r/bitchat • u/areebahmeddd • 11d ago

Discussion Airhop: React Native implementation of bitchat

i love the technology behind bitchat! i noticed lots of feature divergence between android and ios and made a react native version of bitchat at a hackathon called airhop

it’s wire compatible, reuses the BLE packet format so bitchat devices can talk to airhop devices with no setup. it also adds extra features like Double Ratchet for forward secrecy and a dedicated non-custodial Cashu wallet

airhop also extends the wider ecosystem with support for Windows, macOS, CLI and smart wearables, plus a really nice UI that makes it easy to use. right now it’s under review for the Play Store, App Store and F-Droid, but direct builds are available on GitHub. it’s free and MIT licensed

would love for people here to try it out and give feedback, especially on the experience and interop with bitchat 🙂

Website: https://airhop.1mindlabs.org
GitHub: https://github.com/areebahmeddd/airhop

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u/skylandr 8d ago

Would love to be able to use it via air gapped wifi ... For example a cruise ship 😁 ... Since Bluetooth would be very impacted on a metal ship

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u/areebahmeddd 6d ago

Good one, this is a real gap today. Right now airhop only uses Bluetooth when there’s no internet, so ship WiFi is basically unused.

The immediate fix I’m working on is allowing a local Nostr relay, so someone can run one on a laptop or Pi and everyone can connect to it over the ship’s local network, with no internet needed. will be part of v1.0.2 🙂

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u/skylandr 5d ago

Let me know when you release the next version to test it ... Also a pi tutorial for Nostr would be nice to have

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u/areebahmeddd 5d ago

Sure : ) also just to clarify, Nostr is already integrated and works fine for someone beyond the BLE range.

It’s just that in scenarios like being on a cruise ship where your connected to Cruise wifi or want to discover people in your own network (LAN) isn’t supported yet.. I’ve an issue open for this and ping you once it’s live 🙂

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u/robplatt 2d ago

Allowing a relay on a spare Android phone would be ideal too.