BitTorrent is currently preparing to launch a private messaging app called Bleep that is specifically designed to protect users’ messaging history data and anonymity. Unlike Skype, Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger, Bleep is a decentralised communication platform, meaning it does not store your chats in the company’s servers.
Instead of sending your chat communications to a central server of a company to be redistributed to your receivers, Bleep uses the same kind of peer-to-peer communication technology implemented for decentralized file-sharing to carry and distribute encrypted message. BitTorrent will not and cannot track or monitor your conversations as there will be no data retrieved by the company. On the company’s blog, a BitTorrent representative wrote, “Our big idea was to apply distributed technology to conversations, that means no servers required.”
The company says that Bleep was built as a consumer messaging program that aims to promote awareness on a more open Internet. It grants users the power to communicate without the fear of being monitored.
For now, Bleep is yet to be available for consumers as it is still in a closed pre-alpha stage. Users on Windows 7 and 8 would be able to participate in the invite-only pre-alpha. However, the installed client can only be used on one device and cannot be transferred to another device. Users can chat and make voice calls with online contacts. For users who take privacy even more seriously, there is an option for them to sign in with an unrecorded, incognito mode.
Anyone who is interested can sign up here for the pre-alpha invitation.
[Source: Engadget, BitTorrent]
