[HN Gopher] Bitchat - A decentralized messaging app that works o...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Bitchat - A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth
       mesh networks
        
       Author : ananddtyagi
       Score  : 647 points
       Date   : 2025-07-07 00:05 UTC (22 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Looks pretty interesting.
       | 
       | From what I can see, it's a native IOS/MacOS app (SwiftUI). I
       | don't see an Android version.
       | 
       | Also seems pretty spartan, but it looks like it could be embedded
       | in "friendlier" apps.
        
         | ajr0 wrote:
         | I find this interesting, there was a briar app that was spoken
         | about a few months ago that was only for android citing that
         | iOS had issues [0] with apps running in background, wonder
         | if/how this was solved here.
         | 
         | Also, I have not seen unlicense before -- guess I'm one of
         | todays lucky 10,000
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar/-/wikis/FAQ#will-t...
        
           | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
           | IOS/Apple Bluetooth is an interesting place.
           | 
           | Backrounding is kinda klunky. I think it's deliberate, as
           | that's a real security vector.
        
           | vips7L wrote:
           | Isn't Briar all JVM? AFAIK that can't really run on iOS at
           | all since Apple disallows foreign JITs; unless they compiled
           | Briar to native.
        
         | ckcheng wrote:
         | No android but "can" be built?
         | 
         | > protocol is designed to be platform-agnostic. An Android
         | client can be built
         | 
         | https://github.com/jackjackbits/bitchat?tab=readme-ov-file#a...
        
           | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
           | As long as it's Swift, I guess. The Protocols files seem
           | "agnostic." I think the lower-level hardware files might need
           | to be rewritten, though, so he's saying that an Android
           | developer could write an app that incorporates the protocol.
           | 
           | If I were an Android developer, though, I'd just use the
           | Swift files as a requirements spec, and write it native.
        
         | encom wrote:
         | >Universal App
         | 
         | For Apple only. In what way is this universal?
        
           | 1ark wrote:
           | It is Apple terminology for an app that supports both iPad
           | and iPhone.
        
             | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
             | And Mac.
             | 
             | SwiftUI apps can often do both.
             | 
             | I'm probably gonna rewrite my Bluetooth explorer app in
             | SwiftUI. Doesn't need any fancy UI.
        
           | toast0 wrote:
           | Hey, could be worse. A universal Windows Mobile 10 app
           | wouldn't run on Windows Phone 8 even though WP8 had many more
           | installed devices than WM10.
        
       | syntaxing wrote:
       | Whoa this is really neat. I've been trying to get into Meshtastic
       | but it's hard to convince others when you need special hardware.
       | Would be super neat if Apple did something similar. Shouldn't be
       | too hard since the AirTags use the same idea?
       | 
       | Would also be neat if there was a way to build a LoRA proxy to
       | extend the range. I might give this a try with my meshtastic
       | devices.
        
         | eternityforest wrote:
         | I'm working on a project that uses the same kind of idea as the
         | Bluetooth tracking tags.
         | 
         | It's an Arduino library for mesh networking, that works over
         | BLE and UDP, but it can also link to MQTT.
         | 
         | An MQTT node routes the packets it sees to the appropriate
         | topics, and subscribes to topics for all the channels local
         | nodes want, so you should be able to talk to anyone anywhere
         | via the gateway.
         | 
         | The packet destination addresses are rolling codes, so you
         | can't tell if someone's online just by watching their channel,
         | at least not for more than an hour.
         | 
         | And there's a web app that talks directly to the public MQTT
         | broker, and it can do chat and sensor data.
         | 
         | All payloads are Messagepack to make it easy to add new data
         | types, and all packets are encrypted, authenticated, and
         | timestamped to provide a bit of replay protection.
         | 
         | Everything is purely symmetric crypto, trust is left to a
         | higher layer or something out of band, so you there's no
         | handshakes or connection state management overhead, aside from
         | one announce packet per hour to make the MQTT gateways work.
         | 
         | No LoRa, but the transports are modular and pluggable so you
         | can easily add them. I just only have one LoRa Arduino node
         | here so I haven't bothered writing a driver.
         | 
         | I'm also working on a Python port for easy pip-installable bots
         | and home automation stuff.
         | 
         | https://github.com/EternityForest/LazyMesh#
        
           | syntaxing wrote:
           | Super interesting! Leaving the transport layer as modular is
           | definitely a great choice! I like the idea of MQTT because
           | there's a lot of methods of serving it. I've been in the
           | middle of setting up a meshtastic MQTT mode to try it out.
        
             | eternityforest wrote:
             | I was originally going to do OpenDHT, but that would have
             | required building and paying to host a proxy backed for the
             | web app.
             | 
             | I wonder what other transports you could do, like 38khz IR
             | through a telescope?
        
               | syntaxing wrote:
               | Any line of sight stuff can be tough. Another one is
               | standard 433 radio but difficult since its such a noisy
               | environment.
        
         | myself248 wrote:
         | It'd be cool if Meshtastic's UDP mode could run over BLE like
         | this, for local bluetooth clouds linked by just a few LoRa
         | nodes.
        
           | syntaxing wrote:
           | Yeah, a BLE first mesh system honestly makes more sense in
           | today's world since it's baked into every phone. In theory, a
           | BLE to LoRA bridge should be doable with the existing
           | meshtastic hardware like Nordic's nRF52840. The biggest
           | caveat is going to be the data rate. Meshtastic is designed
           | for around 200 bps (Long range mode) which vastly pales the
           | ~2Mbps BLE expectation.
        
         | K0balt wrote:
         | It depends on the antenna efficiency of course, but I was
         | surprised to discover that BLE modes around 128kbps using
         | coded-PHY have a range extending over 1-1/2 km without a
         | directional antenna. At 2.4ghz its line of sight, of course,
         | but still...
        
           | kragen wrote:
           | That's extremely surprising to me too. I would have expected
           | BLE to reach a few meters, not kilometers. How can I learn
           | more?
        
             | Aurornis wrote:
             | Search for "BLE coded PHY".
             | 
             | The S8 coded mode with 125kbps rate is the long distance
             | one. Support for it in phones is not widespread, sadly.
        
               | kragen wrote:
               | Thanks! I didn't realize that was the key phrase.
        
         | imoverclocked wrote:
         | Once you have brought LoRa into the mix, you might as well just
         | ask for p2p cell connectivity. Our phones could totally talk to
         | each other over reasonable distances with no extra
         | infrastructure.
        
         | estsauver wrote:
         | FWIW, I've found a T-1000e to be a pretty good way to get
         | people into meshtastic. It's not perfect because it has a weird
         | dongle to charge, but it's pretty cool and I think you can
         | convince people it's a worthwhile thing for emergency recovery.
        
           | RenThraysk wrote:
           | Heltec MeshPocket is another. A powerbank and LoRa device.
        
         | fragmede wrote:
         | the special hardware's cheap enough that if they can't be
         | bothered, then they're not serious about it.
        
       | cmiller1 wrote:
       | Is it Bit Chat or Bitch At?
        
         | Izmaki wrote:
         | Depends if you're messaging your friends or your girls.
        
           | esafak wrote:
           | "Area Codes".
        
         | unixhero wrote:
         | Or like the old chat client BitchX
        
         | shawnlower2 wrote:
         | Yes
        
         | jrflowers wrote:
         | I'm assuming that it's Bitch At since with a ~30ft range you'll
         | be able to see who you're bitching at
        
         | colordrops wrote:
         | Nice double entendre for sure.
        
         | brikym wrote:
         | Bitch At. Same as Bitch Ute.
        
       | lxgr wrote:
       | Very nice! Could this be published in the App Store, or does it
       | use any APIs Apple considers off-limits?
       | 
       | I'm regularly frustrated by modern phone's complete inabilities
       | to allow any communication when outside of mobile network or Wi-
       | Fi coverage, not even within the two large walled gardens.
       | 
       | It would be so easy for Apple to extend iMessage to work peer-to-
       | peer, at least between people that have already messaged each
       | other before and while both screens are on. That's literally how
       | AirDrop works, and having to send a "Notes" text back and forth
       | is just silly.
        
         | dzhiurgis wrote:
         | I'd much rather Apple allow running something like this (open
         | source) myself rather than use their "just trust me bro" store.
        
           | OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
           | I've never understood this argument. Apple spends billions of
           | dollars vetting their store for high quality apps. You can't
           | even verify the build you get off Github was compiled from
           | the same posted source.
           | 
           | As much as people want to be "leet" and run 3rd party
           | software, it's inherently insecure and that's why Apple shuts
           | it down.
        
             | noman-land wrote:
             | This might sound crazy but some people want the freedom to
             | use their belongings however they want instead of having
             | artificial child locks placed on them by trillion dollar
             | corporate daddies.
        
               | woleium wrote:
               | But, sadly, as evidenced by apple's share price, not
               | enough people.
        
               | pjerem wrote:
               | That's only because there is only one alternative that is
               | more or less equally shitty (Android) and no room for any
               | competition whatsoever.
               | 
               | It's not like people really have options to choose when
               | it comes to choosing a smartphone.
               | 
               | It's easy to have a growing share price when you are a
               | duopoly. You don't have to serve your users.
        
               | immibis wrote:
               | Android may be shitty but it allows you to install an APK
               | you downloaded from god knows where, and that's enough of
               | a deal-making feature for me.
               | 
               | I also own a Linux phone, but I don't use it. Maybe one
               | day someone will create one that's actually usable...
        
             | thejazzman wrote:
             | They shut it down because 30%.
             | 
             | There was a version of Apple at a point in time where I
             | agree with your rhetoric. They have completely lost
             | credibility to uphold that position IMO.
             | 
             | Apple definitely does not spend billions guaranteeing
             | "quality". To prove my point, where does Apple even define
             | what they consider "quality"? How can you quantify such an
             | aubjecrive and ambiguous term?
             | 
             | They spend billions paying out the 70% they don't pocket.
             | 
             | Heck, They don't even adhere to their own HIG nor let us
             | revert to past (objectively higher quality) versions of
             | iOS.
        
               | pjerem wrote:
               | Also, the store is fulfilled with _billions_ of shitty
               | apps.
        
