Works without internet
Nicechat passes messages from phone to phone over Bluetooth, so you can keep talking at a packed festival, across campus or out on the trail. No phone number. No account. Just open it and say hi.
Coming soon 
Look for “Nicechat Mesh”. The iPhone app is coming soon.
How it works
There’s no tower or server in the middle. Phones running Nicechat pass messages to each other, so a message can reach people well beyond your own Bluetooth range.
Nicechat finds phones around you over Bluetooth. Each one reaches tens of metres, depending on walls and crowds.
Every phone relays messages for others, so a message can hop across several phones to reach people further away.
When you have internet, chats with friends and Places also travel over the internet — with your network address hidden by default.
Private messages are end-to-end encrypted. Phones that pass them along can’t read them.
Features
Nearby
Nearby chat is an open room for everyone in Bluetooth range — perfect for finding your crew at the main stage or asking who has a spare charger. It’s public, and the app always tells you so.
Private
One-on-one chats and private groups of up to 16 people are end-to-end encrypted. When your friend is close, messages go over Bluetooth. When you’re apart, they go over the internet.
Places
With internet, Places lets you chat with people on your block, in your neighbourhood or across your city — and leave notes at a spot for whoever comes by next. No codes, no jargon.
Start a channel for your event, club or class. Add a password to keep it to your people.
Share photos and voice messages with people nearby. Location data is stripped from photos before they’re sent.
Hold to talk and people nearby hear you live, like a walkie-talkie.
Scan a friend’s code to connect in a second. Works with bitchat codes too.
Share where you are with friends for 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours. Encrypted, and it stops on its own.
Always hide your network address, keep message text out of notifications and make messages disappear.
One tap removes your identity, friends and chats from this phone.
Block anyone instantly. Report spam or abuse in a couple of taps.
Easy on the eyes at night. Follows your phone’s setting, with adjustable text size.
Nicechat speaks your language:
Made for real life
When thousands of phones overload the network, Nicechat keeps working. Find your friends, share where you are and hear what’s happening around you.
Meet people in your lecture hall, run a channel for your club, or chat with your neighbourhood in Places.
On the trail, at sea or during a power cut, stay in touch with your group without signal — and send an SOS if you need help.
No phone number, no account, no ads, no tracking. Your identity lives on your phone and private chats are end-to-end encrypted.
SOS
Hold the SOS button to send a call for help to everyone nearby. You get five seconds to cancel.
SOS is not an emergency service. It doesn’t contact the police, ambulance or fire services, and delivery isn’t guaranteed — it depends on who is nearby. If you can, call your local emergency number.
Privacy
Your identity is a key created on your phone. We never see it.
We don’t run servers that receive your messages. Phones — and, online, public relays — pass them along.
Private chats and groups use the Noise protocol, so only the people in the conversation can read them.
Internet features connect through Tor by default. In Privacy mode, they never connect without it.
No advertising or tracking. The app sends anonymous usage statistics and crash reports only to improve itself — never what you write, who you talk to or where you are. This website has no analytics at all.
Nearby chat, Places and place notes can be read by anyone there. The app labels them clearly.
Interoperable
Nicechat speaks bitchat’s open Bluetooth protocol, so you can chat with people using bitchat on iPhone and Android, and phones running either app relay messages for each other. More people around means more reach for everyone.
A few Nicechat extras work differently with bitchat users: they can’t see channels, and live location and SOS reach them as a short text message.
bitchat is an independent open-source project. Nicechat is not affiliated with or endorsed by bitchat or its contributors.
FAQ
No. Nearby chat, private chats, groups and channels work over Bluetooth with no internet at all. There’s nothing to sign up for — Nicechat creates your identity on your phone the first time you open it.
Each phone reaches tens of metres, depending on walls, crowds and other interference. Messages hop from phone to phone, so the more people around you use Nicechat or bitchat, the further they go. With internet, you can reach your friends anywhere.
Private chats and private groups are end-to-end encrypted: only the people in the conversation can read them — not the phones that relay them, and not us. Nearby chat, Places and place notes are public, so anyone nearby or in that place can read them. A channel with a password can be read by anyone who has the password.
If you’re friends, messages go over the internet when you’re both online. Otherwise the message waits on your phone, and nearby phones can carry it until your friend is back in range. Photos and voice messages need you both to be nearby.
There’s no account to move. Your identity and chats live only on your phone and aren’t backed up, so a new phone means a new identity. Just add your friends again by scanning their codes.
Yes. You’ll see bitchat users nearby, and you can chat with them in Nearby chat and in private. You can also add each other as friends with your QR codes. Nicechat channels aren’t visible to bitchat users.
Nicechat adjusts how hard it works based on your battery level, whether you’re charging and whether the app is open. You can turn off staying online in the background. On iPhone, the system limits Bluetooth in the background, so you’ll find fewer people when the app is closed.
No. SOS reaches people nearby and your friends — it does not contact emergency services, and delivery isn’t guaranteed. If you can, always call your local emergency number.
Nicechat is available now on Google Play as “Nicechat Mesh”, and the iPhone app is coming soon to the App Store. It’s for people aged 17 and over.
Find “Nicechat Mesh” on Google Play. The iPhone app is coming soon. Rated 17+.
Coming soon