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A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

bitchat.free

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Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#31

Post by 3RTB297 »

melting_snow wrote: post #12
maqp wrote: post #9

Could someone please explain in what situation do you use a BlueTooth messaging app? Like, even BT5 range won't exceed 400 meters. What good is this? You're not going to send images to journalists from protests with it (you'd do wisely to keep it in airplane mode until you get home and then you'd upload them to their securedrop or whatever), and you don't need off-band security to let the kids know it's dinner time.

I see two use cases: * Communication between protestors * Illegal activities, but here I can imagine that bluetooth range is too small

The use cases stem from groups needing coordination in roughly the same area, with no internet. Disaster recovery efforts fit this exactly:

Doctors Without Borders feeding centers in a famine far from anywhere, searching for people in the rubble of a building following an earthquake, searching for people in a refugee camp, etc.

Verizon went down in the US this past week - perfect use case for Bitchat (or Meshtastic with a repeater or some other LoRa BT network). Verizon goes down while you're at the mall or store or Disneyland or whatever and you can still text to find each other.

300m max range with line of sight would cover something like when I go to visit my parents who live in a desert canyon with lousy mobile phone coverage, I can send a message that I'm at the gate and put the dogs in the garage.

Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#33

Post by nly »

zenmac wrote: post #27
maqp wrote: post #9

Could someone please explain in what situation do you use a BlueTooth messaging app? Like, even BT5 range won't exceed 400 meters. What good is this? You're not going to send images to journalists from protests with it (you'd do wisely to keep it in airplane mode until you get home and then you'd upload them to their securedrop or whatever), and you don't need off-band security to let the kids know it's dinner time.

One of these bluetooth messaging app was made by a developer who was on a cruise ship with family, and the Internet over satellite costs an arm and leg. So he wrote an app to communicate with his families over bluetooth. Also why would one want to have the data go over some servers thousands miles away when the device is right next to you? Seems like bluetooth is the perfect way to communicate for devices that are cl…

It's a cruiseship. Your family are at the nearest bar. Just get off your ass and go and give them the message.

Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#34

Post by littlecranky67 »

bariswheel wrote: post #23
atoav wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't like a thing and share that dislike, care to elaborate your reasoning so others can profit from it?

Indeed, it's immature to disclose an opinion without being forthcoming and add some objective rationale behind a bold conclusion as disliking an entire person. It may be something they said, or did, getting specific would help, ideally something that is relevant to the original thread. It's not entirely helpful and potentially a negative impact to just imply you don't like someone. Do what you want obviously, that's…

It is a disease of modern (social) media and personal branding. People also now broadly think that an ad-hominem (attacking the person behind an argument, not the argument) is good argumentative style. I don't know about Jack Dorsey other then he founded twitter, and I don't care much about him. If there is a product, I will evaluate that product by my catalogue, not whether I like or dislike a person.

Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#35

Post by j1elo »

What are good file transfer apps that can be used in similar scenarios? (to be clear about the usage model: communications on a plane)

* I see LocalSend and LANDrop frequently suggested on HN but in my experience they rely on having a central Wifi router. No good.

* Android's QuickShare comes included by default, but it's buggy. Just yesterday it failed on me (I'm on an uncommunicated boat): it was defaulting to Bluetooth, so I had to reboot both phones to finally make it work over Wifi Direct. Not to speak about the "oh damn, you have an iPhone" scenario. Not ideal.

Anything else? (to remark: for airplane-like situations so no access to Internet and no central router)

Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#36

Post by em-bee »

yaris wrote: post #15
maqp wrote: post #9

Could someone please explain in what situation do you use a BlueTooth messaging app? Like, even BT5 range won't exceed 400 meters. What good is this? You're not going to send images to journalists from protests with it (you'd do wisely to keep it in airplane mode until you get home and then you'd upload them to their securedrop or whatever), and you don't need off-band security to let the kids know it's dinner time.

Any situation when mobile internet cannot be used. That is not only protests, but also legal gatherings, i.e. street concerts, or places where mobile coverage is poor in general.

but i use mobile internet because of the distance. how does bluetooth help with that?

Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#38

Post by JumpCrisscross »

budududuroiu wrote: post #30
j1elo wrote: post #29

This has released tags since back to July 2025. Does anyone know if it's being actively used to exfiltrate news from Iran right now? (if someone's been living under a rock: [1][2]) [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46667491 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46573384

Not sure about bitchat, but Briar is being used in Iran right now. https://byteiota.com/briar-offline-mesh-when-internet-shutdo... Tbf, if my government would be out to kill me for protesting, I'd use something that at least was security audited. Not to shit on bitchat, I haven't audited the code personally.

> Briar is being used in Iran right now

Do we have evidence of this? The only concrete claim made in that post is that Briar 'hit 252 points on Hacker News," which is orthogonal to if it's actually being used.

Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#39

Post by JumpCrisscross »

budududuroiu wrote: post #8

Seeing Jack committing to this repo is kinda wild to me. I also wish I had fuck-you money and could spend my day engrossed in whatever I find interesting

> wish I had fuck-you money and could spend my day engrossed in whatever I find interesting

A good mental exercise is to calculate how much you'd need to survive indefinitely in a pocket of rural America or the third world. No international travel. No bells and whistles. Limited cuisine. But survival and leisure unlimited.

When I've run the numbers for a comforable living, they've come to $300k (Vietnam, $12k/y) to $500k (West Virginia or Portugal $18k/y). But one could halve (or more) those figures by accepting standards of living our grandparents would have found adequate.

Then you make a choice. That world. Or the one you have. (Or something in between.)

Two-fifths of American households have a net worth over $300,000; more than half over $150,000 [1]. That means somewhere between a lot of and potentially most Americans have, on a global scale, fuck-you money. Just not fuck-you money to retain their status at the centre of the first world.

[1] https://dqydj.com/net-worth-percentiles/

Re: A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth

#40

Post by Almondsetat »

em-bee wrote: post #36
yaris wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any situation when mobile internet cannot be used. That is not only protests, but also legal gatherings, i.e. street concerts, or places where mobile coverage is poor in general.

but i use mobile internet because of the distance. how does bluetooth help with that?

What is your implication? This app is not for talking across the globe with people.
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