Walked around Fusion Festival with Bitchat running. Saw about 20 other devices and a few messages. Nobody replied to my messages. So usage isn't zero, but 20 devices out of 80000 people isn't a lot. Most hops I saw was 2, meaning there wasn't enough density to make it any meaningful distance across the festival grounds.
As far as I'm concerned, it was used at several protest and is currently in use in Indian CJP protests. Also Indian government made a request to take down it's repo on GitHub
That's already a lot for such a niche project.
If they care so much about availability maybe they should reconsider including libs.gms.location and be available on F-Droid (<a href="https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/24907#note_2704652160" rel="nofollow">https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/24907#...</a>)
People interested in BitChat should download it just so you have it in case it gets popular or you find someone to use it with. I tested it and it's surreal to text without WiFi or cellular.
That Radicle site design is an interesting take for a git repo platform. Good use of full width spacing, well thought out navigation, nice code rendering. I dig it.
Bitchat is an AOS (<a href="https://andotherstuff.org/#foundry-projects" rel="nofollow">https://andotherstuff.org/#foundry-projects</a>) project. Surprised, they didn't rehost it on ngit (<a href="https://gitworkshop.dev/" rel="nofollow">https://gitworkshop.dev/</a>), which is also an AOS project.
That name<p>Tobias Bluth vibes
This is after Indian government asked Github to remove Bitchat within three hours after notice .
I can’t wait until Goblin is acquired by Nematode. Then finally they might make Gorbachev open source.
Yo where's my
For some context, it seems like the Indian government wants Bitchat to be taken down.<p><a href="https://xcancel.com/jack/status/2080565084586135773" rel="nofollow">https://xcancel.com/jack/status/2080565084586135773</a>
Surely this won't have the opposite effect that they're looking for.
Discussed earlier on HN<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49036433">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49036433</a>
> Messages route through nearby devices (max 7 hops)<p>How far, realistically, could this reach using just iOS and Android devices? If each device can reach ~100m, that means you could theoretically reach somebody 700m (2.3k feet) away? Or would it be further if two devices are at the edge of their radio range?
I first parsed this as Bitch At
Are there any special features comparing with other decentrilized message product? Such as Nostr or XMTP？
Works over Bluetooth mesh offline and Nostr online.<p>Relevant discussion yesterday:<p>> “Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey”<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49036433">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49036433</a>
Yes, it's in the first paragraph of <a href="https://bitchat.free/" rel="nofollow">https://bitchat.free/</a>.
I love these posts, every week it's "Gloop is now on Ploof!"
And at least one comment references "Curtains for Zoosha"
it's just two recent examples (Gleam on Tangled and now Bitchat on Radicle) and they're both the same format.<p>[Some well-liked but niche tech] switched their code forge to [a decentralized code forge].<p>Tbh I'm surprised how many on HN seem unfamiliar with Tangled and Radicle (and Bitchat and Gleam).
Here's some less popular posts in the past year that people didn't make Poob jokes about:<p>* Gemini is now on Mac<p>* OpenClaw is now on Android<p>* Instapaper is now on Kobo<p>* Gitzy is now on Testflight<p>* Webpack is now on Bluesky<p><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22is%20now%20on%22&sort=byPopularity&type=story" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=tru...</a>
Radicle and Bitchat have been covered here quite a few times. These drive-by commenters (all making the same joke) come every time, and they think they’re being clever by discouraging people from looking into the product.<p>Note that you’ll never hear people saying “what’s a Google” (an equally ridiculous name) or jumping on some random YC startup with a silly name. It’s always the open source tech. It’s not random!<p>Joke’s on them anyway, I believe many users have embraced the alternate interpretation of the name. There’s a @BitchatMe_ Twitter account that covers BitChat news, for example. They’re just being annoying without any real effect.
It's a basic step to make a plumbis
Is it Jack Dorsey who moved the repo or someone else?
This is the cyberpunk future I was hoping we would get…and we got something completely different, some kind of centralized corpo dystopia. I’ve installed it!
I hope they will enjoy fighting with <a href="https://radicle.dev/" rel="nofollow">https://radicle.dev/</a> over the project name.
Radicle contributor here.<p>It's the same project. radicle.dev is for the protocol,
radicle.network is for the network explorer.<p>Note that that radicle.network is a static site that you can also self host: <a href="https://radicle.network/nodes/rosa.radicle.network/rad:z4V1sjrXqjvFdnCUbxPFqd5p4DtH5" rel="nofollow">https://radicle.network/nodes/rosa.radicle.network/rad:z4V1s...</a>
I'm pretty sure that's the same project.
I assumed they are the same :-O
One seems to be built on top of the other? Very confusing though, I agree.
I found <a href="https://radicle.dev/2026/04/23/domain-move" rel="nofollow">https://radicle.dev/2026/04/23/domain-move</a><p>It sounds like both are the same project, one is the “explorer” which is on a different domain so that censoring it doesn’t impact the main site
I <i>think</i> radicle.dev is the software that lets you store issues and PRs inside a Git repo, and radicle.network is some kind of interface to people's hosts that run the Radicle software. Something like that?<p>I agree it's super confusing though and their explanation isn't exactly clear:<p><a href="https://radicle.network/principles" rel="nofollow">https://radicle.network/principles</a>
the main reason they mentioned [1] for radicle.network is because their old domain radicle.xyz was blocked in some places by some lists that they think was because it may have hosted certain UGC that triggered some flags.<p>> Content about Radicle (explainers, guides, download links, blog posts) which is under control of the Radicle team. We will use radicle.dev for these purposes.<p>> Content on Radicle (repositories hosted on practically any node on the network) which the Radicle team has only very little control over, accessible via Radicle Explorer. Going forward, our deployment of Radicle Explorer will not be hosted on app.radicle.xyz anymore, but instead it will be hosted at radicle.network.<p>> The idea is of course that if there are complaints about or issues with radicle.network in the future, we hope that radicle.dev stays largely unaffected and people can continue to inform themselves about Radicle and learn how to set it up.<p>On a semi-related note, this is a good time to remind anyone that hasn't yet heard of the Public Suffix List (PSL) [2][3] to make sure you put your domains that may be hosting UGC in the form <usercontent>.<yourdomain>.<tld> (ie: eTLDs) on that list so browsers and other block lists are aware that the user provisioned subdomains are UGC and not from your site so it properly isolates cookies/site grouping and won't flag your entire domain as malicious.<p>1: <a href="https://radicle.dev/2026/04/23/domain-move" rel="nofollow">https://radicle.dev/2026/04/23/domain-move</a><p>2: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Suffix_List" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Suffix_List</a><p>3: <a href="https://github.com/publicsuffix/list" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/publicsuffix/list</a>
What if you disagree with the centralisation of the internet into some guy's suffix list?
