong protests when authorities blocked internet access.

The app also supports password-protected group chats (or “rooms”) and a “store and forward” model, letting users receive delayed messages if they were offline. Future updates will add WiFi Direct to improve bandwidth and range.

While Dorsey hasn’t stated this publicly, it clearly is an alternative app to more centralised platforms like Meta’s WhatsApp and Messenger. Bitchat is more experiment than mainstream contender for now, and it’s not clear whether it gains any traction or not. But Dorsey has been a vocal advocate of decentralised platforms.