Talk to the people nearby — no signal required.
Knit relays your messages phone to phone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, hopping across the crowd to reach people far beyond your range. No internet. No servers. No accounts.
How it works
Your message hops across the crowd
Every phone running Knit is a sender, a receiver and a relay at the same time. That's how a message reaches people you could never talk to directly.
Knit finds nearby phones
It quietly scans for other Knit users over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi — no pairing, no network, no setup.
Your message hops device to device
Every phone that receives your message passes it onward, so it ripples outward across the crowd.
It reaches people beyond your range
Through those hops your message lands with people you could never reach directly — without a single tower or router.
Features
A modern messenger — minus the internet
Knit feels like the chat app you already know, but every message rides a mesh of nearby phones instead of the cloud.
Mesh relay messaging
Messages hop from phone to phone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, leap-frogging across every device in range to reach people far beyond your own signal.
Nearby room + direct messages
Drop into the public Nearby broadcast or start a private 1:1 thread — with unread badges, relative timestamps and delivery ticks, in a clean Signal-style UI.
Group chats
Create named group conversations, see who's in them, rename them and come and go freely as the mesh shifts around you.
End-to-end encrypted chats
Your 1:1 and group messages are sealed end-to-end — only the people in the chat can read them, even as each message hops through strangers' phones. Confirm a contact in person with a safety number or QR code.
Reactions, mentions & profiles
React with emoji, @-mention people, and share images that ride the mesh on demand so large files never flood it. Everyone gets a profile — name, status and avatar — plus a friendly auto-generated alias like “EnlightenedZebra” so no one's ever just a random ID.
On-device AI moderation
A bundled AI model runs entirely on your phone to filter abusive text and blur explicit images behind tap-to-reveal. No uploads, no servers — block a sender in a tap, or switch it off.
A look inside
See Knit in action
A familiar, modern messenger — except every screen runs entirely on a mesh of nearby phones, with no internet behind it.
All your chats in one place
Direct messages, the open Nearby room and your group threads together — unread badges, timestamps and delivery ticks, all over a live mesh of nearby phones.
Encrypted direct messages
One-to-one chats are sealed end-to-end and verifiable in person, so only you and the person you're talking to can read them.
Group chats
Spin up a named group, see who's in it and keep talking as the mesh shifts around you. Group messages are end-to-end encrypted too.
Where it shines
Made for the moments the network isn't there
Festivals & crowds
Find your group when the network buckles under thousands of phones.
Marches & rallies
Coordinate on the ground when you'd rather not lean on the cell network.
Disasters & dead zones
Stay reachable when towers are down — or were never there to begin with.
Travel & off-grid
Message the people around you on a trail, a boat or abroad — no SIM required.
Packed venues
Cut through congested stadium and conference Wi-Fi with a network of your own.
Outages & blackouts
Keep your block in touch when a storm or outage takes the power — and the internet — with it.
Private by design
No cloud means nothing to leak
Knit was built to keep your conversations close. There's no account to create and no server quietly logging everything you send.
- Your messages and data stay on your phone — there's no server to store them.
- Direct and group chats are end-to-end encrypted — only the people in them can read your messages.
- On-device AI moderation runs entirely on your phone — nothing is ever uploaded.
- No accounts, no phone number, no tracking, no ad SDKs.
Knit is free, ad-free, and yours
No ads, no subscriptions, and no data to sell — so donations are what keep Knit alive and improving. If it helps you stay connected, consider chipping in.
One-time or monthly — every bit helps.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Is Knit really free?
Yes — Knit is free and has no ads. It's funded entirely by donations, which is why there's a Ko-fi button on this page. If it's useful to you, chipping in keeps development going.
Does it really work with no internet?
Yes. Knit uses your phone's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios to talk directly to nearby devices. There's no internet connection, no cell service and no server involved at any point.
How far does it reach?
Each hop covers the range of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi — typically tens of metres. But because every phone relays for every other, a message can travel much further than any single device by leap-frogging through the people in between.
Is it secure? Is it end-to-end encrypted?
Your 1:1 and group chats are end-to-end encrypted: the message text, mentions and image attachments are sealed so only the people in the conversation can read them, even though each message relays hop-by-hop through other phones. You can confirm a contact's identity in person by comparing a safety number or scanning their QR code. The one exception is the public Nearby room, which is open by design — like talking out loud in a crowd, anyone in range can read it.
What permissions does it need?
Nearby-device and location permissions — Android requires location access to scan for nearby Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices. Knit works best when allowed to run in the background so it can keep relaying for the people around you.
Is it on the Google Play Store yet?
Not quite — Knit is in its 1.0 MVP. The Play Store button here goes live the moment it's published, so support on Ko-fi to help get it there sooner.
What do I need to run it?
An Android 10 phone or newer with Google Play services. That's it.
Stay connected, wherever you are
Knit is launching on Android. The Play Store badge goes live the moment it ships — support development on Ko-fi to help it get there sooner.
Requires Android 10+ with Google Play services.