AT Protocol Devs Can Now Implement a Germ Button

Last year, we began testing our end-to-end encrypted messenger Germ DM's integration with AT Protocol in a private beta. The integration used a link in users’ Bluesky/Blacksky bios that served two purposes: to prove the binding of a public key to their atproto accounts, and to let people quickly start a conversation from viewing an atproto profile.

It was quickly apparent to us that the link wasn't a long-term solution; it took up valuable space in the limited characters available in the bio. Everyone could click the link, even if they didn’t have permission to start a chat with you. And since it was editable, users could point the link to any other user.

From the beginning, we expected that the ideal long-term solution was for the AppView to render this link to E2EE messaging as a button for people you've invited to chat with you, and transparency to you that someone is claiming to be you in Germ.

We're happy to announce our new com.germnetwork.declaration record, designed for AppViews to natively render messaging buttons for atproto users. We’re sharing the app logic we recommend for rendering a button on a user's profile to message them on Germ.

Check out our full implementation guidelines here.