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Knit vs Bitchat
Two open-source mesh messengers that turn the crowd into the network — one runs on every phone, one goes deeper on Android.
Last reviewed: October 2026
Bitchat and Knit both turn nearby phones into a mesh, with no internet or servers required for local messaging. Bitchat keeps things light, and on iPhone it keeps nothing once you close it. Knit is a full messenger for Android, meshing over Wi-Fi alongside Bluetooth.
For an Android group, Knit brings end-to-end encrypted direct and group chats, conversations you can search and back up, and files up to 8 GB sent straight from one phone to another. Bitchat supports iPhones today, which makes it the practical choice for a mixed group until Knit for iPhone arrives.
| Feature | Knit | Bitchat |
|---|---|---|
| Works with no internet | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-hop mesh — messages relay phone to phone beyond your own radio | Yes | Yes |
| Meshes over Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth1 | Yes | No |
| Store & forward for offline peers | Yes | Yes |
| Open room with everyone nearby2 | Yes | Yes |
| End-to-end encrypted direct messages | Yes | Yes |
| Named group chats, end-to-end encrypted | Yes | iPhone only |
| Forward secrecy3 | Yes | Live sessions only |
| Photos, GIFs, voice notes & reactions | Yes | Photos & voice notes |
| Send any kind of file | Yes, up to 8 MB | No |
| Big files phone to phone over Wi-Fi | Yes, up to 8 GB | No |
| Keeps your chat history, encrypted at rest | Yes, and searchable | Android only |
| Encrypted backup to move to a new phone | Yes | No |
| On-device AI moderation | Yes | No |
| Works over the internet4 | Yes, via optional relays | Yes, via Nostr relays |
| iPhone & Mac apps | No, iPhone coming soon | Yes |
| Free, no ads, open source | Yes, GPLv3 | Yes, public domain (iPhone) and GPLv3 (Android) |
- 1Wi-Fi Aware gives Knit's mesh the bandwidth for photos and GIFs, fetched on demand so large files never flood it; Bluetooth LE alone has little room for more than text. Bitchat's Android app has an experimental Wi-Fi Aware mode, off by default.
- 2Both open rooms are plaintext by design — an open broadcast, like talking out loud in a crowd. In Knit, the sealed part is direct and group chats.
- 3Knit rotates keys per block of messages, not per message, and a chat with someone on an older Knit build falls back to the previous static-key scheme, which has none. Spent keys are deleted, so mesh traffic recorded today can't be decrypted later.
- 4Knit's Internet relays are opt-in and carry only existing direct and group conversations, as sealed frames the relay can't read. No accounts, no discovery, and you can run your own. The Nearby room stays radio-only.
Where Knit wins: a full messenger on a bigger mesh
Knit combines Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi Aware to carry photos, GIFs and voice notes as well as text. Attachments are fetched on demand, while reactions, inline replies and @-mentions keep the conversation easy to follow. A file too big to attach goes to a nearby contact straight over Wi-Fi, phone to phone.
Make a named group for the people sharing your plans. Knit's direct and group chats are end-to-end encrypted, with verification by safety number or QR code. Bitchat added private groups of up to 16 to its iPhone app; on Android its rooms are channels you join by name.
Pick up the conversation tomorrow, or next year. Direct and group chats keep every message, encrypted on your phone under a hardware-backed key kept out of Android's cloud backup. Search finds any of them by what it said, and Knit's encrypted backup carries them to your next phone. A Bitchat identity doesn't make that move, so a new phone means starting over. In the public Nearby room, an on-device filter screens abusive text and blurs explicit images without uploading them for analysis, and a stranger who floods the room can't push out what you and your contacts posted.
Where Bitchat wins: everyone can install it
Bitchat supports iPhone, Android and Mac, giving mixed-device groups a shared option. Its public location channels use Nostr relays when online. Knit runs on Android today, with an iPhone version in development. Its Nearby room stays on local radios.
On iPhone, Bitchat's memory-only timelines and quick wipe suit short-lived conversations. Knit keeps history on the phone so you can return to plans, replies and shared moments later.