               | 8fingerlouie wrote:
               | The 30% also covers refunds, legal stuff (not stuff IN
               | your app, but regarding the sale of it), taxes, GDPR and
               | much more. The infrastructure running the app store
               | probably also isn't cheap.
               | 
               | I'm not saying Apple doesn't profit from it, but they're
               | not just pocketing every penny.
               | 
               | As for "quality", they mostly check that your app isn't
               | using unauthorized APIs, or doing other scetchy stuff,
               | like leeching all of your data. They couldn't care less
               | if your app is bad, thats' between you and your potential
               | users.
               | 
               | Does it work ? apparently so. Apple catches around 2
               | million apps every year that are rejected for those
               | reasons. Android has about the same amount of apps, but
               | there they're caught by Kaspersky (and others) after
               | they're published.
               | 
               | That doesn't mean that malware isn't making its way
               | through the App Store review, the damage will be somewhat
               | limited if it can't use private APIs.
               | 
               | I should add that here in the EU, where we've had 3rd
               | party app stores for over a year, nobody uses them. The
               | absolutely biggest one, Epic Games, has attracted about
               | 29 million users across both iOS and Android, out of a
               | population of 450 million.
        
               | bigyabai wrote:
               | > the damage will be somewhat limited if it can't use
               | private APIs.
               | 
               | That's a runtime feature, it has nothing to do with the
               | App Store.
        
             | aguacaterojo wrote:
             | > You can't even verify the build you get off Github was
             | compiled from the same posted source.
             | 
             | You don't need to because you compile it from source
             | yourself
        
             | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
             | > You can't even verify the build you get off Github was
             | compiled from the same posted source
             | 
             | Sure you can: build it and check the hash. If the
             | maintainer prepared for such a check ahead of time it can
             | be as simple as:                   wget
             | https://github.com/owner/foo-
             | project/releases/download/.../foo         sha256sum foo
             | # make note of this          nix build github:owner/foo-
             | project         sha256sum result/bin/foo            # it
             | should match this
             | 
             | A pinky promise from a corporation can never be more
             | trustworthy than something that we can all verify locally.
             | 
             | Of course there's still the should-you-trust-this-code part
             | of the problem, but at least bad guys in that case must
             | operate in public view, which is--once again--a stronger
             | deterrent to shenanigans than anything that happens behind
             | closed doors at Apple.
        
               | Tokumei-no-hito wrote:
               | OP was referring to apps downloaded from the app store.
               | 
               | you can't get a build hash from a downloaded app to then
               | compare to a source build.
        
             | dzhiurgis wrote:
             | You obviously build it yourself.
             | 
             | IMO ultimate solution is for Apple to curate some sort open
             | source store where they vet the source and builds "in
             | public".
        
             | TiredOfLife wrote:
             | > Apple spends billions of dollars vetting their store for
             | high quality apps.
             | 
             | Rofl. And citation needed.
        
         | apetresc wrote:
         | Legit curious what the use case would be, that would justify
         | Apple adding it in. Like, when do you need to text someone
         | who's within Bluetooth range but somehow has no WiFi or cell
         | reception?
        
           | darknavi wrote:
           | Airplane
        
             | woleium wrote:
             | and the reason they probably cite as why they don't,
             | children with no sim or wifi.
        
               | darkwater wrote:
               | It would be trivial to be disabled by iParents
        
             | nabeards wrote:
             | I use Berkanan for just this purpose. Sometimes my partner
             | and I don't sit next to each other, and it's an easy way to
             | message.
        
           | dewey wrote:
           | On top of that "It would be so easy" is almost never true for
           | a billion users network with all kinds of edge cases. Seems
           | like a very narrow use case when there's things missing from
           | iMessage that could be way more appealing for a bigger group
           | of users.
        
             | lxgr wrote:
             | I'd agree if Airdrop, which includes offline identification
             | via users' address books, didn't already exist. That seems
             | to be by far the hardest part.
        
               | dewey wrote:
               | The technical details are often not the tricky part of
               | new features. You have to integrate it into the existing
               | app that people know and use, explain how it works,
               | maintain it forever etc.
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | "With iOS xx, now you can message your loved ones even
               | without any cell or Wi-Fi signal from up to a mile away!
               | Simply make sure you already have an iMessage
               | conversation with them started while you still have
               | signal."
        
           | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
           | When you're at a protest and the government shuts off the
           | internet in response to the protest. It's happening right now
           | in Togo, has been for ten days
           | (https://pulse.internetsociety.org/en/shutdowns/).
        
             | Buttons840 wrote:
             | My eyes are opened as to how much more power the people
             | would have if cell phones were all mesh network devices,
             | especially as we enter a world where having a working cell
             | phone is easier than having running water or food.
        
               | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
               | I'm not holding my breath--it would seem that keeping the
               | people down is more profitable.
               | 
               | But if it happens we'll have to figure out how to write
               | partition tolerant apps, which I think would be a lot of
               | fun. It would also make "going viral" so much more apt,
               | as you might catch the content from people you got
               | physically close to.
        
           | c22 wrote:
           | When would you want to peer over third party networks while a
           | direct connection is possible?
        
           | reaperducer wrote:
           | _when do you need to text someone who 's within Bluetooth
           | range but somehow has no WiFi or cell reception?_
           | 
           | There's no cell service or wifi at my neighborhood movie
           | theater. If I could send her a message when she's up, I could
           | tell my wife to bring me back a box of Sno-caps.
        
           | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
           | When you're sufficiently outdoors with friends and/or family
        
           | vishnugupta wrote:
           | Hiking, Airplane, stadia (here in India the tower capacity
           | get exhausted), underground metro etc
        
             | subscribed wrote:
             | Hiking? Probably not very useful since you must be within
             | Bluetooth range and you can whisper to your chat partner.
             | 
             | If you're hiking in the remote area youre much better off
             | with LoRaWAN or amateur radio transceivers anyway.
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | "Coded PHY" Bluetooth has a range of up to a kilometer!
               | Once you add mesh forwarding, you could probably cover
               | quite some distance on moderately busy hikes.
        
               | bee_rider wrote:
               | I dunno, I bet if it was widespread people could come up
               | with applications. Like, telling people doesn't
               | necessarily leave a record, so you could talk about
               | tomorrow's plans and then send a summary text so everyone
               | has a record and all the details.
        
           | 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
           | Maybe you want to have a local conversation about Winnie the
           | Pooh?
        
           | ileonichwiesz wrote:
           | This is admittedly a rare and minor use case, but maybe on a
           | plane if you're not sitting next to each other? Last time I
           | flew I saw two teenage girls communicating by typing into the
           | same note file and Airdropping it back and forth for hours -
           | it struck me as very silly that there was no messaging
           | interface that they could use instead.
        
           | sunnybeetroot wrote:
           | Apple added support for this 10 years ago
           | 
           | https://developer.apple.com/documentation/multipeerconnectiv.
           | ..
        
         | trklausss wrote:
         | Looks like it, at least on the README, section "Building for
         | Production" mentions it.
         | 
         | I'm a bit more concerned that it is a niche application. Not
         | having Mac myself, can't compile it without going through the
         | hassle of getting the environment running.
         | 
         | It would be better if the application was built is something a
         | bit more cross-platform, as I find the idea really good. Not
         | sure if the "mesh network" part would work though, as you need
         | a really high enrolled-device density in order for it to work
         | further than just an office (it's BT after all). I guess the
         | "Fork" button is there for a reason, or maybe a new repo with
         | some other stack.
        
       | rendx wrote:
       | There's also https://github.com/meshenger-app/meshenger-android
       | for generic LAN (without groups/peer discovery).
        
       | halfmatthalfcat wrote:
       | Interesting try but Bluetooth LE is a non-starter when talking
       | about building a truly decentralized mesh network at scale. The
       | range isn't there to build a network unless its very tight (in
       | distance). You need sub MHz and eventually cubesats to build
       | something robust, everything else is a toy.
        
         | eternityforest wrote:
         | The big problem with BLE is the insane amounts of packet loss
         | with extended advertising, even with perfect SNR many devices
         | seem to just kind of not have the receive windows lined up
         | right and drop 10% of packets.
         | 
         | The range is perfectly good for a lot of applications where one
         | might actually want to not use the internet, just not all of
         | them.
        
           | kragen wrote:
           | Dropping 10% of packets sounds like a trivial problem to
           | solve. That's not a range that requires fancy things like
           | erasure coding or even SACK; it's easily handled by just
           | retransmitting packets that don't get acknowledged.
        
             | eternityforest wrote:
             | You need to track individual subscribers at that point,
             | which uses lots of ram and could use lots of airtime,
             | heuristics like resending until you get 1 reply like
             | Meshtastic don't work well.
             | 
             | If there's receive window timing issues you can't assume
             | two nodes right next two each other will get the same
             | subset of packets most of the time.
             | 
             | My solution is just to resend every message four times, and
             | not bother with protocol layer reliability for BLE at all,
             | the packet rate is low and all the acknowledgements use
             | airtime anyway.
        
               | kragen wrote:
               | There are scalable reliable multicast protocol designs
               | that don't require publishers to track subscriber lists,
               | but you're right that the approach I suggested above
               | would require that.
        
         | dzhiurgis wrote:
         | How about HaLow?
        
         | potamic wrote:
         | Using the phone's RF modem itself would be the ideal choice.
         | Why aren't there any userspace applications over this?
        
           | toomuchtodo wrote:
           | Baseband access limitations. External RF/SDR solves for this
           | if you're seeking long haul RF capabilities, but admittedly
           | requires non native/external hardware.
        
       | DeepYogurt wrote:
       | More of this please. Bring back peer to peer
        
       | BluSyn wrote:
       | FYI on X there is a TestFlight link to try it:
       | https://x.com/jack/status/1941989435962212728
       | 
       | Surprised to see Jack pushing code himself. Love to see it.
        
         | syntaxing wrote:
         | Is there a link to the TestFlight itself?
        
           | joshuaturner wrote:
           | https://testflight.apple.com/join/QwkyFq6z
        
           | Nicksil wrote:
           | https://testflight.apple.com/join/QwkyFq6z
        
           | BluSyn wrote:
           | Wasn't sure if a random TestFlight link would be safe/wise to
           | share, so shared original source.
        
