Since India is shutting down networks now, lots of Indians are using Bitchat to continue their communications.
I tried it out and like the whole idea. I'm going to be pushing it to people as an emergency option and make sure they all keep it running in the background all the time.

Bitchat Key FeaturesBitchat Key Features

Bitchat is built with privacy and resilience in mind. Here are its key features:

Decentralized Mesh Network

• Works without internet or servers by using Bluetooth mesh networking.
• Supports automatic discovery of nearby peers and multi-hop message relaying.

End-to-End Encryption

• Private chats secured with X25519 key exchanges and AES-256-GCM encryption.
• Channel messages are protected with Argon2id-based password derivation and AES-256-GCM.

Store and Forward

• Messages are cached for offline peers until they reconnect.

Cover Traffic

• Dummy messages and timing obfuscation to resist traffic analysis.

Emergency Wipe

• Triple-tap to clear all local data instantly.

Adaptive Power Modes

• Battery-friendly scanning and communication cycles.

Privacy-First Design

• No accounts, email addresses, or phone numbers required.
• Messages live only on users’ devices without centralized storage.

Familiar IRC-Style Interface

• Easy-to-use commands for joining channels, messaging, and managing users.

Performance Optimizations

• LZ4 compression reduces bandwidth usage on longer messages.
• Bloom filters improve duplicate detection and message efficiency.

Universal Support

• Available as native iOS and macOS apps.
• Designed for easy adaptation to Android in the future.

Read also: Bitchat Launched by Jack Dorsey, a Decentralized Chat App