# Knit Anywhere

> Knit Anywhere is how Knit, the free Android messenger that keeps people in touch off the grid, phone to phone, thanks its supporters. Their Knit uses Knit's own servers for calls and files over the internet: calls that connect in more places, and larger photos and files that reach people who are not nearby.

Two names: **Knit** is the free messenger, with its own site at getknit.app. **Knit Anywhere** is Knit's thank-you to its supporters: their Knit app uses Knit's own servers for calls and files over the internet, with nothing to set up or run. Today those servers are relays, which this site calls *the relay*, the app's word. Knit Spool, the open-source relay that carries messages and files, is one of them.

Knit works off the grid without Knit Anywhere: phones pass messages and photos to each other over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with no internet and no sign-up, for free. Messages also go over the internet for free, through the relay the app sets up, and so do small photos and files.

With Knit Anywhere, larger photos and files also go over the internet, through Knit's relay, to people who are not nearby, within a daily upload allowance.

With Knit Anywhere, more calls connect. When two phones cannot reach each other directly, as often happens on mobile data and on office, hotel and campus Wi-Fi, the call goes through Knit's own call relay (a TURN server) and still connects. One side with Knit Anywhere is usually enough. Knit encrypts every call end to end; a relay can drop or delay a call but cannot listen to it or join it. With Relay all calls turned on in Knit's settings, every call goes through the relay, and the person called sees the relay's network address instead of the caller's; the relay sees both.

Supporters also receive the supporter badge, a small mark they can choose to show on their Knit profile picture to say they support Knit; it is off until they turn it on. Each phone that shows it checks its signature first, offline, and a badge copied to another profile shows for nobody. Knit Anywhere signs the badge without learning which Knit profile it is for.

Nothing carries anyone's name. The phone keeps a random ticket key and trades it each day for a ticket, so the relay sees a pseudonym that changes daily rather than a name. Knit Anywhere works on the relay the Knit app already uses, so the people you talk to need nothing new.

Anyone can run the relay software, Knit Spool (AGPL-3.0-or-later), with any file size and a call relay (a TURN server) of their own, unrestricted: a relay with no ticket key set gates nothing. Knit uses both through that relay.

Knit has no ads and no tracking, and is funded by its supporters through GitHub Sponsors and Ko-fi. It's the full-time job of its developer, Jeff Mixon; supporters help pay the bills and keep Knit's servers running. Relaying calls and storing larger files costs real money for every person who uses them, so Knit offers them to its supporters as Knit Anywhere. A supporter claims it once, by signing in with GitHub or with a link mailed after a Ko-fi tip, and adds it to Knit with one link. Liberapay supports the developer directly and doesn't come with Knit Anywhere.

Knit Anywhere comes with supporting Knit on GitHub Sponsors or Ko-fi at $3 a month or more, for as long as the support continues, or with $30 or more once, for a year from the day it is claimed. Amounts are in US dollars, and each supporter has it on one phone at a time. The people you talk to need nothing to receive what it carries.

## Pages

- [Home](https://anywhere.getknit.app/index.md): what Knit Anywhere is, what it does, the supporter badge, and who builds Knit
- [Support Knit](https://anywhere.getknit.app/sponsor.md): why to support Knit, the two places to do it, how a supporter adds Knit Anywhere to a phone, and what supporters ask
- [Terms of service](https://anywhere.getknit.app/terms-of-service.md): the terms Knit Anywhere is provided under: ticket keys, supporting Knit, acceptable use, and ending the agreement
- [Privacy policy](https://anywhere.getknit.app/privacy-policy.md): what the issuer, the relay and the call servers keep, why, for how long, and your rights

## Docs

- [What is Knit Anywhere?](https://anywhere.getknit.app/docs/what-is-knit-anywhere.md): the definitional page: which name is which, what stays free, what Knit Anywhere adds, and who needs it
- [How does a photo reach someone who isn't nearby?](https://anywhere.getknit.app/docs/photos-and-files.md): how photos and files travel over the internet through Knit's relay, small ones free and larger ones with Knit Anywhere, the daily allowance, and what the relay can see
- [What is the Knit supporter badge?](https://anywhere.getknit.app/docs/supporter-badge.md): where the badge shows, the switch that turns it on, how each phone checks it offline, and what it can't hide
- [Do you need Knit Anywhere?](https://anywhere.getknit.app/docs/run-your-own.md): what Knit does without it, running the open-source relay with any file size and a call relay of your own, and what that takes on
- [How Knit Anywhere works](https://anywhere.getknit.app/docs.md): the index of these pages

## Knit

- [getknit.app](https://getknit.app): the Knit messenger's own site
- [Knit Spool on GitHub](https://github.com/getknit/knit-spool): the open-source relay software, for running your own