bitchat - bitchat is a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over bluetooth mesh networks. no internet required, no servers, no phone numbers.

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Harvey Danger said:
It's a neat idea, probably has some niche use. But in a no-connectivity emergency situation, a cell phone using Bluetooth seems like the least power-efficient communication method. Regular old walkie-talkies are probably easier to keep going.
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People have power banks nowadays and even having solar as a backup is something a substantial number of people have.

It's also a lot easier to coordinate via chat than radio but you do have a valid point. It's definitely nice to have as a backup option.

And I guess if you're traveling through some city you can use it to chat and ask questions and given the location features probably score drugs (or overthrow the local government, but come now, that's not very penultimate)
 
August Levasseur said:
WhatsApp was able to work like this at one point I think. Hong Kong protestors were using it, until the Chinese government forced WhatsApp to disable that feature in HK and the rest of China.
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Wasn't it the Apple Airdrop? I may be mistaken. IIRC Apple then disabled the tech for Hong Kong, after or during the protest.
 
Harvey Danger said:
It's a neat idea, probably has some niche use. But in a no-connectivity emergency situation, a cell phone using Bluetooth seems like the least power-efficient communication method. Regular old walkie-talkies are probably easier to keep going.
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The other thing is that with advancements in smartphones they will definitely get either upgraded Bluetooth or some other radio network (like LoRAWAN) and Apple phones are also adding satellite features and so on - there's even Starlink and everything else.

In short: even though Bluetooth is relatively limited currently, it will definitely be the case that in a few years this app or something similar could use other radio networks for full voice communication and file sharing etc without the internet.

You can also probably get Bluetooth LoRAWAN shit and other stuff to turbo charge something like this.
 
Vertigo said:
Looks like it's not just for offline use, it also has geohashes for regions listed with blocks, not exact locations. It goes via TOR from what I see on the app itself, and on the github it says it utilizes the nostr protocol (which makes sense since Jack jumped ship from bluesky to NOSTR pretty early on) with its relays.
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Say what you will about Jack, but he knows communication and with his name on this project, it could gain popularity faster than some no name dev.
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Interesting, so your local channels will get sync'd via the internet I guess and mesh channels via bluetooth. So you can use it basically anytime and if the internet fails then Bluetooth will suffice:
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gampboonerisms said:
So, you have to manually add people to talk to them? or what, how do i find people to talk to?
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No you don't. It has rooms set up for your local block, neighborhood and city as well as "region" (country). So you can find people in chatrooms.

Or you can use the #mesh channel which will be local bluetooth chats.

It's very reminiscent of IRC and IRC channels.
 
neger psykolog said:
No you don't. It has rooms set up for your local block, neighborhood and city as well as "region" (country). So you can find people in chatrooms.

Or you can use the #mesh channel which will be local bluetooth chats.

It's very reminiscent of IRC and IRC channels.
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You can set up rooms and privately message someone too, it also has commands that start with a /. So yeah, it definitely takes a lot of inspiration from IRC. I just checked out a video by this dude. There's planned to be payment system via the app using Cashu (bitcoin) that works offline later too.
 
We could do a quick test, anyone who installed it can pick a random region and we all connect to it. How about #bgm?
 
Is it only bluetooth connection so if I wanted to connect to #bgm or something there would have to be a line of users with active bluetooth connection from there to me?
 
indomitable snowman said:
Is it only bluetooth connection so if I wanted to connect to #bgm or something there would have to be a line of users with active bluetooth connection from there to me?
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No for the regional channels it uses the Internet via tor and has nodes but it's like anonymized or something

Bluetooth is the backup option
 
indomitable snowman said:
Is it only bluetooth connection so if I wanted to connect to #bgm or something there would have to be a line of users with active bluetooth connection from there to me?
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doesnt look like it, i just connected with sceptre and i don't know where they are. also i closed the chat. i posted the pikachu face
 
damn there's 8 people in #bgm and we constructed a nigger tower, someone mentioned liz fong jones consent accident and there's no way to shut it down ):
 
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