         | suck-my-spez wrote:
         | Interestingly only a few commits were written by his account.
         | Almost all were from https://github.com/nothankyou1
        
           | jasonvorhe wrote:
           | He doesn't use personal identifiers on any of his devices,
           | afaik.
        
             | suck-my-spez wrote:
             | I guess his commits were done on GitHub.com then?
        
         | lossolo wrote:
         | > Surprised to see Jack pushing code himself. Love to see it.
         | 
         | Almost the whole repo is LLM generated. Look at the commits,
         | code, structure and wording of the docs.
        
       | IncreasePosts wrote:
       | Is this actual programmer output or is this just what Claude
       | gives you with a certain prompt?
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | this looks great for most use cases. most interception has been
       | ruled out by the simple protocol for rooms, where the remaining
       | attack appears to be just to clone the users keys, where it's
       | more viable to attack the phones than the protocol, which is the
       | point.
       | 
       | the spitball questions I would ask might be, a) how do you handle
       | a theoretical timing attack where the time to respond to a room
       | scan could yield whether a given device is a member of a known
       | room, (the paralellism?) and b) does the GCM counter IV/nonce
       | value cluster around rooms, so the counter for a given room will
       | be in a shared range?
       | 
       | not dealbreakers or anything, this is simple and cool for its
       | purpose, but design consideration wise, what's the thinking on
       | those scenarios?
        
       | kyawzazaw wrote:
       | How easy it is to use for non-technical people?
        
         | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
         | This looks like a nerd's tool, but I suspect we'll start seeing
         | more GUI-friendly versions, shortly.
        
       | babuloseo wrote:
       | why not just use meshtastic and you get longer range too?
        
         | int_19h wrote:
         | Meshtastic requires a separate transceiver.
        
       | Jotalea wrote:
       | This is a really interesting app, but it is exclusive to Apple
       | devices.
       | 
       | There are other alternatives for Android, like
       | https://github.com/glodanif/BluetoothChat but it is only for
       | close distance chatting without any network other than Bluetooth,
       | doesn't have encryption, and is not IRC-themed.
        
       | btbuildem wrote:
       | Looks to be a little IRC-inspired with the usage/commands. Would
       | be neat to have a lora network version, and have this run in a
       | more of a sandbox/term environment instead of a locked-in iOS
       | app.
       | 
       | Wonder how many Claude Code tokens that would take...
        
         | subscribed wrote:
         | You don't need TK invent another transport protocol:
         | https://github.com/markqvist/Reticulum
        
         | dewey wrote:
         | > Looks to be a little IRC-inspired with the usage/commands.
         | 
         | This is listed as a dedicated "feature" in the README: "IRC-
         | Style Commands"
        
       | monkaiju wrote:
       | At first glance this seems like briar except only supports
       | Bluetooth and is made by someone with a less than stellar privacy
       | record. Its cool, but maybe more as a personal project of Jack's
       | than something I'd want to use in the secure-context he's
       | implying it'd be good at.
       | 
       | Am I missing something?
        
       | dbworku wrote:
       | Everything old is new again... Repo description reminds me of the
       | Shortwave app from the 2010s.
       | https://medium.com/@alonsoholmes/wtfbeacon-how-shortwave-wor...
        
         | alternatex wrote:
         | I mentioned elsewhere: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireChat
         | 
         | Seems like people in this thread are inspired by this novel
         | concept that isn't novel at all.
         | 
         | FireChat was in fact used against dictatorial governments
         | during protests in Iraq and Hong Kong. So it fits the aspired
         | goal for the apps suggested here perfectly, and yet still
         | failed as a product.
        
       | brikym wrote:
       | "Can I get your bitch at?"
        
       | seanlinmt wrote:
       | Is this similar to Briar? I reckon a cool feature would be the
       | ability to create a poll.
       | 
       | Use case? You're in the middle of a protest. Where to next?
        
         | darkwater wrote:
         | > Use case? You're in the middle of a protest. Where to next?
         | 
         | Hopefully, not in prison.
        
       | sardine5 wrote:
       | A bit different, as it's mainly for voice - but I made an app
       | 'Murmur : Bluetooth Group Calls' - that lets you hold group voice
       | calls and message via a mesh of Bluetooth LE connections. It's
       | available on Android and iOS.
       | https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/murmur-bluetooth-group-calls/i...
       | 
       | Doesn't really get any downloads, so not sure there's much demand
       | for this - but I use it with some shokz bone conducting
       | headphones for talking to my wife when we're cycling (also for
       | wrangling our two small girls)
        
         | Karrot_Kream wrote:
         | How's the range on BLE? I was looking at this app for exactly
         | the use case you mentioned but was curious if it worked with
         | varying distances on bike rides
        
           | sardine5 wrote:
           | It's somewhat device dependant - but between her Pixel 6 and
           | my Pixel 7 - if we've got line of sight and the handset's not
           | being held to our body (so in a handlebar mount or saddle
           | bag) - 50-75m? I've been victim to the recent Microsoft
           | layoffs, so have a bit of time to work on it at the moment -
           | looking at adding longer range CodedPhy support this week
           | (though that would only be available on Android)
           | 
           | It works best if there's 3 phones though - as it can route
           | via the other if a link drops.
        
         | roshin wrote:
         | Cool technology, but what is the usecase? I can imagine
         | traveling abroad without a sim and using it as described. But
         | is it any better than using the cellular network (when you have
         | access to it)?
        
           | sardine5 wrote:
           | I possibly live more remote than you do - but mobile data
           | isn't really a thing (in the UK at least) you can rely on
           | continuously when you're cycling, or visiting the supermarket
           | and you've lost your partner near the cheese aisle...
        
             | IshKebab wrote:
             | I mean it is in most of the UK. Maybe not in remote areas
             | of Scotland or Wales.
        
           | toast0 wrote:
           | I've still got dead zones near me. If I were cycling with
           | someone, and we wanted to chat on headsets, there's at least
           | a few places I might ride where we'd hit dead air. If we're
           | on different networks, then we both need coverage to
           | communicate with cellular.
           | 
           | Might be more reasonable to use higher bandwidth, lower
           | latency codecs over bluetooth as well?
        
             | jappgar wrote:
             | For this use case, old fashioned radio is a lot more
             | reliable.
        
               | toast0 wrote:
               | Quite likely, but then you need to carry that radio. And
               | probably still carry a phone in case you split up and
               | want to communicate.
        
           | wickedsight wrote:
           | On festival sites and other crowded events, cellular
           | sometimes gets quite saturated and slow. This might be a good
           | alternative.
           | 
           | Also, I could see it as a useful tool in emergency
           | situations. But a lot of people would need to use it to be
           | actually useful.
        
             | master-lincoln wrote:
             | When I last had a university workshop where 20 people in a
             | room worked on a bluetooth protocol I also noticed
             | bluetooth is quickly saturated with many participants.
             | Hopefully that changed in the last 15 years since...
        
           | nullify88 wrote:
           | I commonly Signal call my partner when we are at opposite
           | ends of the house. I can see something like this being useful
           | to prevent using some remote Internet server to facilitate a
           | very local call.
           | 
           | I wonder if there's a home lab / self hosted solution for
           | this.
        
             | subscribed wrote:
             | Bluetooth to reach and reliably hold a high throughout
             | connection to the device across the house?
             | 
             | I don't think so.
        
               | sardine5 wrote:
               | You can do a surprising amount with a low throughput
               | connection though. I've been playing with Google's Lyra
               | V2 codec - it chews up a fair bit of CPU, but 3.2kbps
               | over a CodedPhy link sounds fine.
        
           | dfc wrote:
           | I would love to use it to talk to my girlfriend when we go
           | bike riding. I was shocked by the price tag for all the
           | motorcycle helmet comms systems.
        
           | kaiken1987 wrote:
           | Cardo uses a similar tech for a dynamic mesh network, using
           | Bluetooth I think, in their helmet comms. So if you are out
           | on motorcycles or ATVs you can still talk without needing a
           | cellular network. It makes things a lot more stable and not
           | use any data. In these scenarios you'd struggle to talk face
           | to face wearing helmets without some sort of comm. So if you
           | can remove the need to buy a specialized comm device to do
           | it, sounds great.
        
         | LWIRVoltage wrote:
         | Okay, this is neat! A true mesh networking bluetooth app- The
         | other one that's notable, Briar is super impressive - but i
         | think it doesn't actually have proper mesh capability due to
         | difficulties with how devices handle things
         | 
         | (See:
         | https://old.reddit.com/r/Briar/comments/gxiffy/what_exactly_...
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43363031 }
         | 
         | Anyway, -Question: I take it Murmur is end to end encrypted
         | fully? Also, just curious if this is open source?
         | 
         | This could become SUPER useful- having a actual mesh networking
         | Bluetooth app , if it's open source/E2EE!
        
           | sardine5 wrote:
           | It's AES128 encrypted with a key derived from the group
           | password.
        
           | subscribed wrote:
           | I'll try this app because Briar _never_ worked between any of
           | my devices (all Androids)
        
         | summm wrote:
         | Unfortunately you have generated a name collision: the server
         | component of the Mumble VoIP is also called "Murmur", for a
         | long time: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumble_(software)
        
           | numpad0 wrote:
           | Yeah, I think that fully explain apparent disinterest of
           | users. No way nobody is looking for this app, but there is
           | also no way this one shows up on searches over the other one.
        
         | cpeth wrote:
         | Any chance it could use seamless transport switching? It would
         | be so awesome if it could switch to cellular(if available) or
         | wifi-direct as needed on the fly. I have been thinking about
         | creating such an app but lacked the time.
         | 
         | If it's open source, I would love to help.
         | 
         | I will give your app a try.
        
           | sardine5 wrote:
           | I actually have this kind of working on a branch - really
           | don't fancy hosting any infrastructure myself though - so I
           | was intending it to be a Windows service or docker container
           | you have to setup and pair with. Once you've done that - the
           | endpoint is included in any group you create, and treated as
           | an extra node in the graph. If available and lower latency
           | than other routes, it'll be used.
           | 
           | Was trying to keep things simple though - the separate server
           | seemed a step too far for most people I talked to about it.
        