relevant xkcd: <a href="https://xkcd.com/2347/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/2347/</a><p>but on a serious note it is a bit more than some guy's list, it's more of an initiative that was started by the Mozilla Foundation and is used by:<p>- browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Opera...<p>- password managers, Let's Encrypt, cURL<p>- Cloudflare<p>just to name a few.<p>Though yeah there have been privacy concerns and problems with projects that use outdated versions of the list outlined in Brave's paper (no affiliation):<p>> We present the first large-scale measurement study of how the public suffix list is used by open-source software on the Web and the privacy harm resulting from projects using outdated versions of the list.<p><a href="https://brave.com/research/privacy-harms-of-public-suffix-list/" rel="nofollow">https://brave.com/research/privacy-harms-of-public-suffix-li...</a>
> deployment of Radicle Explorer will not be hosted on app.radicle.xyz anymore, but instead it will be hosted at radicle.network.<p>So it would be a lot clearer (read: not completely unclear), if radicle.network actually said "Radicle Explorer" <i>somewhere</i>. "Radicle Explorer" is a great descriptive name which instantly conveys a lot of information about what it is and does! But it doesn't appear anywhere there.
Yes, I think it’s like a decentralized GitHub?
In theory, this could work.<p>Setup machine with bluetooth receiver.<p>Funnel packets from Bluetooth receiver over a virtual private network (ie, wireguard, tailscale, netbird).<p>Then in another state/country/continent with server connected to vpn then rebroadcasts those packets over BLE.<p>A mesh network overlayed on top of another mesh network.
btw what's the current state of mesh wifi?<p>seems like after November or January 2029 might need it since administration now has a kill-switch so why wouldn't they use it
“Always connected” meshes don’t scale, but fragmented meshes that use store-and-forward for some data are workable. I’d like to see someone do this with Nostr. The main issue is that you’d have to limit the size of data in transit, so rich media is probably not realistic.<p>Think FIDO protocol rather than the always-on internet we’re accustomed to.<p>A mesh of meshes may also be possible in theory.
Mesh networks don't scale beyond a few thousand nodes if the nodes move frequently. Nobody has found a way to make that work. You can push another order of magnitude if you give up on decentralisation.
jack promoted censorship when he was in twitter, now he is playing the saint card.
All social media is censored. If you think yours isnt, you're free to test that hypothesis by posting the N word over and over. I suspect you'll find that you get censored for doing so.
in case of old twitter, the blue checkmarks and their likeminded folx were allowed to hatespeak, "brigade", doxx, libel, call to violence, anything at all, as long as their infinite vitriol was directed at certain groups implicitly but blatantly designated as unprotected. the other side, on the other hand, was subject to "private platforms can do whatever the fuck they want" kind of moderation, where even "off-platform conduct" could get you summarily banned.
> the other side, on the other hand, was subject to "private platforms can do whatever the fuck they want" kind of moderation<p><i>taps the sign</i><p><pre><code> No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
</code></pre>
That's how it worked in the Twitter days, it's still how it works in the X days, too. If that offends you, then you should personally lobby to powerful giants like Elon Musk to take accountability for all speech on his platform. He'll love the idea of weekly class-action lawsuits and the unavoidable forfeiture of his RSUs.
Dorsey's legacy is promoting cryptocurrency. Censorship is part-and-parcel with owning <i>any</i> social media.<p>I wouldn't worry about people going sweet on him anytime soon.
Such a terrible name. Can't believe marketing didn't catch it.
i have this pet theory that it was inspired by BitchX (they prominently mention being like IRC)
Probably on purpose. Like "Broken, But Whole"
It could be deliberate. Like Wechat's Chinese name is "Weixin", which is a pun on "for sex" in Mandarin (for which its "people nearby" feature originally saw heavy usage). As a decentralized social network, Bitchat might see similar usage.
Is this bit-chat or bitch-at?
Yes :)
Find out on expertsexchange.com
Have you ever heard of the rather excellent Pen Island, vendors of fine pens? On my work computer, so you can plumb the internet archive for yourself.
Thanks, in a bit, I'm browsing therapistfinder.com right now.
Sounds like a suitable addition to the ATProto ecosystem :)
Or a misspelling of bitch hat
BitchX was already taken
Yep.
It depends on whom you’re talking to
Is this irc compatible?
Everything is pointing towards a hard "no", but I didn't dig deeper than literally read the first sentence in the README:<p>> A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app with dual transport architecture: local Bluetooth mesh networks for offline communication and internet-based Nostr protocol for global reach. No accounts, no phone numbers, no central servers. It's the side-groupchat.
How would it be? Bitchat is for offline communication over Bluetooth Low Energy networks
only if you make it so.
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