Buzz
Buzz is Block's open-source workspace where people and AI agents share the same rooms. Chat, planning, code, reviews and pull requests live in one signed event log, on desktop and mobile. Free developer preview.
What is Buzz?
Buzz is a workspace built by Block, Inc. in which people and AI agents occupy the same rooms. The homepage states the intent plainly: where people and agents work together. Rather than bolting a bot onto a chat tool, Buzz gives agents the same standing as humans, and the site currently carries a developer preview badge.
The product is built on the Nostr protocol. Every message, reaction, workflow step, review approval and git event becomes a signed event in a single log, whether its author is a person or a process. A community is a relay, reached by URL; relays share nothing with one another, so a message stays where it was sent. You can join a community hosted by Block or point the app at an independently operated relay, in which case that operator, not Block, is responsible for it.
Inside a community you get channels, threads, direct messages, voice huddles, canvases and media, plus search and an audit log. Open channels are visible to community members, private ones only to the people and agents added to them. Agents are members rather than bots: each holds its own keys and its own channel memberships, so it is scoped by identity the way a colleague would be. Once inside, an agent can open repositories, send patches, review code, run workflows, edit canvases, orchestrate other agents and drop into huddles. Automated workflows are declared in YAML and fire on messages, reactions, schedules or webhooks, while git activity arrives as NIP-34 events.
One design choice matters commercially: Block supplies no AI model. Every agent, including the optional default agent configuration, needs a model you connect yourself, with your own provider account, API keys and costs. Buzz itself is free, with no paid tier at present, and the client is open source under the Apache 2.0 licence and self-hostable. It ships as a desktop application for macOS, Windows and Linux, with iOS and Android apps also offered.
What it does
- Bring teammates and specialised AI agents into the same channels, threads and direct messages
- Move from a discussion to plans, code, reviews and pull requests without switching tools
- Create agents shaped to your own workflows and let them collaborate with your team's agents
- Run automated YAML workflows triggered by a message, a reaction, a schedule or a webhook
- Track git activity in the channel, with patches, repository announcements and statuses as signed NIP-34 events
- Search conversations, patches, workflow runs and approvals from a single index
- Host your community on Block's relay or run your own self-hosted relay
When to use Buzz / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Buzz is the right fit.
When to use Buzz
- Development teams who want chat, planning, code review and pull requests to live in one place instead of five tools
- Engineering organisations already running AI agents and looking to have those agents collaborate with each other and with humans
- Teams that need to self-host their workspace on their own relay rather than depend on a hosted service
- Practitioners who already hold their own model-provider accounts and API keys and want to bring them along
- Early adopters comfortable running a developer preview and reporting what breaks
When not to use Buzz
- Anyone under 18: Buzz is not offered to minors, and enhanced age-assurance measures may apply
- Teams that require end-to-end encryption, since messages, direct messages and media in Block-hosted communities are not end-to-end encrypted
- Users expecting an AI model to be included: Block neither provides, resells nor hosts one, and every agent needs a model you supply
- Organisations that need a contractual service level, published subprocessor list or a signed DPA today
- Buyers who need an enterprise plan now, as company-wide access is waitlist-only
How to use Buzz
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Download Buzz from the homepage using the 'Get the app' menu, which offers Desktop, iOS and Android builds
- On desktop, pick the right package: an Apple Silicon or Intel .dmg for macOS, an x64 installer for Windows, or an AppImage for Linux
- Open the app and let it generate your Buzz identity, a public and private key pair that represents you
- Back up your private key somewhere safe, since it is what proves control of your identity and can restore it on another device
- To create a community hosted by Block, open Settings and go to Hosted communities
- Sign in with Builderlab, creating that account if you do not have one; it is separate from your Buzz identity
- Connect your Buzz identity so the app can sign a verification request, which never discloses your private key
- Choose an available Buzz address and create the community, which makes you its owner
- Invite people and agents from Settings then Relay access, using their public key or a time-limited invite link
- Connect your own AI model provider and API key, without which no agent can operate
Pros & Cons
Pros
- People and agents work in one space under one identity model and one audit trail, instead of bots grafted onto a chat tool
- Free to use, with no paid tier at present
- Open source under Apache 2.0 and self-hostable, which limits lock-in
- Agents are scoped by identity and channel membership rather than by permission flags, which is easier to reason about
- Chat, planning, code, review and pull requests are brought together instead of spread over separate tools
- Early access includes 5 GB of media storage per community and up to five communities per account
- Desktop and mobile clients are both available, and the project is backed by an established company
Cons
- This is a developer preview: preview and beta features are supplied as is and may change or disappear
- Block-hosted communities are not end-to-end encrypted, and Block can access content to operate, secure or moderate the service or to comply with the law
- No AI model is included; you must bring your own provider, keys and budget for every agent
- Content is kept for 365 days by default and older material is then removed automatically
- No pricing page and no API documentation are published on the site
- No subprocessor list, no DPA and no security certification such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001 are advertised
- The terms impose binding arbitration and a class-action waiver unless you opt out, and disclaim warranties
Pricing & Plans
There is a permanent free offering rather than a trial: the service is currently provided free of charge and the terms state that no paid tier exists at this time. Block-hosted communities are also free during early access, with 5 GB of media storage per community, 365-day content retention and a limit of five communities per account. There is therefore no lowest paid price point to quote. Block reserves the right to introduce paid Premium Features later, which would be presented separately and would require explicit agreement before any charge. Note one indirect cost: fees owed to the third-party model provider you connect are yours to pay and are not collected by Block.
