Alternative to WhatsApp – without internet and without tracking

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is developing a new messaging app called Bitchat, which offers complete privacy and aims to compete with popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. It comes at a time when new European Union regulations could weaken encryption and allow surveillance of messages, even if they are encrypted between sender and recipient.

The main advantage of the Bitchat app is that it does not use the internet. Instead, messages travel over a decentralized Bluetooth network. Each message is automatically forwarded from one device to another (within a range of up to 300 meters) until it reaches the recipient. Thanks to AES-256-GCM encryption, the content is accessible only to the recipient, and intermediaries or third parties cannot read the message.

The delivery time of a message depends on the number of users and their distance from each other. Because everything happens via Bluetooth, the application cannot be censored or disabled, even if the country cuts off access to the Internet or mobile networks. The Bitchat messaging application supports all the basic features, such as group chats, favorite contacts and “ping” notifications, but without accounts, phone numbers or permanent user IDs. This makes it practically impossible to trace messages to an individual.

The app is currently being tested by 10,000 iPhone users. It is not yet known whether the new messaging app Bitchat will be publicly available - but it is expected to be announced in the next few months.