BirdyChat rebrands as Balsio, and launches in Latvian

The Latvia-founded European work messenger is sharpening its focus on small teams that need structured professional communication without the complexity of larger collaboration platforms.

Riga, Latvia — September 16, 2026 — BirdyChat, the European messenger for professional communication, becomes Balsio as it sharpens its focus on small professional teams. Alongside the new identity, the company is expanding its localization across Europe, with the app now available in Latvian and eight other European languages.

The rebrand reflects Balsio’s growing focus on an underserved space between personal messaging apps and enterprise collaboration platforms like Slack and MS Teams. Small teams often reach a point where personal messaging apps become difficult to manage for work, while enterprise collaboration platforms introduce more complexity than they need. The problem is particularly acute for agencies and other client-facing teams, whose communication often extends beyond their own organization to customers, freelancers, and external collaborators. The app is already used by teams such as SPRING PR & Communications, startup community project Shipyard, and Riga Investment and Tourism Agency.

Balsio is designed around professional messaging rather than a broad suite of workplace tools. Threads and lists help users organize conversations by client, project, or topic, while work-email registration allows people to keep their private phone numbers separate from professional communication.

“Small teams run a surprising amount of their work through personal messaging apps, especially when they communicate regularly with clients and external partners,” said Rolands Mesters, co-founder and CEO of Balsio. “At the same time, moving everyone into a large collaboration platform can feel like overkill. We are building Balsio for that space in between: professional communication that is structured and manageable, while still feeling as straightforward as the messaging apps people already know.”

Balsio, formerly BirdyChat, was the first app to use the Digital Markets Act’s WhatsApp interoperability framework. Balsio users can message participating WhatsApp contacts without requiring them to install Balsio, provided they have enabled third-party chats in WhatsApp. The company launched across Europe in May 2026 after attracting a waiting list of more than 50,000 people.

As part of the rebrand, BirdyChat becomes Balsio in the App Store and on Google Play, while the website moves to balsio.com. Existing accounts, chats, and message history remain unchanged, with no action required from users. 

With Latvian now added, Balsio is currently available in eight other languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Lithuanian, and Estonian. The app is available on iOS, Android and Mac, with a Windows application scheduled for release in early October.

Balsio also provides an API and Model Context Protocol (MCP) support, allowing companies to connect the messenger with existing business tools and AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude. Balsio is developed in Europe, where its user data is also hosted.