WhatsApp alternative bitchat sends messages offline to maintain privacy and protect against censorship
The latest project of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is called bitchat, an alternative to messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram that’s designed to provide better privacy. While WhatsApp encrypts all direct messages end-to-end, a proposed EU-wide chat control that might be approved by the European Commission, could force weaker encryptions and monitoring of all messages.
However, bitchat transmits messages via a decentralized Bluetooth mesh network, and not over the internet. This means that a message is automatically sent to every other smartphone with the bitchat app installed within a range of up to 328 yd, which then forwards the message to the next smartphone until it eventually reaches its recipient. These "middlemen" cannot read these transmitted messages, as AES-256-CGM encryption is intended to prevent anyone other than the recipient from decrypting it.
The time it takes for a message to reach its recipient will likely depend on how many users are on bitchat and the distance between the sender and recipient. However, sending via Bluetooth makes it nearly impossible to censor messages or even restrict communication, even if a government decides to shut down home internet access and cellular networks.
The WhatsApp alternative has typical messenger features, including favorites, pings and group chats. To protect privacy, bitchat doesn’t need any accounts, phone numbers or other persistent user identifiers. So even if someone manages to obtain such messages, it would be impossible to determine who sent them. A beta version of bitchat is currently being tested by 10,000 iPhone users, but it's unclear if or when the app will be released to the public.
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