Sam Altman’s Blockchain Venture, World Network, breaking in the message game with his latest function: World Chat.
The new function, a “mini app” that is accessible via the World App portion, offers special functions to holders of the digital passport of World Network, with which users can scan their iris in exchange for an account that verifies their “proof-or-personal”.
World Chat is the latest iteration of the world’s continuous search to help people distinguish bots from people in the AI era. “By connecting with World ID, World Chat enables you to know when you are chatting with a verified person,” said World Developer Tools for Humanity in a statement to Coindesk.
Those who are not placed in the iris scanning ball of the world still have access to the new chat function. The new messages -app takes design instructions from Apple’s iMessage, which uses blue chat bells for iPhone users and green bubbles for everyone. “Conversations with verified World ID holders have a blue chat bubble and a unique World ID jewel in the top right corner,” explains Tools for Humanity. “Discussions with non-rewarded accounts have a gray chat bubble and such a jewel do not.”
Mini apps were launched in October 2024 and there were more than 250 million mini app open in the first two months of 2025, according to tools for humanity.
“The World app has grown so much in the past year that we have continuously heard requests for a DMS layer. And we think that for some actions such as sending money is simply much more natural and nicer than going to a wallet and sending a transaction, ”Tiago Sada, the head of the product at Tools for Humanity, told Coindesk. “People specifically asked for the chat product.”
World Chat will be available from Thursday at the World app for Android and iPhone iOS users.
In addition to World Chat, World and Social Protocol Friends with Benefits, Alchemy, Bain Crypto Capital, Blockchain Capital and Variant Fund working together to launch an incubator program called World Build. The program includes hackathons, building retreats and a demo day and is intended to encourage developers to build “mini apps”.
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