How it works
How KeyAgain works
A classic phone can’t run today’s messaging apps. KeyAgain splits the job in two: a tiny app on the phone, and an online service that does the heavy lifting. Here’s what each part does, and what that means for your messages.
Two parts: a tiny app and a service
On the phone: a Java app of about 156 KB. It shows your chats, lets you type replies, take a photo or record a voice note, and ask the AI assistant a question. It’s built for Java ME, the system most phones of the 2000s and early 2010s used for apps.
Online: the KeyAgain service keeps your Telegram and WhatsApp connected, converts photos and voice notes into formats an old phone can open, and sends the phone only what it needs. That’s why a phone with a small screen and little memory can keep up.
How your accounts connect
- Telegram connects through Telegram’s official API for user accounts. You log in once from your KeyAgain account with your phone number and the code Telegram sends you. You don’t need a smartphone for Telegram.
- WhatsApp (beta) connects as a linked device, the same way WhatsApp Web does, by scanning a QR code with your main phone. It’s an unofficial bridge that WhatsApp doesn’t endorse, and your main phone must come online at least every 14 days. Works with WhatsApp and the WhatsApp Business app.
- AI assistant is an optional paid add-on. Questions go from the phone to our service and the answer comes back sized for a small screen.
Pairing the phone
When you open KeyAgain on the classic phone for the first time, it shows a 6-digit code. You type that code once into your account at my.keyagain.app, and the phone is paired. You can pair more than one phone, and remove one from your account at any time.
The connection between phone and service
Old phones can’t make the secure connections modern websites expect, so the app carries our server’s certificate and encrypts the connection itself. Nothing needs to be installed on the phone. On a few very old phones that can’t make any secure connection, the app switches to plain HTTP automatically so it can still work, and shows “HTTP” on its home screen. More about the connection.
What happens to your messages
To reach a classic phone, messages pass through our server. That means this is not end-to-end encryption: the server has to read messages to deliver them. What we keep is limited: at most the latest 30 messages of each chat, stored encrypted, deleted automatically within 7 days. Telegram session keys are stored encrypted, and disconnecting an account deletes them. We don’t read, analyse or sell your messages, and there are no ads or feeds. The privacy policy has the details.
What it isn’t
- It isn’t a new phone or a mobile network: you use the phone and SIM you already have.
- It isn’t an official WhatsApp or Telegram app, and KeyAgain isn’t affiliated with either.
- It isn’t magic for phones that can’t run apps: the original Nokia 3310, for example, can’t install it.
