Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Block, announced Buzz on July 21, 2026 — a team chat app where AI agents talk in the same thread as humans. Block built the app, and a free desktop version is already available. Buzz is open source, model-agnostic?model-agnostic: Works with any AI model — not tied to a single provider or model family. and decentralized, which sets it apart from Slack.
Key takeaways
- Maker: Block (Square, Cash App, Afterpay, Tidal), announced by Jack Dorsey on X
- Architecture: model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, open source
- AI agents take part in group conversations on equal footing with humans
- Built-in GitHub integration — manage projects without leaving the app
- Free desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, source code on GitHub
How it differs from Slack
Visually Buzz resembles Slack, but the key difference is in the agents. In Slack, bots and integrations are add-ons — in Buzz, AI agents are first-class participants in the thread. On top of that comes a built-in GitHub integration that Slack lacks natively.
The second difference is the distribution model. Buzz is open source, so developers can run their own instances and add features. Dorsey described it as "model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source". It is a direct answer to Slack's closed model, where data and control sit with the vendor.
we're launching BUZZ! a new groupchat platform for teams of people and agents of all sizes, built to reduce our dependency on slack and github. model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source. 🐝 buzz.xyz
AI agents as coworkers
Buzz targets teams that increasingly hand part of their work to AI agents. Instead of keeping humans in one tool and agents in another, the platform seats both in the same thread. That fits a broader trend: work tools are starting to treat agents as team members rather than plugins.
Who is behind it, and the competition
Behind Buzz is Jack Dorsey and his company Block, which also runs Square, Cash App, Afterpay and Tidal. This is not the first attempt to bring agents into team chat. Georgios Konstantopoulos of Paradigm released Centaur, an open-source alternative that works inside or alongside Slack. The difference is the approach: Centaur adds agents to an existing Slack, while Buzz wants to replace the tool itself.
Why it matters
Buzz is a bet that the future of team work is hybrid — humans and AI agents in one place. If agents really take over part of the work, a tool that treats them as first-class participants has an edge over one that keeps them in a bot role.
The more interesting choice is the architecture. Open source, decentralization and self-sovereignty?self-sovereign: A setup where the user keeps full control over their data and identity, with no intermediary holding the keys. are a direct answer to Slack's model, where data and control belong to the vendor. For Dorsey, that is consistent with his earlier work on decentralized protocols.
The risk is obvious: Slack has years of lead, ready-made integrations and user habits. The article itself warns that Buzz is early-stage and not worth migrating a whole team to yet. So the real stake is not whether Buzz beats Slack right away, but whether "agent as participant" and an open, self-sovereign stack become a standard that larger players will have to match.
What's next
- Buzz's source code is on GitHub — the pace of development depends on the developer community
- The article itself advises against migrating whole teams at this stage — the product is early
- Competition is growing: Paradigm's Centaur targets the same problem from the existing-Slack side
Sources
- TechCrunch — Jack Dorsey is taking on Slack with Buzz
- Buzz — official site
- Paradigm — Open-sourcing Centaur
- Jack Dorsey (X) — Buzz announcement
