Bitchat, the offline messaging app released by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, reached No. 1 in France’s App Store social-networking category after protests and a nationwide telecom outage exposed the fragility of ordinary mobile communications. The app ranked ahead of Telegram and Signal in the category and entered France’s top 10 free apps overall.
The surge followed several days of disruption. Between 550,000 and 800,000 people took part in demonstrations across France on Oct. 17 over rising living costs, with more than 400 arrests reported. Four days later, Orange and its Sosh mobile brand suffered a nationwide outage that interrupted calls, text messages and mobile data for several hours, affecting millions of customers.
Bitchat’s rise suggests that outages and unrest can quickly turn a relatively niche communications tool into a mainstream download. Its design allows nearby phones to pass messages directly between one another without a mobile network, Wi-Fi connection, user account or central server.
Bluetooth mesh messaging gains attention
Bitchat uses Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, to create a mesh network among phones in close proximity. Rather than sending every message through an internet server, the app can relay it through nearby devices in a series of hops.
The project describes a theoretical range of about 300 meters, although real-world reach depends on buildings, interference, phone placement and the number of participating devices. Dense gatherings can improve the relay network because each phone becomes another potential connection point.
That makes the software particularly suited to environments where users are physically close together: demonstrations, festivals, transit hubs, campuses or neighborhoods affected by a local network failure. It would be far less useful for reaching someone miles away when there are few compatible devices between the two users.
Public channels on Bitchat are visible to people nearby. Direct messages use the Noise Protocol Framework, an established set of cryptographic tools for end-to-end encrypted communications. The app also includes a panic mode that erases local data when a user presses its logo three times.
When internet access is available, Bitchat can use Nostr, a decentralized communications protocol, to support longer-distance messaging and location-based channels. The combination gives the app two distinct modes: local Bluetooth relaying during connectivity failures and internet-based communication when regular access returns.
A record of download spikes during restrictions
France is the latest example of Bitchat drawing attention when conventional communications are under pressure. Download activity has previously risen in countries experiencing internet restrictions, social-media blocks or politically sensitive protests.
In Nepal in September 2025, Bitchat recorded nearly 50,000 downloads in one day and briefly represented 39% of global installs, according to figures cited for the app’s download activity. Madagascar added about 70,000 downloads during one week in the same period.
Downloads increased again in Uganda and Iran in January 2026 amid tighter internet controls. In India, more than 91,000 users downloaded Bitchat between July 17 and July 23, 2026, as access restrictions were imposed during student protests in New Delhi.
India’s share of worldwide Bitchat downloads rose from 1% to 85% during that period. On July 19, daily downloads increased 32-fold and daily active users exceeded 330,000.
The pattern does not mean Bluetooth mesh apps can replace a national communications network. They have limited range, depend on nearby devices and generally cannot provide normal internet access. Their appeal lies in offering a basic communications fallback when cellular service, data connections or major social platforms become unavailable.
France debate adds political context
The French download surge came after former Prime Minister and presidential candidate Gabriel Attal proposed temporarily blocking social media during periods of unrest. The proposal added political urgency to the discussion around tools that operate outside conventional internet infrastructure.
A social-media restriction and a telecom outage are different events with different causes, but both can leave users seeking alternate ways to coordinate or contact people nearby. Apps built around local device-to-device communication reduce reliance on the platforms and network operators that can be disrupted, restricted or overloaded.
Such tools also create difficult policy questions. They may help people communicate during emergencies, but their decentralized structure can frustrate efforts to moderate content, identify participants or impose platform-level blocks.
India’s response has shown how those tensions can move from theory to enforcement. Indian authorities initially ordered GitHub to remove Bitchat’s open-source code repository. In early October, the government used Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to seek the app’s removal from Apple and Google’s stores, while internet service providers blocked related websites.
The Internet Freedom Foundation argued that the order was unconstitutional. The digital-rights organization also said a communications tool should not be banned merely because it can function during internet shutdowns.
Open-source code complicates restrictions
Dorsey released Bitchat in July 2025 and published its code under open-source licenses. The Android version is written in Kotlin and uses the MIT license, while the iOS code is written in Swift and released under the Unlicense.
Open-source publication does not guarantee that an app will remain available in every jurisdiction or on every app store. It does mean the software’s code can be studied, modified and potentially compiled independently by other developers, making distribution controls more complicated than a simple order to remove one centralized service.
Bitchat also fits within Dorsey’s longer-running interest in decentralized internet and Bitcoin-related infrastructure. He donated 14 Bitcoin to Nostr creator fiatjaf in 2022. In May 2024, his Start Small foundation directed $21 million to OpenSats, including $15 million for Bitcoin open-source development, $5 million for the Nostr ecosystem and $1 million for operations. He also pledged $5 million to Brink, which supports Bitcoin Core developers.
Block, the payments company Dorsey co-founded as Square, ended its Web5 project in November 2024 and redirected resources toward its Proto Bitcoin mining initiative and Bitkey self-custody wallet. Bitchat was developed separately as an open-source project, but it uses Nostr as its online layer and reflects Dorsey’s preference for communications systems that do not depend on a single corporate platform.
France’s App Store rankings offer a practical test of that approach. During a week when protests raised fears of communication restrictions and Orange’s outage cut off ordinary services, an app built for nearby, serverless messaging moved from a specialist tool to one of the country’s most downloaded social applications.
Curious how Dorsey’s crypto vision ties together? Explore his backing of Bitcoin and Web3 in this deep-dive.
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