             | cpeth wrote:
             | This sounds perfect for my use case. I'm a mountain biker
             | who doesn't mind setting up hosting infra. It's fairly
             | common when mountain biking to unintentionally get
             | separated by line-of-sight or more than 75M even among very
             | similarly skilled riders. Even on straight easy trails,
             | just the dust cloud generated by the rider ahead can cause
             | you to back off significant distance if it's dusty.
             | 
             | I've used these[0] in the past and they worked ok. I lost
             | the pair I bought when traveling and thought using the
             | plethora of radios I have with me anyway on my phone with
             | an earbud headphone would be much better replacement. Would
             | be great for group rides to just send an app link instead
             | of suggesting they all buy $100 hardware.
             | 
             | Honestly I think a well marketed and polished commercial
             | app would have both Sena and Cardo[1] both quite
             | existentially scared.
             | 
             | [0]: https://www.sena.com/en-us/product/pi/ [1]:
             | https://cardosystems.com/
        
           | sardine5 wrote:
           | I'd stayed away from WiFi Direct because Android and iOS
           | don't play nicely with it - but looks like the EU has forced
           | Apple to support WiFi Aware in iOS 26. It still looks like it
           | would require A LOT of manual pairing through the system UI
           | if you join a group with new people though. I really wanted
           | to keep the single password (or qr code scan/NFC tap) to
           | join.
        
         | lhoff wrote:
         | Looks interesting, especially that use case. May I ask which
         | headphone you are using? I have the older openmove from shokzs
         | and voice isn't really understandable while riding a bike.
        
           | sardine5 wrote:
           | We've got Openrun Pros - wind can be a problem, but if you
           | cover the mics with a head band, it actually works pretty
           | well. (To act as a crude wind muff)
        
         | driverdan wrote:
         | I'd guess you're not getting downloads because you're not
         | marketing it to people who want it. You mention a few use cases
         | at the end of the short description and that's it.
         | 
         | For example, this completes with motorcycle communicators such
         | as Sena. That dedicated hardware can be over $400. If your app
         | is as easy to use as a Sena device and you market it to bikers
         | looking for a cheaper alternative you'll get users.
        
       | jusling wrote:
       | How does this differ from FireChat?
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireChat
        
       | kragen wrote:
       | Technical whitepaper:
       | https://github.com/jackjackbits/bitchat/blob/main/WHITEPAPER...
       | 
       | Presumably that is the key to getting out of the Apple ghetto.
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | From the whitepaper: " _bitchat implements a custom mesh
         | networking protocol over BLE_ "
         | 
         | I wonder why they didn't implement the BLE mesh networking
         | standard released in 2017 by the Bluetooth SIG.
        
           | Beretta_Vexee wrote:
           | There are already several open source implementations, but
           | the Bluetooth SIG standard only supports flood propagation.
           | 
           | This is fine for managing a few hundred temperature sensors
           | or lighting controls up to the building's floor concentrator,
           | which is the main use case for this standard, but it is
           | completely unsuitable for sending individual messages from
           | user A to user B.
        
             | kragen wrote:
             | Flooding does work for sending individual messages from
             | user A to user B at a small enough scale, but it gets
             | progressively less efficient as the network grows, and at
             | some level it will collapse.
        
       | max_ wrote:
       | Is this the real Jack Dorsey? I see he even has commit/push
       | access to repos at Block
        
         | jdmoreira wrote:
         | It is
        
       | moneywaters wrote:
       | I've been toying with a concept inspired by Apple's Find My
       | network: Imagine a decentralized, delay-tolerant messaging system
       | where messages hop device-to-device (e.g., via Bluetooth, UWB,
       | Wi-Fi Direct), similar to how "Find My" relays location via
       | nearby iPhones.
       | 
       | Now add a twist: * Senders pay a small fee to send a message. *
       | Relaying devices earn a micro-payment (could be tokens, sats,
       | etc.) for carrying the message one hop further. * End-to-end
       | encrypted, fully decentralized, optionally anonymous.
       | 
       | Basically, a "postal network" built on people's phones, without
       | needing a traditional internet connection. Works best in areas
       | with patchy or no internet, or under censorship.
       | 
       | Obvious challenges: * Latency and reliability (it's not real-
       | time). * Abuse/spam prevention. * Power consumption and user opt-
       | in. * Viable incentive structures.
       | 
       | What do you think? Is this viable? Any real-world use cases where
       | this might be actually useful -- or is it just a neat academic
       | toy?
        
         | littlecranky67 wrote:
         | Neat academic toy - unless you can predict why a large-scale,
         | long-term internet outage should happen.
         | 
         | Aside from that, most of what your concept includes (but uses
         | Internet instead of BT) exists with Nostr+Lightning.
        
           | hashworks wrote:
           | There have been incidents where governments disabled routing
           | to specific services or the Internet entirely to hinder
           | demonstrations.
        
             | littlecranky67 wrote:
             | That is why I added "large-scale" and "long-term"
        
             | derhuerst wrote:
             | to give a example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%
             | 80%932021_Jammu_and_...
             | 
             | i'm not sure if in this case "only" the 4G network was shut
             | off, but IMO it still serves as a good reminder of when
             | such an event might happen again.
             | 
             | also: https://ooni.org/reports/
        
             | Ray20 wrote:
             | How relevant is this in the context of the mesh networks
             | under discussion?
             | 
             | How resilient are those protocols to attacks on the
             | integrity of the network, when most (or signicant part) of
             | the nodes are controlled by a bad actor and deliberately
             | operate in a mode that prevents the functioning of the
             | network?
        
         | jacobgkau wrote:
         | > Works best in areas with patchy or no internet, or under
         | censorship.
         | 
         | The biggest problem I immediately foresee is that this sounds
         | backwards. It doesn't work best in areas with patchy or no
         | internet, it works best in areas with lots of participating
         | devices. It's _most needed_ in areas with patchy or no
         | internet, but those areas are likely to be the opposite of the
         | areas with lots of participating devices.
        
           | bryant wrote:
           | > It's most needed in areas with patchy or no internet, but
           | those areas are likely to be the opposite of the areas with
           | lots of participating devices.
           | 
           | In fairness to op, the proposed solution seems best intended
           | for comms blackouts in densely populated areas rather than
           | areas with persistently limited access.
        
           | Dr4kn wrote:
           | If your country shuts off Internet access for demonstrations
           | this would work great.
        
             | xyzzy123 wrote:
             | I guess it depends on the authoritarian government, but a
             | sufficiently powerful one will get the app taken down or
             | get the bluetooth features it relies on disabled (like for
             | airdrop in China) :/
             | 
             | I would say that the underlying issue is that people do not
             | really "own" their devices and the corporations that do are
             | vulnerable to (or complicit in) state coercion.
             | 
             | You cannot truly have freedom on a non-free device, you can
             | just be small enough to not be worth taking action against
             | yet.
        
               | synctext wrote:
               | Indeed! Advanced countries will and have blocked apps.
               | 
               | For a more extensive discussion on censorship resilient
               | mesh networking, see IETF Internet Standard draft from
               | 2012 [1]. After the Arab Spring there was global hope.
               | Great to see revival of this topic today. Mesh networking
               | is 1990s. The lesson from decades ago was that mesh
               | networking can't be the killer use-case. Users need a
               | reason to install this and allow it to drain the battery
               | while looking for nearby nodes. Mesh networking never
               | broke through the glass ceiling.
               | 
               | Blocking apps is real. Even Amazon killed a side-loaded
               | app [2].
               | 
               | [1] https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-pouwelse-
               | censorfree-sc...
               | 
               | [2] https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-remote-disables-
               | piracy-apps-...
        
               | thenthenthen wrote:
               | Airdrop works fine in China, actually, if you leave it
               | open you will be harassed by unwanted drops in public
               | transport. E-sims are not allowed.
        
               | ChicagoBoy11 wrote:
               | wait timeout... airdrop is disabled in china?!
        
             | al_borland wrote:
             | But it would only really work well in a small area, such as
             | a couple friends communicating at a demonstration, where
             | there are a lot of people who may be motivated to
             | participate in a particular area.
             | 
             | If there is a low density area between two people, a
             | message could take a long time to show up. A message from
             | NYC to LA is effectively relying on the messaging being
             | cached on a phone in NYC, that person flying to LA, and
             | then continuing the journey.
        
               | teiferer wrote:
               | Though demonstration organizers could run around with QR
               | codes making it easy for everybody to install the right
               | app to communicate with each other during the
               | demonstration. As long as people can side-load things on
               | their phones, this should be possible without any way to
               | stop it unless you deploy radio jammers. (Which is then
               | the logical next step for police equipment in so minded
               | states.)
        
               | al_borland wrote:
               | People are supposed to scan a sketchy QR code to side
               | load an app? That sounds like a security nightmare.
               | 
               | Those working against the demonstrators could send people
               | out with QR code to infect the phones will malware for
               | their own means.
        
             | ijustlovemath wrote:
             | Nation states can use the baseband radios to track/monitor
             | you, so it's best to leave your phone at home. You can't
             | disable or observe baseband from the higher level OS.
        
               | immibis wrote:
               | FWIW what people call "baseband" in the context of this
               | particular security flaw is what everyone (including
               | those people) call "cellular modem" in every other
               | context.
               | 
               | On a Pinephone you can turn it off with a physical power
               | switch.
               | 
               | If you really wanted to, on most other phones you could
               | desolder it and throw it in the garbage. You'd need to
               | already have custom firmware on the main CPU (or should I
               | say "application processor" to fit in with the people who
               | say "baseband processor") so it wouldn't crash or lock up
               | when booting.
               | 
               | A little bit less destructive (in case you want to use
               | your cellphone as a cellphone later) would be replacing
               | the antenna with a dummy load.
        
             | zikduruqe wrote:
             | That is what https://berty.tech is for.
        
           | out_of_protocol wrote:
           | Internet don't work well in huge crowds - stadiums or mass
           | protests. In second case govmt tend to block internet as well
        
           | notfish wrote:
           | Its best for places like football games or festivals, where
           | the traditional network gets overrun
        
             | miroljub wrote:
             | If you go to a football game or a festival to frantically
             | keep messaging, better stay at home.
        
               | benbristow wrote:
               | Spoken like someone who's never lost their pal at a
               | festival
        
               | bravoetch wrote:
               | And doesn't see the potential sexy use-cases...
        
