Germ brings end-to-end encrypted messages to BlueSky
Called a new startup germ Bring end-to-end encrypted messaging to the BlueSky social network, allowing users to have a more secure option for chat Existing DMs on Bluesky. After over 2 years of development, the service is boot This week there were plans to encrypt BlueSky’s DMS into beta and gradually board a new tester before it was released.
Eventually, The technology that the germ buildsmany of which are open source, allowing Bluesky to deploy encrypted messaging into its own apps.
Germ is designed to provide alternatives to existing, end-to-end encrypted platforms that are globally dominated, such as iMessage, Signal, and WhatsApp. Germ is leveraging new technologies such as messaging layer security (MLS). Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and With protocol (or atproto), move the blue ski.


However, instead of requesting a user’s phone number as some messaging apps do, DARM integrates with Atproto. This allows bacterial users to safely chat with friends on Bluesky or on the wider open social web. flash and Hoodedhowever, there is additional control over the user experience.
For example, you can either accept DMs from people you follow on Bluesky, or configure them to start chatting with others. Additionally, blocking users with germ allows you to choose to block only germ, or even in BlueSky or other ATPropowed apps.
The concept of germ comes from the co-founder Tessa Brown (CEO), communications scholar who previously taught at Stanford, and Mark Xueworked as a privacy engineer at Apple on technologies such as FaceTime and Imessage.
Brown’s research has made her realize that access to private communication is based on the health of social networks.

“Psychologically, I know that even if you feel you’re constantly staring and manipulating, you can’t build a good relationship with people. That’s really what social media is like today,” Brown tells TechCrunch. “So I came out of that job with such a strong conviction about end-to-end encrypted messaging as the kind of center of what I thought was the future of social media and the future of communication,” she adds.
Meanwhile, Xue came out of Apple believing that the use of phone numbers and telephony is a technology that serves as the basis for secure communication and wants to build something new.
Today, Germ’s services work with a “magic link” that is generated for you and pasted into your Bluesky Bio. Another Bluesky user on iOS clicks this link and can chat right away without downloading a new app from the App Store. To make this possible, Germ uses underutilized Apple technology called App Clips. This allows users to run some of the app’s code on their devices without installing the full app.
Today, app clips are used for other one-time transactions, such as paying for parking via QR codes. But in the case of Germ, they allow quick chat.
The user experience is simple enough, but the technology behind it is not. The link itself is actually an encryption key that authenticates the user’s ATProto ID and confirms that the user is the person associated with its Bluesky handle.
You can select from the Germ App Clip Install the Germ IOS appoffers more control, provides access to your friend list, and now offers Bluesky pairing.
The pairing feature was a bit off in testing, but since it runs iOS 26 developer beta, it could be causing complications. (To work around this issue, I first started chatting with an app clip before trying to authenticate from an installed app.)
Brown tells TechCrunch that he is excited to build within the Bluesky community, given the growing cultural impact of the app. Barack Obama, Hillary Clintonand others Representatives, Senators, Governors,participate.
Given that DERM is ahead of the BlueSky team building encrypted messaging technology, Brown hopes that Germ’s protocol will be adopted more widely in the future by Bluesky and others.
Although available now, the Germ app may later introduce premium subscription upgrades that offer more advanced services, such as private AI services, personalization tools, and more.
The four startups raised pre-seed funds from angel investors, including co-authors of MLS and other trust and safety experts. Institutional investors include K5 Global and Mozilla Ventures. The company hopes to raise additional funds for the Android version in the future.