🗓️ 24.09.2025
Decentralised Social: Bitchat & What It Means for Brands
🕒 5 min read 🧑 by Sarah Fulford-Williams
Table of Contents
Introducing Bitchat
Just when you thought the social landscape couldn’t get any more fragmented, Jack Dorsey drops Bitchat, a peer to peer messaging app that works over a Bluetooth mesh network. No internet, no phone towers, just encrypted device to device comms.
Launched in mid 2025, Bitchat promises something radical: a social platform that can exist entirely off grid. And while it’s still early days, the potential for how people, and brands, might use it is huge.
TL;DR
Bitchat, Jack Dorsey’s new peer-to-peer social app, runs on Bluetooth mesh networks, meaning no internet, no towers, fully encrypted.
For brands, this means:
- Experiment early with guerrilla-style activations and hyperlocal content
- Lean into exclusivity with secret drops, hidden menus, festival stunts
- Play with culture: position your brand in the underground before it goes mainstream
The opportunity isn’t scale, it’s brand heat and cultural relevance.
Why it matters
Bitchat is a response to how people want to connect in 2025. It focuses on:
- Resilience: Works during network outages, blackouts or high density events where Wi-Fi collapses.
- Privacy: Encrypted and peer to peer, it’s tailor-made for the privacy conscious.
- Culture: Feels underground, subversive and exclusive – exactly the vibe Gen Z and early adopters lean into.
Think of it as a digital whisper network. If TikTok is the main stage, Bitchat is the back room where the real conversations happen.
What can brands do with it?
So the audience is still niche, but that’s where opportunity lies – being first. It’s not about scale yet. It’s about creativity, exclusivity and brand heat. Think:
- Festival activations: You’re at Glasto – imagine a brand dropping exclusive messages, scavenger hunts or giveaways only accessible via Bitchat.
- Hyper local discovery: A restaurant could broadcast hidden menu items or discounts within 50m of its location.
- Guerrilla marketing: A fashion brand could seed encrypted invites to a secret drop, passed peer to peer through the crowd. Micro exclusivity, mass impact.
The Challenges
Like all new things, it’s not always smooth sailing. There are real risks:
- Security concerns: Impersonation, spoofing and lack of moderation are live issues.
- Limited reach: You’re not hitting millions, you’re hitting pockets of early adopters. Time spent here might not give you the metrics you’re looking for.
For now, brands need to tread carefully. The value here isn’t polished mass marketing, but experimentation.
The Takeaway
Decentralised social is still nascent, but its appeal is clear: private, off grid and a little bit rebellious. Exactly the kind of environment where smart brands can play, test and learn before it goes mainstream.
For now, Bitchat is more of a cultural signal than a channel with scale. But if history’s any guide, the brands that jump in early, embrace the quirks and create genuinely interesting experiences will be the ones that win.
The future of social is moving beyond the platform – it’s about connection. And whoever owns those moments owns the culture.
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📌 FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
It runs entirely off-grid, using encrypted Bluetooth mesh networks. That means it works during blackouts, festivals, or high-density events when Wi-Fi fails.
Being early builds cultural capital. Brands that experiment first often shape the culture before the masses arrive.
Festival scavenger hunts, encrypted invites to secret drops, or hyperlocal restaurant promos within a 50m radius. Think guerrilla, playful, and experiential rather than polished campaigns.
Potential security risks (impersonation, spoofing), lack of moderation, and limited reach.
Decentralised social is about connection and creating hype. Smart brands will use it to experiment.
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