Here’s something you’ve never seen on Big Tech social platforms: Decentralized open social network Bluesky has integrated new technology from a startup called Germ Network to bring end-to-end encrypted (E2E) messaging to the Bluesky app. This move makes Germ DM the first private messenger to run natively in the Bluesky app.
Along with the launch, Germ is also releasing new guidelines that would allow other applications built on top of the underlying AT protocol that allows Bluesky to do the same.
The move is a notable example of how open social networking ecosystems work differently than the Big Tech platforms that dominate the space today, as new features and functionality can be developed by the community, not just the company itself.
Bluesky announced the integration with Germ earlier this month, noting that the experimental integration will allow Germ users to add a button to their profile so others can message them on Bluesky in an encrypted E2E environment.
Meanwhile, the standalone Germ app is also available in public beta for iOS in North America and Europe. The app has seen thousands of downloads so far, but after the official announcement of the integration, the number of daily active users increased by 5x, the team said.
California-based Germ is a startup founded by Tessa Brown, a communications expert who previously taught at Stanford, and Mark Xu, who worked as a privacy engineer at Apple on technologies like FaceTime and iMessage. The idea, which the company previously explained to TechCrunch, was to offer an alternative to other encrypted E2E platforms such as iMessage, Signal and WhatsApp, which are built on newer technologies.
Today, Germ uses Messaging Layer Security (MLS), a new standard approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the AT (or ATProto) protocol that powers Bluesky, Skylight, and a growing number of other social applications.
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Instead of requiring a user’s phone number, Germ integrates with ATProto to enable encrypted chats. This means that Germ’s messages cannot be decrypted by any other service, including itself or Bluesky.
To use the new messenger, you simply click the badge on a friend’s profile on Bluesky, which opens the iOS App Clip – a lightweight temporary app. In this app, you click “open” and then authenticate yourself by logging in with your ATProto handle. You can then immediately send a message to a friend. You will also be prompted to download the full Germ DM application, but this is optional.
To add the badge to your own profile, you download the Germ DM iOS app and verify your Bluesky credentials there. (Note: We had to force quit and restart the Bluesky iOS app before the Germ badge appeared.)
The company has been building official Bluesky integration for many months, starting with a private beta in August that was launched using “magic links” shared in users’ bios. Now, users who have set up Germ to work in Bluesky will receive a new badge that will appear on their profiles, allowing them to remove the bio link option they previously used. (The links will still work, but of course the badge is easier and more visible.)
Germ told TechCrunch that their startup has been in conversation with the ATProto developer community, including Bluesky’s application and protocol teams, since last year’s ATmosphere conference in Seattle.
“We’ve been transparent about our planning and schedule, and our private beta launch in August yielded valuable feedback from users and developers about the desire to replace our bios links with a native UI,” said Xue, who serves as Germ Network’s CTO. “Both our team and Bluesky’s saw value in better AppView support for the Germ link.”
The changes to the Bluesky application were led by product manager Alex Benzer, as the company was to experiment with implementing third-party services within Bluesky.
“Working directly with the Bluesky team has been a treat,” Brown, CEO of Germ, told TechCrunch. “They deliver quickly, prioritize the user experience, and care about their users’ access to end-to-end encrypted messaging. We’re excited to be the first secure messenger they’ve brought natively to their app.”
While it is true that the AT protocol could eventually implement E2E encryption, that is not our focus today. As Bluesky protocol engineer Daniel Holms recently explained, the company has several reasons for not designing the system itself.
“The reality is that E2EE is hard,” he blogged. “And this inherent complexity isn’t something that the protocol team at Bluesky can just handle—every developer who tries to build a client that works with encrypted data gets into it,” Holms said.
Xue agreed, adding: “We are in line with ATProto’s ethos that people should be able to communicate using the apps and tools of their choice. We believe that if we solve tough problems for ATProto users in a safe, transparent and user-friendly way, they will continue to choose us,” he said.
Shortly after Bluesky added support for the Germ badge, another AT protocol-based client, Blacksky, did as well.
Brown noted that the team’s current focus is on delivering more features for everyday messaging, not monetization. But further, Germ can test paid features.
“We expect our first paid features to be focused on the needs of professional users such as creators, journalists and politicians – for example, multi-driver support and AI-powered private screening of first messages from new connections,” she said.