           | zawaideh wrote:
           | First use that comes to mind is Gaza where Israel cut off
           | power, bombed cell towers and internet cables. Something like
           | this could help get messages out.
        
             | Ray20 wrote:
             | I don't think this is relevant. Free communication of
             | people is the last thing regimes like those that govern
             | Gaza need. My money on that local authorities will
             | literally execute people for simply having such apps on
             | their phones.
        
         | cyberax wrote:
         | This can indeed work. The fundamental problem with mesh
         | networks is that nodes have to behave, otherwise a malicious
         | actor can just flood the network with undeliverable messages
         | and/or fake nodes.
         | 
         | Central node addressing control is the only way to solve it.
         | Making it self-governing through payments is a nice idea.
        
         | adrianN wrote:
         | Areas with censorship will simply ban such services and make it
         | a crime to participate.
        
         | alternatex wrote:
         | Not inspired by FireChat?
        
         | yetihehe wrote:
         | Who would you pay for sending messages? That's your
         | centralization point. Alternatively if you allow "starting
         | balance", how would you prevent from making a lot of accounts
         | for spam sending?
        
           | jakeinsdca wrote:
           | imagine building a lightning client into this.
        
             | rlt wrote:
             | Lightning network depends on... the internet... so if both
             | clients are on the internet why not just send messages over
             | that?
        
               | teiferer wrote:
               | Privacy?
               | 
               | "Just encrypt things" might be your reply. TOR folks have
               | been fighting an uphill battle for ages with that as
               | their main weapon.
        
             | webXL wrote:
             | eCash would be better, but someone needs to be connected to
             | the mint.
        
           | t43562 wrote:
           | You could have a way to earn credits which would allow your
           | own messages to get sent. i.e. it wouldn't be about money.
           | 
           | Ontop of that, I think payment isn't critical. You join the
           | mesh because you want to use it yourself - all you need then
           | is to limit how much power you're prepared to spend on it.
           | What does it matter to you if 100 people use your phone or
           | none? ....other than power.
           | 
           | To put it another way, I think money would introduce a
           | commercial motive which would end up gobbling up the system
           | like bitcoin mining.
        
             | yetihehe wrote:
             | I think that money would only be used to send messages, as
             | a way to prevent excessive spam. There needs to be some
             | limitation. In whatsapp it's unique number or phones. Once
             | you send too much spam from one number, it's burned. If you
             | have anonymous network, how do you otherwise prevent from
             | making new accounts for sending spam? If it is invite-only
             | network, then it's pretty small problem.
             | 
             | I don't think relaying messages would require that much
             | power and as you said, "You join the mesh because you want
             | to use it yourself".
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | This is the same problem as bootstrapping a cryptocurrency.
           | There are various ways, none very good. You could mine it
           | with proof of work. You could distribute it widely to
           | important figures, such as operators of big relays (as long
           | as the internet stays up, there are going to be people
           | sending messages inter-city through the internet instead of
           | by plane). Perhaps you give half to big relay operators and
           | half to their currently connected clients, that would
           | incentivize people to get on the network early and try it
           | out.
        
         | BiteCode_dev wrote:
         | Delta chat does this, without the micropayment.
        
           | linuxandrew wrote:
           | I wonder if one could run Delta Chat on top of yggmail[1]
           | (very much an alpha software release) for a truly P2P IM
           | chat. yggmail runs over IPv6 with a tun interface same as
           | yggdrasil. Might test this out at some point for fun.
           | 
           | Not quite the discoverable, user-friendly experience of
           | Briar, Bitchat etc. but it can be combined with online links
           | (Briar can technically go online, but only via Tor; both
           | Briar and Bitchat are only for smartphones).
           | 
           | 1: https://github.com/neilalexander/yggmail
        
             | shakna wrote:
             | Delta Chat can already run on top of iroh [0]. No need to
             | find some other server implementation - it can already do
             | "truly" P2P - devices can end up running their own STUN and
             | TURN servers, etc.
             | 
             | [0] https://delta.chat/en/2024-11-20-webxdc-realtime
        
           | hashworks wrote:
           | Delta Chat can transfer messages using a Bluetooth Mesh
           | Network? That's new to me.
        
         | out_of_protocol wrote:
         | > Relaying devices earn a micro-payment
         | 
         | The thing is, it's almost impossible to guarantee payments work
         | as expected in decentralized system, see "double spend attack".
         | Bitcoin was designed to prevent it but does it by having common
         | ledger which is a bit too much for a chat
        
           | krunck wrote:
           | Bitmessage tried this. Defunct now I think.
        
         | notfish wrote:
         | Yeah I've wanted to build this for ages (and have tried a
         | couple times). The use case is festivals/sporting events and
         | other places where permanent infrastructure doesn't really
         | exist. The hard part is keeping messages small if you wanna
         | include any of the token tech you're talking about - probably,
         | a system where your payment for usage is that you be an active
         | relay node is more effective. Something something trust models,
         | ala existing cert signing models.
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | I cannot imagine how that would work when there are gaps
         | between populations, such as villages. There are so many places
         | where you have gap of several kilometers until the next village
         | or city. How do you plan to bridge that gap?
         | 
         | And if someone tries and fails to send a message across such a
         | gap, is it stored on every phone in the vicinity? That could
         | lead to unwanted conditions (large queues, multiple delivery),
         | which also muddle the accounting. But not doing so practically
         | guarantees the message won't be delivered.
        
         | iSnow wrote:
         | I like the idea, I just don't know how to implement a robust
         | micropayment system that does not require a lot of messages
         | back and forth for a transaction. Given the intended use-case,
         | that would not work.
        
           | fragmede wrote:
           | it's a real life application where a Blockchain based
           | solution does actually make sense, believe it or not.
        
           | kosolam wrote:
           | I can design such a system in a couple of minutes. As the
           | adjacent commenter said it can be done with a blockchain,
           | using smart contacts. 1. Sender deposits fee 2. Message
           | includes unlocking code that itself only can be unlocked by
           | the recipient 3. Message getting wrapped with details of
           | forwarders while it moves between peers 4. Recipient unlocks
           | the message via the smart contract thereby releasing the
           | micropayments to the forwarders
        
             | glitchc wrote:
             | To make this work you need to be able to connect to the
             | public blockchain, which of course requires internet
             | access.
        
               | kosolam wrote:
               | Absolutely, to deposit and withdraw. But relay can be
               | done without the Internet.
        
               | glitchc wrote:
               | To claim payment for services too. You've created a new
               | problem that does nothing to solve the original problem.
        
               | kosolam wrote:
               | I gather you aren't familiar very well with smart
               | contracts, are you?
        
               | glitchc wrote:
               | More familiar than you can imagine. The fact that you
               | think smart contracts are what are needed to solve a
               | decentralized communications problem suggests that you've
               | learnt a new hammer and everything now looks like a nail
               | to you.
        
               | kosolam wrote:
               | Please check the parent comment which I replied to, this
               | is a solution to "how to implement a robust micropayment
               | system" in this context, not how to solve a
               | "decentralized communications problem".
        
         | atoav wrote:
         | If I was looking for a thing that is fascist proof I'd add
         | Briar to the list: https://briarproject.org/how-it-works/
         | 
         | They have been around for longer and have some interesting
         | thoughts in there.
        
         | hackpelican wrote:
         | How does routing work?
         | 
         | How do I know that for device A to reach device B, I need to go
         | through device C but not D?
         | 
         | And if I try to go through device D but device C actually
         | delivers the message, then does device D get paid? How would
         | you validate which devices actually participated in the
         | transmission of the message? How does this not turn into a
         | privacy nightmare?
        
           | 4gotunameagain wrote:
           | This is a problem solved multiple times in the past.
           | 
           | Look up "distributed peer to peer" e.g. kademlia
        
             | immibis wrote:
             | Kademlia relies on an already existing all-to-all mesh (the
             | internet). Nobody has created an actual mesh routing
             | protocol which works very well.
        
         | hummuscience wrote:
         | Get Uber drivers/taxis, truck drivers, ups/amazon delivery
         | people etc. As your relay devices (and gives them extra cash
         | for driving around)
        
         | mschuster91 wrote:
         | basically, a user friendly and publicly accessible variant of
         | APRS for ham radio?
        
         | akrymski wrote:
         | I've been toying with a concept for a cryptocurrency that works
         | without internet access (like physical money) - peer to peer
         | credit. I believe it is the only real use case for this
         | technology.
        
         | econ wrote:
         | If you are going to do a payment system all other things come
         | second.
        
         | snickerer wrote:
         | This is already mostly done.
         | 
         | Participate in the development of Reticulum. Install the app
         | Sideband on your Smartphone or other device.
         | 
         | Sideband is a chat app that uses LXMF. LXMF is a messaging
         | protocol based on Reticulum. Reticulum is a full network stack
         | that is decentralized and transport layer agnostic.
         | 
         | What we need for your vision is LoRa modems integrated in our
         | phones.
         | 
         | Or just a bluetooth mesh interface for Reticulum. That is a
         | great idea. Develop that, and you have exactly what you
         | described.
         | 
         | To be more specific: Reticulum's main program is the daemon
         | rnsd. It uses so called interfaces and can route between them
         | (WiFi, LoRa, other radio services...). Implement a new
         | interface type that uses the technology called 'bluetooth mesh'
         | and your vision is done.
        
           | Calwestjobs wrote:
           | exactly! using your phone which knows when you are going to
           | toilet, and shares that with advertisers, for "super secret
           | communications" ? makes no sense.
           | 
           | (YES APPLE DOES THAT TOO)
        
             | Calwestjobs wrote:
             | USA is in war with china right now. Companies and
             | governments have different priorities in war.
        
           | RiverCrochet wrote:
           | > Implement a new interface type that uses the technology
           | called 'bluetooth mesh' and your vision is done.
           | 
           | Reticulum supports using serial ports as interfaces, so if
           | you get serial-over-Bluetooth working it can be done now.
           | 
           | One other thing I really like about Reticulum is that it also
           | supports generic stdin/stdout to a process as an interface,
           | so with some scripting and what not you can literally make it
           | work over anything.
        
