Why this app exists
Entire countries can lose the internet. It has happened. It will happen again. Hoppr exists for that moment.
The internet is not a law of physics. It is cables, towers, and a handful of companies. Any of those can be cut, switched off, or ordered silent by a government. When that happens, the apps you rely on every day stop working at the same moment, for the same reason, for everyone around you.
Network shutdowns are a pattern, not an exception
State-level internet blackouts are routine. They are used by governments against their own populations during protests, elections, and military operations, and by occupying powers against people under their control.
- Iran, 2019. Nationwide internet shutdown for six days during the protests following a fuel-price increase.
- Myanmar, 2021 and onward. Repeated blackouts following the military coup, targeting specific townships and mobile networks.
- Sudan, 2023 and onward. Ongoing disruption during the civil war, affecting both mobile data and satellite links.
- Gaza, 2023 and onward. Repeated, documented, deliberate telecommunications blackouts imposed during Israeli military operations.
When the wire is cut, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and every other app that depends on a central server become equally unavailable. A message needs a path.
The specific motivation
This app was built with Gaza in mind.
During Israeli military operations in Gaza, internet access was repeatedly cut across the strip. Journalists could not file reports. Medical workers could not coordinate with hospitals outside the blockade. Families could not tell each other whether they were still alive. The world watched a connectivity blackout render the single most surveilled piece of land on earth invisible in real time, at exactly the moments when visibility mattered most.
We are pro-Palestinian. We are not neutral on that point. When a military force invades a territory and severs its connection to the outside world so that its own conduct cannot be documented, that is a choice about who is allowed to be heard. We have an opinion about that choice.
Hoppr does not solve the politics. It solves the wire. When the wire is cut, the phones in your pocket, and the pockets of the people around you, still have Bluetooth radios. Those radios do not ask permission from a carrier or a cable. Hoppr uses them to pass messages device to device, hop by hop, until they reach their recipient.
Lineage
Hoppr stands in a specific line of work. Each of the steps below removed one assumption that was previously thought to be permanent.
- 2009Bitcoinmoney without banks
- 2022Nostrspeech without platforms
- 2026Hopprmessaging without the internet
Bitcoin freed value from custodians who could freeze it. Nostr freed identity and publication from centralised hosts who could delete it. Hoppr removes the last assumption: that a working network has to exist between you and the person you want to reach.
What we promise
- Hoppr will never depend on a central server to deliver messages.
- Hoppr will never require an account, a phone number, or any identifier linked to your legal identity.
- Hoppr will never carry advertising or run analytics on your conversations.
- Hoppr will not be withdrawn from regions that become inconvenient for the operator. The app is a download. Once it is on your device, no remote action can take it away.
What this app is not
Hoppr is not going to end the blockade of Gaza. It is not going to stop a state from cutting cables. It will not feed anyone, treat any wound, or shelter anyone from a bomb. It is a messenger. That is the limit of its honesty.
What it does, when it is in the pockets of enough people in the same place at the same time, is make it harder to cut them off from each other. That is a small thing and a real thing. It is the thing we can build.
If you are reading this from Palestine
We see you. We built this with you in mind. If there is something we can do to make Hoppr more useful in your specific conditions, write to hello@hoppr.chat. Local languages, low-battery behaviour, attack-resistance to known blockade tactics. Whatever you need, tell us. We will build it.