BitTorrent unveiled a beta version Wednesday of Bleep, its secure online calling and messaging software.Bleep connects people online without using central servers or indices, making mass surveillance difficult. The company announced the availability Wednesday of a preliminary, test version of BitTorrent Bleep software, which will enable people to make calls (voice) and send messages over the Internet without using a central server to direct traffic. Instead, users will find one another through groups of other users, with no records of the calls or texts stored anywhere along the way.

Once a connection is made for a call or text, the communication travels directly between the two computers involved. That peer-to-peer approach also defies mass surveillance.

Bleep will be available by invitation only for now, the company said. It's also limited to computers running Windows 7 or 8, although support for more platforms is coming.

BitTorrent is trying to find more applications for the distributed-computing technology that underlies its file-sharing software. It launched BitTorrent Sync last year to provide an alternative to cloud-based programs that synchronize files across multiple devices. Shortly before that it unveiled BitTorrent Bundles, a publishing platform for digital content.

Bleep encrypts its traffic too, as well as enabling users to keep their identities secret even from those with whom they're communicating. The company says the software uses no central servers, so no temporarily data are stored.