Germ Revolutionizes Social Messaging: First Private Messenger Integrates Directly with Bluesky

Daily Technology

·

19/02/2026

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Germ, a new startup, has released the first private chat tool that runs inside the Bluesky application. People who use Bluesky can now start a conversation that is locked with end-to-end encryption without opening a separate program, because the code lives inside the same network. The option was built by outside developers, not by Bluesky itself and it shows how the AT Protocol lets anyone add functions.

Main points

Germ gives Bluesky built in, end-to-end encrypted chat.
The link up proves that the AT Protocol is flexible.
Any other app that uses the AT Protocol is free to adopt Germ's code.
The company was started by Mark Xue, a former Apple privacy engineer besides Tessa Brown, a communications scholar.

How the link up works

A user who wants Germ adds a small button to the Bluesky profile page. When a visitor taps that button, the phone opens a lightweight iOS App Clip that starts an encrypted chat. The person logs in with the same AT Protocol handle used for Bluesky - the chat begins right away. Installing the full Germ DM app is optional but the company recommends it for extra features.

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Bluesky announced the test earlier this month and stressed that new tools can come from the user base instead of from a central owner, unlike the usual Big Tech approach.

Technical choices and goals

Germ uses the Messaging Layer Security standard, which the IETF approved last year and it sits on top of the AT Protocol. The service never asks for a phone number - it relies only on the ATProto identity. Because of that design, neither Germ nor Bluesky can read the encrypted traffic.

Brown and Xue created Germ to supply an alternative to Signal or WhatsApp while building on newer protocols. The team has worked with AT Protocol developers since the ATmosphere Conference in the previous year.

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Early results and next steps

After the announcement, Germ's daily active user count grew by a factor of five. The AT Protocol client Blacksky has already added the same Germ badge to its own interface. Germ plans to finish core chat functions before it thinks about revenue. Paid extras aimed at heavy users like creators or journalists might appear later - examples include the ability to manage multiple handles and optional AI-based message filtering.

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