Security, side by side
The two make the same basic split: private messages are encrypted, the open room is not. In Knit the sealed side is direct and group chats — end-to-end, down to mentions and image attachments — and the open side is the public Nearby room, an open broadcast, like talking out loud in a crowd. In Bitchat the Noise protocol seals one-to-one DMs, private groups on iPhone are encrypted too, and the local mesh chat and geohash channels are public by design. Neither app pretends its open room is anything else.
Forward secrecy is where the details differ. Knit rotates keys as a conversation runs and deletes the spent ones — per block of messages, not per message, and a chat with someone on an older Knit build falls back to the old static-key scheme until they update. Bitchat's live Noise sessions are forward-secret, but by its own documentation the store-and-forward envelopes that wait for offline peers are sealed without it. Either way the promise is about recorded traffic: on Knit, messages are also encrypted at rest under a hardware-backed key, so reading them takes unlocking the device, not stealing it.
The browser demo shows the hop-by-hop idea without installing anything: knock out a cell tower, then walk a message across a crowd.
Choose Bitchat if…
- Your crowd is a mix of iPhones and Androids — Bitchat is the one everybody can install today.
- You want place-scoped public rooms — geohash channels over Nostr — alongside the mesh.
- You want nothing kept: on iPhone, memory-only timelines and a panic wipe matter more to you than saved history.
Choose Knit if…
- Your group uses Android and wants photos, GIFs, reactions and named encrypted group chats.
- The crowd channel should stay readable — Knit's on-device AI filter handles abuse and explicit images without an upload.
- You want your chats still there tomorrow, encrypted at rest and searchable, and on your next phone too.
- You need to hand someone a big file: direct file send moves up to 8 GB straight from your phone to theirs over Wi-Fi.
- You want the bigger radio: Wi-Fi Aware meshing alongside Bluetooth LE.
Common questions
Can Knit and Bitchat talk to each other?
Choose the same app for the people you want to message. Knit and Bitchat use different protocols, so their conversations remain separate even when the phones are nearby.
Which one is more private?
They make different promises. Both encrypt private messages end-to-end and both run their open rooms as plaintext broadcasts anyone in range can read — in Knit the sealed part is direct and group chats, in Bitchat it's one-to-one DMs. Knit adds forward secrecy with stated limits (keys rotate per block of messages, and a chat with someone on an older Knit build falls back to a static-key scheme without it) and keeps your history encrypted at rest, so reading it takes unlocking your phone. Bitchat's answer, on iPhone, is to keep almost nothing on the phone at all: memory-only timelines, plus a panic wipe on both platforms. Decide which of those matches your worry.
Why can Knit send bigger files than Bitchat?
Radio bandwidth, mostly. Bitchat runs over Bluetooth LE, which moves small packets reliably but slowly, so its photos and voice notes are kept small. Knit meshes over Wi-Fi Aware as well and fetches attachments on demand, so any file up to 8 MB can cross the mesh without flooding it. Anything bigger, up to 8 GB, goes to a nearby contact off the mesh altogether: the two phones connect over Wi-Fi and it lands in their Downloads folder.
Can I run both?
You can keep both installed and use the app your friends have chosen. For an Android group, Knit adds shared photos, voice notes and named group conversations.
Which app should my festival group use?
Count the iPhones. If your group is mixed, Bitchat — being installable by everyone beats any feature on this page, at least until Knit for iPhone ships. If you're all on Android, Knit carries more: the named group for your crew, photos from the pit, and messages that wait in the mesh until your friends wander back into range.
We checked the Bitchat facts on this page against the Bitchat project's own READMEs, whitepaper and release notes; the date above says when. Bitchat is an independent project: its iPhone app is in the public domain and its Android app is GPLv3, and its GitHub repositories have the latest. Spotted something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.
Product names on these pages are the trademarks of their respective owners and are used only to identify the apps being compared. None of those projects is affiliated with, or has endorsed, Knit.
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