Relay is intentionally peer-to-peer only because we believe it is the best way to enable deep connection and shame-free accountability. Think of it almost like a group chat with a handful of other friends who are dealing with the same thing — a way to stay connected and keep each other accountable. Relay is like that, except far more than a group chat; you get a set of tools that are designed to help you work together to make progress!

While there is no official facilitator, Relay’s provides “assisted” connection to help steer the peer-to-peer support to stay engaging and helpful: automated weekly conversation prompts, notification nudges if someone starts to withdraw, and intelligent mood monitoring to detect if conversation becomes negative or unproductive. We provide a number of built-in guardrails so that you have plenty of support and guidance as a group to succeed.

Oh, also — we’ve built the app with community safety top of mind, so it’s really easy to report a message or individual if there were ever an issue.

Relay currently offers groups for eating disorders, overcoming pornography / sex addiction, smoking / vaping, substance abuse / drinking, and betrayal trauma. We usually can find a group to match you with pretty quickly, but sometimes we have you wait until we find enough other people who are dealing with a similar thing (e.g., if you want to join a team for smoking and we don’t have enough people to form a team yet, you’ll get placed on a waitlist until we have others who sign up for the same thing).

We initially offered the product for free, but soon discovered that people had better experiences and results when they had “skin in the game” to encourage them to stay connected and accountable. We now offer the app for a $12/month or $45 / six months — far less than other group-based programs or counseling, but enough to help people make a commitment and stick to it.

All data is kept strictly private and is not sold or shared with any other party. When you create your account, you can set a first name or pseudonym — whatever you’re comfortable with. You have the option to choose from a pre-set avatar for your profile picture or set a real one. Users can flag inappropriate behavior and report users at any time.

Additionally, we’ve taken precautions in the app’s functionality to make it extra safe. For example, users are only able to communicate as a group — no DMs. Users can’t share images or embed links in shareable content; it’s safer and more locked down than almost any other platform.

Yes. Our core focus is on giving you a team that can provide a great support system for you as you make progress towards healing. If you’ve tried out your current team and don’t feel it’s a great fit, you can let us know and we’ll be happy to help you try a different one. Additionally, you can also participate in more than one team at the same time if you’d just like to have extra support.

Nope! We want to make Relay as approachable and accessible as possible, so we don’t want to force the extra commitment on you. You can communicate at your own pace and preserve your anonymity. While all communication in the app is chat-based currently, we plan to offer optional methods down the road to communicate with your group via voice or video call (for those who feel comfortable and want to connect on a deeper level).

Yep. To keep things as safe as possible, all Relay-formed groups are divided up by gender. If you’d like to form your own group with people you know in real life of different genders, you can start a private team to do that.

If you already have a support group you’re working with or know people in real life who you’d like to team up with, we can help you set up a private team to use with them. We also support both individual and group discount payment options for this.

Yes! Because of our founder’s personal background in overcoming addiction / unwanted behavior and finding healing through group support, we are connected with many professionals in the space and have involved a handful of trusted clinicians in providing input and advice as we shape the app.

Right now, teams are primarily for adults. However, if you know a younger person who might be interested in using the app, contact us at support@joinrelay.app and we may be able to help find a private, youth-only team through one of our partner organizations that has groups for those under 18.

Yes! While Relay provides you a peer-based environment to have support and accountability, people using Relay the app today share their progress with a trusted friend, family member, church leader, or therapist. We’re even building a feature right now that will allow you to add them to your profile so they can see progress directly within the app.

First off, Relay should not be viewed as a replacement for professional therapy. Since therapists are often so busy, however, their ability to lend support 7 days a week is limited. Many users of the app find Relay a helpful tool to get better connection and accountability between sessions. The group-based peer support Relay offers can also be a nice complement to the 1:1 nature of professional counseling.

In short, other apps and programs often mostly focus on education, content, or tracking, while Relay is focused more on connection and accountability. We believe a tight-knit support system with others working on the same thing is essential to long-term healing and success.