Twitter founder, "The Weekend Experiment": encryption software Bitchat becomes the "Communication Noah Ark"

By Nancy, PANews

The world of encryption, both assets and technologies, is gradually taking on a more relevant stage。

In the past few months, from Hurricane “ Melissa ” to Jamaica, which caused the entire area to break off, to Uganda, which was cut off by the authorities as a result of the general elections, an encrypted communications application called Bitchat became unexpectedly popular and became &ldquo in the eyes of millions of people around the world; and communication Noah's Ark &rdquo。

Repeated download lists, Bitchat &ldquao; comm Noah ark &rdquao;

In extreme environments of Internet blockades, natural disasters or infrastructure paralysis, traditional instant communication tools tend to fail collectively. Bitchat has proved in many operations that he is not just a social software, but a key emergency tool for dealing with Internet disruptions, helping millions of people to cross digital barriers and reconnect the world。

Recently, on the eve of the presidential elections, the Government of Uganda cut off the Internet throughout the country on the pretext of containing false information. In the face of a web break, Bitchat became the country ' s most downloaded application. Hundreds of thousands of people have entered the platform, maintaining basic information flows in the context of the information blockade。

In addition to sudden social unrest, Bitchat is a key instrument in natural disasters. In October 2025, hurricane “ Melissa ” hit Jamaica, the island-wide electricity and communications network was devastated and the network connection rate dropped sharply to about 30 per cent of normal levels. At a time of total paralysis of traditional instant communication tools, Bitchat was quickly re-established and placed at the top of the list of local applications, making it a key channel of communication for the 2.8 million inhabitants of the country。

According to the AppFigures data, Bitchat was not only first in the social applications of App Store in Jamaica at that time, but also second in the free application master list of the iOS and Android platforms. This was the peak of a large-scale download triggered by Bitchat ' s first response to a natural disaster。

The heat generated by such crises is not unique. In places such as Nepal, Indonesia, Madagascar and Côte d ' Ivoire, whether caused by government intervention as a result of political protests or by the destruction of infrastructure as a result of disasters, Bitchat has risen in heat during network constraints and has become a safe haven for people to maintain basic communication during periods of instability。

from “ weekend experiments ” to “ encrypted comms ” received millions of downloads

Bitchat's heat rise is no accident. As an encrypted communication application based on a bluetooth net that can be operated without the Internet, Bitchat strikes precisely the pain of traditional instant communication tools in extreme circumstances。

This decentrized point-to-point chat application, launched by X (formerly Twitter) in summer 2025 by Jack Dorsey, aims to explore the Bluetooth grid, message encryption and storage forwarding model. At the time, he wrote on platform X, “ I worked on a project this weekend to learn about Bluetooth Mesh networks, relay and storage transmission modes, message encryption models and other things. ”

today, this open source “ the weekend experiment ” has evolved into a realistic decentrized offline communicator。

Imagine, in natural disasters or remote mountainous areas, you need a cell phone to communicate safely with people around you without account numbers or personal information。

Specifically, the core competitiveness of Bitchat lies in its innovative application of BLE Mesh technology. Unlike the conventional point-to-point bluetooth connection, Bitchat converts each installed smartphone into a dynamic node with a route function. This pattern supports multi-jump relays, which means that the message is not transmitted only between two adjacent devices, but can be &ldquo through numerous intermediate nodes; relay ” thus significantly extending signal coverage. Even if part of the node is offline by moving or offline, the system automatically calculates the optimal path for rerouting. It remains online even when the entire world is cut off by extreme circumstances, such as the breakdown of the grid and the collapse of the base station。

At the same time, the Bitchat master struck a great deal of privacy, unlike some of the tools that rely on centralized servers, such as Twitter and WhatsApp. Users need not bind mobile phone numbers, mailboxes or social accounts to start using them. All messages are encrypted from end to end to ensure that their content is visible only to both recipients and senders and that the sender ' s ID and time stamp are blurred. Since there is no central server, user communications, friend lists and physical trajectories do not leave traces of any cloud, eliminating the possibility of data leakage and large-scale surveillance at the root。

In addition to basic communications, Bitchat also introduced a function of field notes of operational value. The user can fix the information on a given geographical coordinates. In the event of a disaster or emergency situation, the notes can indicate a dangerous area alert, a safe haven guide, or even community mutual assistance information, and any user entering the geographical fence receives an immediate reminder。

This resilient communication feature drives Bitchat ' s user rate of explosive growth, with more than a million downloads, particularly in areas where Internet access is restricted or disrupted. For example, during the Iranian Internet blockade in 2025, the number of weekly downloads reached 438,000; during Nepal ' s anti-corruption protest in September 2025, the number of downloads surged to more than 48,000; and on the eve of the 2026 general elections in Uganda, which resulted from the recommendations of opposition leaders, more than 21,000 were installed within 10 hours。

It can be said that the rapid development of Bitchat has benefited not only from Jack Dorsey ' s personal influence or its free model, but also from the fact that it provides a free-of-licensed connection to users worldwide. When the world is offline, Bitchat is still online。