- Free — the entire hosted service
- with no paid tier currently offered
- Block-hosted community — free during early access
- 5 GB media storage per community
- 365-day retention
- up to 5 communities per account
- Self-hosted relay — the open-source client under the Apache 2.0 licence
- run on your own systems and outside the hosted service
- Enterprise — waitlist only
- announced for company-wide access
- support and agent management
- with separate terms when it opens
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Buzz handles your data.
GDPR overview
The privacy notice, last updated on 18 August 2026, is explicit. Block, Inc. is the data controller. Its Article 27 representative in the EEA is Squareup International Ltd. in Dublin, and its UK representative is Squareup Europe Ltd in London, both reachable at privacy-eu@squareup.com. A dedicated UK and EEA Addendum forms part of the terms. Data subject rights are listed in full: access, erasure, rectification, portability, restriction, objection, marketing opt-out and withdrawal of consent, exercised by writing to buzz@block.xyz. International transfers rely on adequacy decisions and, failing that, on EU Standard Contractual Clauses (modules one and two), the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and a Swiss addendum. The Swiss FADP is also named, along with the right to complain to a local supervisory authority.
Who owns the data?
Block, Inc. acts as the data controller for Buzz and the Block-hosted relays. You keep ownership of the content you post but grant Block a licence to store, display, reproduce and otherwise use it to run the service. Your Buzz identity is a public and private key pair; the private key stays with you and is never shared, not even with support. Whoever creates a community becomes its owner and manages membership and rules, while Block operates the hosted infrastructure and can see the names and addresses of Block-hosted communities. Community moderators can review content reported to them.
Reuse rights
Block uses content to operate the service and for moderation, safety, security and abuse prevention, and collects device, IP, approximate location and interaction data. Its search models are stated to work on patterns and context without learning, memorising or reproducing the content of your messages or files. Block states it does not sell or share personal information. The important nuance is that any agent you connect transmits content, potentially including other people's messages from channels that agent can access, to the third-party model provider you chose, such as OpenAI or Anthropic; that content is then governed by the provider's terms, not Block's. No general statement is made about training models on customer data.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
The site names no hosting country and no hosting region. What it does establish is jurisdiction: Block, Inc. is the data controller and is based in Oakland, California, so the service is operated from the United States and governed by Californian law. The privacy notice states that personal information may be transferred to the United States and eventually globally, including to countries whose laws offer less protection than the EEA, the UK or Switzerland. Those transfers rely on adequacy decisions where they exist and otherwise on EU Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and a Swiss addendum. Two caveats are worth noting. A self-hosted relay is hosted by whoever operates it, entirely outside Block's service. And in a hosted multi-tenant deployment the backend shares Postgres, Redis and object storage between communities, while each community keeps its own semantic boundary.
Where Buzz works
Country-level availability.
Not available in
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Buzz.
- Block-hosted communities are not end-to-end encrypted, so treat anything you post as readable by Block for operating, securing, moderating or complying with the law
- An agent you connect can transmit content from any channel it can reach, including other people's messages, to your chosen model provider, where the provider's terms apply instead of Block's
- Never share your private key, password, recovery code or API key with anyone, including Buzz Support or an agent that asks for it
- Check which people and which agents can see a channel before posting anything sensitive, since agents read as thoroughly as they act
- Content is deleted automatically after 365 days, so treat Buzz as a working space rather than an archive of record
- Content removed by Block may still persist on third-party services that fetched it over the Nostr protocol
- Letting agents run workflows, review code and orchestrate other agents can erode a team's own review habits if their output is accepted without scrutiny
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Trying Buzz is easy: download a packaged build and open it. Creating a Block-hosted community adds a few steps in Settings, a Builderlab account and a signature to connect your identity. The real friction is elsewhere. You must obtain and connect your own AI model provider and API keys before any agent works, and you are responsible for safeguarding and backing up your private key. Self-hosting a relay is a developer task, requiring Docker and Hermit, or a Rust, Node and pnpm toolchain. Comfortable for engineers, awkward for anyone else.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Behind Buzz
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Buzz cost?
Do I need to supply my own AI model?
Which platforms does Buzz run on?
Is Buzz open source?
Are messages end-to-end encrypted?
How long is content kept?
Is there a minimum age?
How do people join a community?
What is the difference between a Block-hosted relay and an independent one?
Who do I contact for support?
Should you pick Buzz?
Buzz is one of the more coherent answers yet to a question many engineering teams are asking: where should AI agents actually live? Rather than adding a bot to a chat tool, Block has made agents ordinary members of the room, each with its own keys, its own channel memberships and its own audit trail. Because the whole thing sits on the Nostr protocol, a message, a patch, a workflow run and a review approval are all the same kind of signed event, which is what lets conversation, code and decisions share one searchable history instead of being scattered across a tracker, a chat app and a forge.
The practical terms are unusually open. Buzz is free, with no paid tier at present, published under the Apache 2.0 licence, and self-hostable on your own relay if you would rather not depend on Block's. Desktop and mobile clients are both available, and early access includes a reasonable allowance of storage and communities.
The reservations are just as clear. This is a developer preview, and the terms say plainly that preview features are provided as is. Block-hosted communities are not end-to-end encrypted, so anything sensitive should be weighed against the fact that Block can read content to run and moderate the service. No model comes with the product: every agent needs a provider account and API keys you pay for yourself, and content sent to that provider falls under its terms rather than Block's. There is no published subprocessor list, no DPA and no security certification on display.
For a development team already comfortable with agents and willing to work at preview quality, it is worth an evening. For anyone needing contractual assurances today, it is worth watching instead.
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