         | Aurornis wrote:
         | > Senders pay a small fee to send a message. * Relaying devices
         | earn a micro-payment (could be tokens, sats, etc.) for carrying
         | the message one hop further.
         | 
         | The Helium Network tried something like this, but with a fixed
         | infrastructure: People were incentivized to run Helium network
         | nodes and could earn micropayments for running nodes and
         | handling traffic.
         | 
         | It revealed a lot of problems with structures like this, such
         | as the incentive to cheat through various loopholes that were
         | discovered.
         | 
         | It also became apparent that the monetization/tokenization
         | aspect overtook the network functionality as the primary
         | motivator for the project. After a while, people started
         | looking at the traffic and payouts and realized that almost
         | nobody was using it for real communication, it had become one
         | big shell game for collecting the payments designed to
         | incentivize nodes to come online and relay traffic. Then the
         | token itself had become a speculative commodity that people
         | used for trading more than anything.
         | 
         | I think it would be interesting if someone could invent a
         | stable coin cryptocurrency with low overhead that enabled some
         | of these use cases, but it seems the allure of generating a new
         | token that the founders can sell into a speculative market to
         | raise funds for the project is always too alluring, so every
         | project goes from having good intentions to becoming a veiled
         | pump and dump. Maybe some day there will be a stable coin that
         | escapes these issues, but I haven't seen it yet.
        
           | repeekad wrote:
           | > I think it would be interesting if someone could invent a
           | stable coin cryptocurrency with low overhead
           | 
           | Like the US dollar and Postgres?
           | 
           | For like $200 anyone can start a business entity in the US
           | with a tax ID and a bank, I'm still yet to understand how
           | crypto is better other than for circumventing regulators
        
             | deweller wrote:
             | Cryptocurrency transfers are irreversible, publicly
             | verifiable and pseudonymous. For a privacy focused
             | application, these attributes make crypto a better choice
             | than USD and the traditional banking system.
        
               | pizzafeelsright wrote:
               | How?
               | 
               | Irreversible is bad because mistakes happen. I lost
               | ~$1,000 in a bad transfer because of a typo.
               | 
               | Publicly verifiable -- not good because I don't want the
               | public knowing what I buy.
               | 
               | Pseudonymous is the worst of both. Is it or is it not me?
               | them?
               | 
               | I am thinking digital cash using pub keys on a network
               | run from space on something like starlink sats.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | > I lost ~$1,000 in a bad transfer because of a typo.
               | 
               | Was the option of doing a much smaller amount available
               | to validate the account before following up with the full
               | transfer? I've never understood _not_ doing a test
               | transfer first.
        
               | MangoToupe wrote:
               | You can still make a mistake _after_ the test transfer.
        
               | rtkwe wrote:
               | Only pseudonymous so far as you never accidentally link
               | yourself to a wallet then everyone can know your entire
               | transfer/spending history. It gets people all the time
               | just look at the investigations into various alt coin rug
               | pulls or other fraud.
               | 
               | Irreversible is also not a good thing just ask anyone who
               | had their NFTs stolen during that craze. If someone hacks
               | my bank account or skims my card and transfers the money
               | out the bank can reverse a lot of those transactions.
               | Irreversibility wipes out decades of consumer protection
               | advances.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | > For a privacy focused application, these attributes
               | make crypto a better choice than USD and the traditional
               | banking system.
               | 
               | So is cash. What we really need are ways of scanning a
               | piece of fiat currency that instantly transfers that
               | money to an account while then disabling the physical
               | copy from the registry as valid. That's how silly I see
               | crypto for anything other than illicit transactions
        
             | altruios wrote:
             | Most crypto, no.
             | 
             | The one to look at for that is Monero: the closest thing to
             | private(anonymous) digital cash that I've found (so far).
        
             | immibis wrote:
             | Circumventing regulations is like half the point of
             | crypto... either you use it to circumvent regulators, or
             | you hold it while the price goes up because of the people
             | who are circumventing regulators.
             | 
             | I think Bitcoin has become a typical fiat asset ouroboros
             | now, because the people who _actually_ want to circumvent
             | regulators are using Monero (which is why Monero is banned
             | in most countries), while the Bitcoin price is supported
             | almost entirely by speculation and a little bit by people
             | doing only-slightly-shady things with crypto who haven 't
             | noticed everyone else moved to Monero.
        
             | 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
             | Where's the API for sending and receiving USD?
        
               | greyface- wrote:
               | https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/wires
               | 
               | https://achdevguide.nacha.org/
        
             | 0xOsprey wrote:
             | We built this and it's live on devnet currently:
             | https://paygo.wtf
             | 
             | More details here if interested:
             | https://x.com/0x_Osprey/status/1925299005191577921
        
           | clarkmoody wrote:
           | Many such cases with crypto. Moderately good idea powered by
           | a token becomes a Ponzi.
        
           | miketery wrote:
           | In helium there was no input revenue. OP mentions payment to
           | send. This is a very different scheme.
        
             | rtkwe wrote:
             | It's the same scheme. You had to purchase Data Credits to
             | send on Helium too, there was no input revenue because no
             | one was choosing to use it but it's largely the same as the
             | scheme behind the Helium network. 1 DC/24 Bytes sent and
             | successfully delivered.
        
           | 0xOsprey wrote:
           | >>I think it would be interesting if someone could invent a
           | stable coin cryptocurrency with low overhead that enabled
           | some of these use cases
           | 
           | We are thinking about this and building in this direction
           | with Paygo.wtf
           | 
           | https://x.com/0x_Osprey/status/1925299005191577921
        
         | simondanerd wrote:
         | I'd like to point you towards Meshtastic [1]. It's off-grid,
         | decentralized text messaging that allows for encryption, and is
         | inexpensive to get into (a basic node is about $30 or less),
         | and don't require a license to operate.
         | 
         | The firmware on these devices is open source (minus proprietary
         | blobs for ESP32 WiFi, etc.) and the community is active. Check
         | the Meshmap [2] to see some nodes that have made their location
         | public in your area.
         | 
         | [1] https://meshtastic.org/ [2] https://meshmap.net/
        
           | rtkwe wrote:
           | The meshtastic coverage might be much better in your area
           | than it looks on Meshmap too. It relies on being connected to
           | the main MQTT [0] server to get placed there and lots of
           | people don't do that because the chatter there can be spammy
           | and irrelevant to you locally. There are many city or state
           | specific MQTT meshes that are far more popular. For example
           | NCMesh [1] has way better coverage in NC, though most
           | contacts still happen over MQTT instead of via RF, compared
           | to the same area on Meshmap.
           | 
           | So long as you're using the standard long fast and 0/20
           | frequency slot you'll still have your messages passed via
           | NCMesh nodes even if you're using the broader US Mesh as your
           | MQTT server.
           | 
           | [0] MQTT here simply tunnels the messages over the internet
           | so you get placed in a broader chat room and pseudomesh than
           | you could reach through RF.
           | 
           | [1] https://ncmesh.net/learn/#coverage
        
           | sneak wrote:
           | Meshtastic barely works. There are only a few hundred nodes
           | in Las Vegas and already the main public channels are at high
           | utilization with almost no real end user traffic on it.
           | 
           | I love the project and participate, but people mentioning
           | stuff like this in response to buzzwords irritates me. Like
           | ipfs it is a buzzword-driven curiosity, not a real solution
           | to real problems that anyone has.
           | 
           | Additionally, the meshtastic encryption is a toy. In 2025
           | when you say encryption you make people think of modern
           | features like replay resistance, perfect forward secrecy,
           | etc. Meshtastic doesn't do any of this.
        
         | myself248 wrote:
         | In a way, the Althea wireless network already does this, but it
         | looks like a more conventional wireless ISP in some ways. If
         | you have upstream connectivity that you provide to a downstream
         | customer, you earn a cut. If you have access to a mountaintop
         | or something and run a repeater that suddenly brings a lot of
         | nodes better connectivity, you earn a cut.
         | 
         | Personally, I've always been surprised that traditional
         | cellular networks didn't try to incentivize femtocell placement
         | by awarding compensatory minutes or megs or something, to the
         | operator of the serving femtocell. Imagine someone with an
         | apartment over the old bakery downtown where the historical
         | district has made it difficult to place normal towers, so they
         | get a femtocell for their own usage. But if it carries other
         | customers' traffic, they'd get kickbacks and incentive to place
         | it near the window where it has the best view of the shopping
         | area below. Suddenly they're working on RF optimization without
         | even knowing it.
         | 
         | In both cases, you have an existing payment expectation that
         | you're just piggybacking on. People already pay their ISP for
         | connectivity, so they expect to pay Althea, and the
         | distribution of money after that is a detail. People already
         | pay their cellco for service, and if some of that kicks back to
         | other customers, that's a detail.
         | 
         | I think your idea has legs, if you can solve the onboarding and
         | payment expectation. There's also a critical-mass problem that
         | Apple solved with Find My by just force-installing it on every
         | device without consent, and you can't do that. So people will
         | only run your software if they:
         | 
         | A) know about it
         | 
         | B) are in a place with poor enough connectivity that it's
         | needed
         | 
         | C) are in a place with enough user density that it's worthwhile
         | 
         | D) perceive that it doesn't unduly kill their battery while in
         | a place that also might not have a lot of opportunities to
         | charge
         | 
         | That's a mighty tricky combination, especially the overlap
         | between B and C. The only setting I can imagine is Burning Man.
         | But micropayments directly conflict with the gifting and
         | decommodification principles.
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | I think they want to run reliable networks. They might be
           | legally required to run reliable networks. Obviously, spotty
           | coverage in some places can't be avoided, but designing their
           | network for exclusively spotty coverage might not be a good
           | idea.
           | 
           | Remember that network operators plan their frequency
           | allocations so that base stations on the same frequency don't
           | also overlap in space. How would you ensure this with random
           | femtocells? The frequency allocation plan for a femtocell
           | relies on it having a very small area of coverage and being
           | far away from others, so that it doesn't matter if they all
           | use the same frequency.
           | 
           | Cell networks aren't plug-and-play YOLO networks like wifi -
           | they're properly engineered stuff.
           | 
           | Now, they could absolutely form a contract with a customer to
           | put a proper base station in their apartment window -
           | according to the locations and frequencies that best fulfill
           | the needs of the network. Not just "buy one of these and plug
           | it in for a discount" but "we'll pay you ten times over to
           | let us fill a corner of your apartment with big metal boxes,
           | and enter for maintenance with 24 hours notice". Evidently
           | this is a lot of hassle compared to getting permission to put
           | them on roofs, so they don't do it.
           | 
           | I assume this Althea network does something similar but with
           | a reversed order of operations: first someone sets up a
           | network repeater, then someone at Althea HQ figures out how
           | much value they're providing to the network. If it's fully
           | automated, it would run into the same problems as Helium,
           | like people creating fake nodes to carry fake traffic (if
           | nothing else, getting a discount on their real traffic by
           | pretending it passed through 100 of their own nodes before
           | reaching someone else's node).
        
