# Keep the conversation going after you part

> Knit 2.4.0 adds an optional route for your existing chats. Internet relays stay off until you add one, then carry sealed messages when the other end is away.

Knit 2.4.0 · 31 August 2026

Knit moves a message by handing it between phones. Yours passes on what it can, keeps hold of what it cannot, and hands that over the moment someone useful walks past. Nobody operates any of it. It is what the app is doing while it sits in your pocket.

With an optional Internet relay, that same conversation can continue after you leave radio range. It adds another place to hold and forward sealed messages. Relays stay off until you add one and carry only conversations you already have.

**On the name.** In the app they are Internet relays. In the protocol they are spools, because a spool is what yarn waits on. The software that runs one is Knit Spool.

## Nearby phones already carry the conversation

Every phone running Knit is a sender, a receiver and a courier at the same time. A message you send goes out over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to whoever is in range, their phones pass it to whoever is in theirs, and a few hops later it is with somebody across a field you could never have reached on your own.

Knit can also hold a message for up to a day while it waits for the next hop. As people move around, new routes appear and the message gets another chance to travel.

*A message travels as far as the radios reach, then waits with whoever is carrying it until the next hop turns up.*

## Keep chatting after everyone heads home

A crowd gives messages plenty of possible routes. Friends move between groups, phones come into range and conversations travel with them.

Once everyone heads home, that same conversation may need a different route. An optional Internet relay lets you keep in touch across distance, even when a chain of nearby phones cannot connect you.

*Two groups can each have a working phone mesh while being too far apart for a radio path. An optional Internet relay can connect their existing conversations.*

## Add a relay to the route

A relay does the same carrying job as a phone on the mesh. It runs on a computer reached over the Internet, giving your conversation somewhere to leave a sealed copy while the other end is away.

Your phone hands the relay a sealed message, and the relay passes it on when the other end connects. You can send a message now and your friend can pick it up later, without both of you being online together.

You choose which relays to use, and anyone can run one. Knit requires no account or registration to use them.

*The same picture with a relay in it: radios inside each group, and one Internet link out to a node that never moves. One connected phone brings the rest of its group along.*

## Your direct and group chats stay encrypted

Direct messages and group chats remain end-to-end encrypted as they cross a relay. It carries the same sealed frames used by the phone mesh and has no keys to open them.

Existing conversations use secrets they already share to find one another on a relay. You can continue chatting without creating another account or uploading a contact list. There is no directory or discovery of new contacts.

A relay can see that a conversation is active, identified by a random number. It also sees message sizes, timing and the IP addresses connecting to it. Relays are off by default, and Knit explains this metadata before you enable them.

*Your direct and group messages stay sealed. A relay can see connection and traffic metadata, so Knit explains that choice before you enable it.*

**What a relay can work out**

- That some conversation is active, known to it only as a long random number it cannot tie to a person.
- How large each sealed copy is and when it arrived, which for a photo gives away more than it does for a line of text.
- The IP addresses that connect to it, and which of them are interested in the same random number.

**What it never sees**

- The messages. It is holding ciphertext it has no key for and no way to ask for one.
- Who is talking. No names, no numbers, no device identities, no group membership, no contact list.
- Whether anything arrived or was read. Receipts and reactions are sealed the same way the messages are.
- Any other relay you use. Relays never talk to relays, so each one sees its own corner and no more.

## One connection can serve nearby friends

A connected Knit phone can bring messages from a relay back into the nearby phone mesh. They continue hop by hop toward their recipients, with replies able to travel the same way in return.

That lets nearby friends share the benefit of a working Internet connection. Their phones keep using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi locally, while a connected phone provides the hop to the relay.

## Use the relays that work for you

A conversation can use several relays at once. Each holds its own copies, and the phones combine what they receive. Relays never talk to relays.

If one relay becomes unavailable, the others can keep carrying the conversation. A participant can refill a relay from messages still held on their phone. The local phone mesh keeps working with no Internet needed.

Anyone can run a relay using Knit Spool, the AGPL software linked below. Choose relays you trust to handle connection metadata, run your own, or have one run for you.

## Copies expire within 48 hours

A relay keeps messages moving while the other end reconnects, then deletes each sealed copy within 48 hours. Its limited storage holds recent traffic, not a backup of your conversation. Keep your phone's history if you want to keep the chat; a relay cannot restore it to a new device.

*A relay holds a sealed copy for up to 48 hours while the other end reconnects.*

## Choose how your chats stay connected

- **Continue with your contacts** — There is no directory, no search and no list of users. A relay carries conversations you already have, with people you added over the mesh, by scanning their code, or by opening a contact link they sent you.
- **Keep Nearby local** — Nearby is the public broadcast channel, plaintext by design and about the people physically around you. It stays on the radios and never touches the Internet.
- **Use the identity you already have** — Your conversation stays tied to your phone. Using a relay creates no new account, and its temporary copies do not provide account recovery.
- **Turn it on when you want it** — Relays stay off until you add one. Knit explains what a relay can see so you can make that choice. The phone mesh continues to work with no Internet needed and no account.

## Explore the relay software

Read the protocol, explore the relay implementation or try running one yourself. The links below cover setup and the release that introduced Internet relays.

- [The 2.4.0 release notes](https://getknit.app/updates/index.md)
- [The spool protocol, in full](https://github.com/getknit/knit/blob/main/docs/SPOOL_PROTOCOL.md): See how relays store, exchange and expire sealed messages.
- [Knit Spool, the relay daemon (AGPL)](https://github.com/getknit/spool): The reference relay, its configuration, and the conformance suite that validates anybody else's.
- [Knit Hosted](https://hosted.getknit.app/): A Spool run for you by Knit's developer, as a separate paid option. You get a hostname and a token you control, with nothing to host. It is the same Knit Spool, so it holds sealed copies it cannot read, and Knit works without it.

Canonical page: https://getknit.app/updates/internet-relays/