Bitchat, a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app created by Block CEO Jack Dorsey, was removed from Apple’s China App Store after Chinese regulators flagged it for violating local internet rules. Dorsey posted a screenshot on X showing Apple’s app review team informed him the app was pulled in February and that the TestFlight beta would no longer be available in China at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
Bitchat is an encrypted messenger that routes messages directly between devices using Bluetooth and mesh networking, allowing it to operate without an internet connection. That offline design has made the app more widely used during protests and internet shutdowns in countries such as Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia and Iran, where conventional communication channels have sometimes been restricted.
The CAC said Bitchat breached Article 3 of its 2018 regulations governing online services that can influence public opinion or enable social mobilization. Those rules require services with potential social mobilization effects to undergo a security assessment before launch and to accept responsibility for the assessment results, according to the translated regulation cited by Apple.
Apple’s review team also reminded Dorsey that apps distributed through its store must comply with local laws and that developers are responsible for ensuring their apps meet those requirements. Apple warned that apps that solicit, promote or encourage criminal or reckless behavior can be rejected.
Apple noted the removal applies to its China storefront; Bitchat remains available in other countries. Third-party download trackers for Chrome report the app has been downloaded more than three million times overall, with roughly 92,000 downloads in the past week. The Google Play Store shows over one million registered downloads. These sources do not provide detailed regional breakdowns.
For context, dominant domestic platforms such as Tencent’s WeChat are estimated to have roughly 810 million users in China, underscoring the scale of local messaging networks compared with newer decentralized alternatives.
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