         | N19PEDL2 wrote:
         | I really like the idea and it would certainly be very useful
         | for communicating in case of censorship or Internet outage.
         | 
         | However, I wonder how would the sender know how to route the
         | message so that it gets to the correct recipient. It would have
         | to send it to all nearby devices, which would then send it to
         | all nearby devices, and so on, but that would be terribly
         | inefficient; moreover, the message would continue to circulate
         | even after the recipient received it, unless the recipient
         | sends a receipt acknowledgement, which would then need to be
         | propagated to all devices as well.
         | 
         | Apple's Find My network is not decentralized: all participating
         | devices send the locations of objects they find to Apple's
         | servers, which then forward the information directly to the
         | correct recipients.
        
           | wildzzz wrote:
           | Mesh networks are somewhat inefficient but there are some
           | ways to make it better. Nodes would hold onto a short routing
           | table of their neighbors. Depending on the activity of the
           | network, you need to limit the number of hops a message is
           | allowed to travel. A busy network allows only a couple hops
           | whereas a very inactive network can handle a lot more. The
           | message has (at least) a recipient, the payload, and a number
           | of allowed hops. When a message is sent, nodes compare the
           | recipient node to their list of neighbors, if the recipient
           | is known, the message is forwarded on with the number of
           | allowed hops set to zero. If the recipient isn't known, the
           | message is passed to the neighbors and the number of allowed
           | hops in the metadata is decreased by one. Those neighbors
           | keep forwarding on the message and decreasing the number of
           | allowed hops until it hits zero. One final transmission could
           | be allowed when the counter hits zero on the chance that the
           | recipient is within range but has not associated with its
           | neighbors (helpful for a highly mobile network of nodes). As
           | the nodes pass on the message, they include their name in the
           | metadata to build a routing table that the recipient can now
           | use to quickly reply directly to the original sender. This
           | routing table can be kept in memory so that it can be reused
           | later for any more messages nodes want to send each other.
           | However, mesh networks are often mobile so this adhoc routing
           | table and the list of known neighbors needs a time-to-live to
           | ensure nodes don't waste time sending messages to a recipient
           | that is no longer there. The TTL would be set based on
           | whether a node is mobile or static.
           | 
           | Having nodes know their neighbors isn't necessarily required.
           | It can help build a more efficient network where nodes know
           | their neighbors and their neighbors' neighbors which can
           | allow for a shorter number of allowed hops. If a node knows
           | the route to get to a recipient, it can continue passing the
           | message even if the hop counter is at zero. For example, a
           | node in a rural area would require a couple hops to reach the
           | edge of the city where the message is immediately passed
           | using a known route even if the allowed hop count has run
           | out.
           | 
           | But you can also build a totally blind network where nodes
           | just pass a message until the counter hits zero. A blind
           | network may be helpful in a contested environment where you
           | can't trust any nodes with information beyond its own view.
           | 
           | If the information isn't critical, then you can hide the
           | network even further by not requiring ACK messages from the
           | recipient and not building a route trace in the metadata.
           | This prevents a bad node from collecting network information.
        
         | kiernan wrote:
         | "One hop further" sounds like an unbounded loose end... could
         | you tighten this up further somehow? Pre-allocate a larger,
         | more worthwhile portion to do a round trip or something else
         | more verifiable?
        
         | concats wrote:
         | Sounds like a solution looking for a problem.
        
         | bullen wrote:
         | Would it work: yes, could it be disrupted: also yes.
         | 
         | Timing is the key: you want to start working on it when the
         | regular internet shows cracks.
         | 
         | In the meantime, build features that work in both worlds!
         | 
         | http://radiomesh.org
        
         | huslage wrote:
         | Why does anyone need a cash incentive to pass a message
         | silently? There is literally zero marginal cost to them to do
         | this. Why does everything have to cost/make money?
        
           | teiferer wrote:
           | It costs energy.
           | 
           | It's very little energy, but it's _literally_ non-zero, so
           | definitely not  "literally zero marginal cost".
           | 
           | Why would the user care if it's negligible? Because very-
           | small-but-nonzero things scale very differently from _actual_
           | zero things. If the price of injecting something is zero or
           | almost zero, then this gets quickly abused and suddenly your
           | battery drains like crazy because somebody decided that this
           | is an excellent new vector to serve spam. So everybody will
           | deinstall /deactivate this.
           | 
           | And that's why we can't have nice things.
        
         | teiferer wrote:
         | Technically viable.
         | 
         | Socially not viable since all actors that could make it happen
         | are incentivised to actively work against this to ever happen:
         | Governments and big tech. Where are the ad opportunities if
         | stuff does not go to a central platform which profiles you and
         | serves "content" with ads?
         | 
         | It would technologically be even pretty easy to do. There have
         | been many attempts already, including things like roof net /
         | freifunk. It just never works because you have very big actors
         | against you.
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | How would the payment work?
         | 
         | You pass along a message, and get a token in return. Then, some
         | options:
         | 
         | 1) the message never makes it through
         | 
         | 2) the message makes it through, via your path
         | 
         | 3) the message makes it through, but via some other path, and
         | yours is really a dead end
         | 
         | Also, how would you handle the case where multiple peers all
         | get the message and send it through the same bottleneck node? I
         | guess you'd want to have some incentive to widen bottlenecks,
         | so that no nodes become important...
        
           | clarkmoody wrote:
           | Bitcoin Lightning Network solves the routing payment problem
           | via a series of cascading unlocks of value across the route.
           | Nodes can change their fee policy independent of the network,
           | so the bottleneck node could make more money in your
           | scenario. Then those high fees attract additional nodes to
           | provide liquidity along that route, bringing fee competition.
        
             | beefnugs wrote:
             | So painful when people recommend bitcoin lightning. Its
             | technically interesting... but complete nonsense to pay
             | like $50 just for one "hop" of the payment chain. It would
             | be an upfront cost of hundreds to get a payment chain you
             | planned on spending fractions of a penny per day/week/month
        
               | immibis wrote:
               | Hm? As I understood it, you lock up some money, and then
               | secretly agree to reallocate it with the Lightning
               | protocol, and then eventually get it back in the latest
               | allocation. So it costs $50 and then you get $50 back -
               | or $60 or $40.
               | 
               | This is an interesting thing when financial institutions
               | do it between themselves. It's completely useless as a
               | consumer-facing payment system. Consumers aren't going to
               | plan in advance how much money to lock up, that's just
               | stupid.
               | 
               | I assume you're not referring to the transaction fee
               | because last I heard, it's not currently $25.
        
             | immibis wrote:
             | Bitcoin Lightning requires realtime communication with
             | every node in the route. If you can communicate with enough
             | nodes to negotiate passing a message, you could also just
             | send the message.
        
         | immibis wrote:
         | Planning paths in that kind of environment is impossible
         | (literally not figuratively). Systems that achieve this are
         | gossip broadcast systems, where messages explore every possible
         | path, but those that don't scale well.
         | 
         | If you gossip/broadcast messages, the message will be copied to
         | many nodes that end up not being involved in the actual path
         | from source to destination. Will they still be paid for it?
         | 
         | If so, why shouldn't I copy each message I receive onto my
         | 50000 Sybil devices that don't move, and get paid 50001 times
         | what I should?
         | 
         | So let's assume instead that they don't get paid. That means
         | when I receive the message I read out the path it actually took
         | and pay those people. What if I simply don't pay those people?
         | I could even forge a different path, maybe through my 50k Sybil
         | devices.
         | 
         | I don't see a way to make it work. But nobody saw a way to make
         | cryptographic digital currency work until Bitcoin, so maybe
         | there's some crazy innovation that could make this work too.
        
         | 0xdeadbeefbabe wrote:
         | Well it's a tough problem even before you start adding money to
         | it.
        
         | snickerdoodle12 wrote:
         | If it's ever going to happen the receivers won't be getting
         | anything. They'll just be forced to participate by Google/Apple
         | who will run this as a system service, probably with dedicated
         | hardware to reduce power usage impact.
        
         | smartscience wrote:
         | For a real-world use case, maybe cruise ships? Internet service
         | on the ships is expensive if it works at all, but that's not
         | necessarily what people need - they just need to be able to
         | exchange whatsapp style messages with people already on the
         | same ship, especially if they can't find each other. Music
         | festivals, mentioned elsewhere in this thread, might face a
         | similar issue as they can be in remote locations.
        
         | marto1 wrote:
         | > or is it just a neat academic toy
         | 
         | The Internet was a neat academic toy at one point for whatever
         | that's worth :-)
        
         | Marlinski wrote:
         | that was basically Rumble an app I developped 10 years ago:
         | https://github.com/Marlinski/Rumble
         | 
         | I worked the field both academic and startup, I even made one
         | of the first implementation of the Bundle protocol for store
         | carry and forward (IETF transport protocol for the deep space
         | network RFC9171).
         | 
         | Turns out the Mobile OS are making this kind of communication
         | nearly impossible. To work well, it basically needs background
         | job (automatic scan of nearby ble/wifi/radio) and automatic
         | connection without user interaction (imagine being prompted to
         | accept a connection every time you pass by someone), both have
         | been basically made impossible (especially after covid).
        
           | hiatus wrote:
           | > Turns out the Mobile OS are making this kind of
           | communication nearly impossible. To work well, it basically
           | needs background job (automatic scan of nearby
           | ble/wifi/radio) and automatic connection without user
           | interaction (imagine being prompted to accept a connection
           | every time you pass by someone), both have been basically
           | made impossible (especially after covid).
           | 
           | Isn't this how some covid-specific apps work to let you know
           | if you've come in contact with an identified carrier?
           | https://www.gao.gov/blog/covid-19-exposure-notification-
           | apps...
        
