An invite to try out the pre-alpha version of BitTorrent Bleep arrived today. This early access is missing some features but gives a general idea of the software’s plans. The most exciting features of the BitTorrent Bleep chatting service is that it is encrypted and decentralized, so your messages don’t bounce across middleman servers like AIM or Yahoo Messenger.
At the pre-alpha stage, Bleep includes:
- Text and voice calls (on-line contacts only)
- Sign-up with email, phone number or incognito
- Option to import/invite your Google contacts
- And some bugs and known issues…
The application is a 20.5MB appref-ms application, so it checks for updates with each launch. The actual files reside in C:Users[username]AppDataRoamingBleep.
Upon first launching Bleep, you create an account with (nickname) and email address or phone number. You can also sign up as incognito so only your public key can be used to identify and add your account – more discrete but less user friendly.
Once you add your account, you confirm with a code sent to your email address. You can invite friends by connecting your Google address book or skip that step. Clicking the gear will display the settings options such as deleting all of your messages, version information, as well as a public key to share with friends and QR code, and your private key to replicate your account to a new device with QR code.
I am currently running version 1.0.5337.33654. The application is simple while the interface is a little lacking, as is expected with pre-alpha. I invited some friends to check out Bleep but am still waiting on responses, if that function is even working.
You can check out Bleep at http://labs.bittorrent.com/bleep/ and learn more from today’s blog post by BitTorrent.