Germ brings end-to-end encrypted messages to Bluesky | Techcrunch

A new startup called Germ Brings end-to-end encrypted messages to the Bluesky Social Network, so that its users can have a safer option for chats than the existing DMs from Bluesky. After more than two years of development, the service is launch The encrypted DMs for Bluesky in Bèta this week, with plans to gradually make new testers on board a public launch on board.

Over time, the Technology that builds germOf which a lot is open, Bluesky could enable himself to introduce coded messages in his own app.

Germ is designed to offer an alternative to existing end-to-end coded platforms that dominate worldwide, such as iMessage, Signal and WhatsApp. GERM benefits from newer technologies, such as Messaging Layer Security (MLS), a new standard approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (ITF), and The AT -protocol (or at Proto), who feeds bluesky.

Instead of demanding the telephone number of a user such as some messages apps, Germ integrates with AT Proto. This allows germus users to safely chat with friends of Bluesky and the wider open social web, including apps such as flashes and skylight, but with extra controls about the user experience.

For example, you can choose to accept DMs from people you follow on Bluesky, or you can configure it so that only you can initiate chats with other people. In addition, when you block a user in Germ, you can choose whether you only want to block them in the germ or whether you also want to block them about bluesky and others with proto-driven apps.

The concept for Germ Comes from co-founders Tessa Brown (CEO), a communication science that previously taught Stanford, and Mark XueHe worked as a privacy engineer at Apple on technologies such as Facetime and iMessage.

The Brown studies have led her to realize that access to private communication was of fundamental importance for the health of social networks.

“We know that you cannot build a good relationship with people psychologically if you feel that you are always staring and manipulated. And that is really what social media is today,” Brown tells Techcrunch. “So I came out of that work with a really strong conviction about end-to-end-end messages such as the center of what I thought was the future of social media and the future of communication,” she adds.

In the meantime, Xue came from Apple and believed that the use of telephone numbers and telephony is a dated technology to serve as a basis for safe communication and wanted to build something new.

Nowadays Germ’s service works via a ‘magical link’, which is generated for you and is stuck in your Bluesky Bio. When another Bluesky user clicks on iOS on this link, they can chat with you immediately without downloading a new app from the App Store. To make this possible, Germ uses under -utilized Apple technology called App clips, with which users can perform part of the code of an app on their device without installing the full app.

Nowadays app clips are used for various one-off type transactions, such as paying for parking via a QR code. But in the case of Germ they make fast chats.

Although the user experience is simple enough, the technology behind it is not. The link itself is actually a cryptographic key that the user authenticates at Proto Identity to confirm that the user is the person who is linked to that bluesky lever.

You can choose from the germ app clip Install the Germ iOS appThat offers more controls, access to your friends list and now bluesky pairs.

The coupling function was somewhat picky in our tests, but we have the iOS 26 developer Beta, which may cause complications. (To bypass the problem, we first started the chat from the app clip, before we try to authenticate from the installed app.)

Brown tells Techcrunch that she is enthusiastic about building within the Bluesky community, given the growing cultural impact of the app, which has attracted big names in American politics, such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and others representatives, senators and governorsTo participate.

Since Germ is the bluesky team itself in building coded message technology, Brown is hopeful that the Germ protocol could be taken over in the future by Bluesky and others.

Although it is currently free to use, the Germ -App can later introduce a premium subscription upgrade that offers more advanced services, including private AI services, personalization tools and more.

The startup with four people has picked up pre-seed financing from angel investors, including a co-author of MLS and other trust and security experts. Institutional investors include K5 Global and Mozilla Ventures. The company hopes to raise extra money in the future for an Android version.