             | poisonborz wrote:
             | They relied only on scanning nearby id-s, without
             | communication.
        
         | DennisP wrote:
         | I once saw a paper showing that if you don't mind hours of
         | latency, and your nodes are mobile, then a network like that
         | scales linearly with the number of nodes. So at least you won't
         | have to worry about congestion.
         | 
         | (The paper was linked from internet co-inventor David Reed's
         | open spectrum site, which appears to be gone now.)
        
         | elpakal wrote:
         | https://ditto.live
        
         | zhynn wrote:
         | This reminds me a little of
         | [Scuttlebutt](https://scuttlebutt.nz) (positive it has been
         | posted on HN before). But I think these little projects are
         | awesome, even if they have a limited audience. Go forth!
        
       | rlt wrote:
       | The coolest thing about this is apparently it's written by Jack
       | Dorsey, billionaire founder of Twitter/Square.
       | https://x.com/jack/status/1941989435962212728
       | 
       | Cool to see he still gets his hands dirty in code.
        
         | nelsonfigueroa wrote:
         | Yeah I noticed this too! The profile picture looked familiar.
        
         | b33f wrote:
         | It's not though, it's written by someone called nothankyou1
         | https://github.com/jackjackbits/bitchat/graphs/contributors
        
           | greyface- wrote:
           | The commits, viewed outside of GitHub, have:
           | Author: jack <no@no.no>
           | 
           | He used a bogus `user.email` git config value, which GitHub
           | matched to the nothankyou1 account.
        
       | tschillaci wrote:
       | This is a really exciting project! I love how it makes each
       | message feel more valuable, like modern-day letters, but more
       | convenient.
        
       | geek_at wrote:
       | Title should include "for the apple eco system"
        
       | po1nt wrote:
       | If we could bridge over Meshtastic, this would be so good.
        
       | xvilka wrote:
       | Too bad it's not cross-platform which makes any real use pretty
       | limited.
        
         | trklausss wrote:
         | This particular application isn't, but at the end of the README
         | you get a section on how to port to Android, and the protocol
         | is open as well. So it's a matter of investing the effort on
         | your side.
        
       | tonnydourado wrote:
       | Anyone else read it as "Bitch at"?
        
       | thinkingemote wrote:
       | Is the Web Bluetooth API good enough to do mesh stuff?
       | 
       | So we could have localhost or offline websites doing this.
        
       | ManuelKiessling wrote:
       | Funny, I had a similar idea in 2010, from which nothing followed
       | of course:
       | 
       | https://imgur.com/a/VWiDBO3
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | This is one of those ideas that everyone has had.
        
       | PeterStuer wrote:
       | Reminds me of nntp, from back when the Internet wasn't 'always
       | on' or fully connected.
        
       | t43562 wrote:
       | This is something I've wanted for ages. I go to some event with
       | the family - in London for example or to an airshow - and there's
       | a huge crowd for one reason or another which overloads the mobile
       | network and makes your phone useless. You can lose people who are
       | just a few metres away.
       | 
       | I am glad it's public domain - I don't think I really want to
       | invest any effort in getting non-techy people to try and use
       | something that might go away one day and be irreplacable. OTOH, I
       | need Android as well so....
        
       | wjholden wrote:
       | Very cool, I've often thought that such a short-range chat would
       | be fun on an airplane. Not practical, but it could be neat to
       | chat with the group in the air.
        
       | FerkiHN wrote:
       | When will the Android release be ready?
        
       | christophilus wrote:
       | I read that name as "bitch at". I thought maybe it was one of
       | those GPS collars for finding your runaway dog.
        
         | delbronski wrote:
         | bruh...
        
         | kinow wrote:
         | I didn't read it like that immediately, but I noticed there was
         | something that my brain recognized and asked me to look at it
         | again. I wondered for a second if it could be filtered in some
         | corporate filters (emails/servers/etc.).
        
         | brightbeige wrote:
         | "Did not work at all for my male dog. One star"
        
         | avtar wrote:
         | I assumed it was a subtle nod to an old irc client
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitchX
        
         | fluidcruft wrote:
         | Same but I thought it was a place to yell and complain at
         | people
        
       | uptown wrote:
       | Bridgefy is another player in the sparse, offline messaging
       | space.
        
       | rofiko wrote:
       | .
        
       | molszanski wrote:
       | I've tried a couple of apps like that with use case of
       | communicating during festivals with next-to-none wifi/cell
       | service with a big group of people. None of them worked. Fingers
       | crossed for this one
        
       | Beretta_Vexee wrote:
       | As much as I like the idea of people working on peer-to-peer
       | networks, delay tolerant network, if I'm within Bluetooth range,
       | it's quicker to chat with the person I'm talking to than to go
       | through a messaging app.
       | 
       | That technology is interesting, but it is probably not a good
       | usecase. There are potentially lots of interesting things you
       | could do with smart watches and bike computers, such as uploading
       | activities without direct connection to a phone or sharing routes
       | with nearby participants, etc.
       | 
       | Use cases where you may not necessarily have a phone or adequate
       | network coverage.
        
         | pizzafeelsright wrote:
         | I would agree although I can see a few applications of the tech
         | that could be helpful.
         | 
         | Consider if at a large conference where enough participants are
         | able to create a mesh and then leave geo tagged messages and
         | send beyond BT range.
         | 
         | If there was a way to piggyback on top of the airtag network we
         | could do a lot more.
        
         | elric wrote:
         | We can communicate in more ways than just with words. Would be
         | great to FINALLY have a sensible, low-friction, secure way to
         | transfer files to people. It's 2025 and that's still not a
         | solved problem.
        
           | Beretta_Vexee wrote:
           | You probably don't need a decentralised, delay-tolerant
           | network to send a photo to the person in front of you. It's
           | even very likely that this will be much less efficient than a
           | direct Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection or an AirDrop.
           | 
           | What would be the use case? Send the picture to someone at
           | the other end of the lecture theatre? It's likely that there
           | would be a phone network or Wi-Fi available. A crisis or
           | emergency situation where networks are down? There isn't much
           | population density or movement to propagate the data.
           | 
           | This debate is not new, many teams have worked on wireless ad
           | hoc networks, some with very encouraging results. The real
           | problem is what the use cases are.
           | 
           | That's why I personally think that the use case should be
           | related to travel, transport, sport or vehicle-to-vehicle
           | communication. Situations involving movement and loss of
           | connectivity.
        
             | elric wrote:
             | > Send the picture to someone at the other end of the
             | lecture theatre? It's likely that there would be a phone
             | network or Wi-Fi available.
             | 
             | Now you're back to using a centralised system using a
             | network you know nothing about, operated by someone you
             | don't know.
             | 
             | > direct Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection or an AirDrop
             | 
             | AirDrop is not cross platform AFAIK. Direct wifi or
             | bluetooth aren't the easiest to work with for non-technical
             | users.
             | 
             | > A crisis or emergency situation where networks are down?
             | There isn't much population density or movement to
             | propagate the data.
             | 
             | Why not? Do emergencies only occur when people are few and
             | far between? I think I'm misunderstanding what you're
             | saying.
             | 
             | > That's why I personally think that the use case should be
             | related to travel, transport, sport or vehicle-to-vehicle
             | communication. Situations involving movement and loss of
             | connectivity.
             | 
             | That's certainly a valuable use case, but probably not
             | something that bitchat would be useful for.
        
       | user9999999999 wrote:
       | bitch@
        
       | HumblyTossed wrote:
       | I would love to see phone manufacturers start working on add LoRa
       | to phones.
        
       | thunkshift1 wrote:
       | Who is nothankyou1? That guy is the real developer, dorsey just
       | added some nonsense commits like a true manager.
        
       | Fokamul wrote:
       | As a fun project, why not. But this is just another problem which
       | can be solved by radio bought from aliexpress.
       | 
       | No wait, let's reinvent the wheel again :)
       | 
       | In case of war or something, internet is down, decentralized
       | Bluetooth messaging app is your last problem.
       | 
       | IRL you will be using unencrypted radio, yes doesn't make sense.
       | But already proven in the UA war.
       | 
       | Try using encrypted radio on the frontline and you will get
       | suicide drones or artillery shell on your position, pretty
       | quickly ;-)
        
       | bad_haircut72 wrote:
       | related: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Scuttlebutt
       | 
       | Scuttlebutt is another decentralized peer to peer messaging
       | platform
       | 
       | Since its so niche people should probably collaborate to get one
       | of these solutions out into adoption. Coding stuff is super fun
       | though...
        
       | rightbyte wrote:
       | It took me like 12h to see the wordplay in the name.
        
       | alexnewman wrote:
       | Be cool if he added reed Solomon to do raid over the packets and
       | send the replicas through multiple routes
        
       | ramon156 wrote:
       | Now someone build it on the AT protocol and call it bitchAT
        
       | scirob wrote:
       | hope this does well. We see people trying again and again like
       | FireChat or Berty it seems that it works for a bit with some
       | devices but then Apple & Google make updates and the app dies.
       | 
       | In general mobile app development seems to be very maintanence
       | heavy
        
       | franciscojs wrote:
       | Looks like we have a new mesh comms solution every two weeks or
       | so.
        
       | jdelman wrote:
       | My wife and I have been using Berkanan (an iOS app) for many
       | years for this purpose. It's not very good - unlike literally
       | every other chat app, it presents conversations in reverse
       | chronological order, and the interface is janky. But it gets the
       | job done when there's no WiFi (airplanes, though this is becoming
       | less of a problem) or cell service (crowded venues).
        
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       | johnnyfiveplus wrote:
       | I really don't see the relevance of this app. We already know
       | that Bluetooth (BLE) is short range.... so is this equivalent to
       | speaking to people a hundred feet away from you in an encrypted
       | manner? So use case is only for protests I assume?
        
       | roadtoswe wrote:
       | I'm relatively new to programming and aware of who Jack Dorsey
       | is, but isn't this quite impressive for a single programmer to
       | build?
        
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