Bitchat Tops Jamaica App Charts as Hurricane Melissa Cuts Connectivity

Downloads of Bitchat, a peer-to-peer messaging app that can operate without an internet connection, increased in Jamaica this week as Hurricane Melissa disrupted power and communications across the island.

Hurricane Melissa, said to be the strongest cyclone to hit Jamaica in decades, severely disrupted communications across the island. Nationwide connectivity has fallen to about 30% of normal levels, according to the network data It was tracked by NetBlocks and caused widespread power outages due to strong winds and downed power and communication lines.

At the time of writing, Bitchat was ranked #1 in social networking in Jamaica. category it ranks #1 among Apple users and #2 overall for free apps on both Apple and Android platforms. data From AppFigures.

Bitchat developer Calle wrote to X that this is the first spike “in response to a natural disaster.”

Calle in charge of joint development and maintenance app spoke with jack dorsey decryption This spike reflects how Bitchat is designed to function when infrastructure fails.

“During natural disasters like the recent hurricanes in Jamaica, reliable communications are critical. Bitchat was created to help people stay connected even when traditional networks fail,” said Calle..

The app uses Bluetooth mesh networking to “enable hyperlocal, offline communication,” Calle explained. Every phone running Bitchat “becomes a node that can relay messages to nearby devices,” they added. It works by having messages “automatically ‘hop’ from one phone to another, sending them beyond the range of a single device.”

The design “allows communities to share important information, whether it’s warnings, safe zones, places to get help, or just neighbors checking in on each other,” Cull said.

Bitchat also has a feature called Location Notes, which allows messages to be “pinned to a specific geographic point,” Calle added. These notes “can indicate danger zones (‘Avoid this area’), safe havens (‘Shelter is here’), and even community notes (‘Free water here’) that can be quickly seen by those nearby,” Cull explained.

Last month, Bitchat saw a similar spike in downloads. nepal and indonesia During periods of restricted internet access or protest-related closures.

Calle noted that Bitchat saw a similar spike in downloads in late September. observed Protests have been reported in Madagascar after chronic power outages and water outages. Earlier this month, I downloaded Bitchat as well spiked When civil war broke out in Ivory Coast.

“Bitchat was designed to restore one of the most important human freedoms: the ability to communicate without permission, infrastructure, or oversight, even when everything else goes offline,” Cull said.