Will my phone work?

J2ME is a stripped-down version of the Java platform and was the backbone of pre-smartphone mobile devices. It shipped on billions of phones between 2003 and 2013.

RetroRelay is built on the widest possible J2ME baseline: MIDP 2.0 on top of CLDC 1.0, so the app runs on virtually all of them.

If your phone has Java and a way to reach the internet, it almost certainly works, even if it's not on our verified devices list.

What your phone needs

• MIDP 2.0

  The Java mobile profile. Anything higher is backwards compatible.

• CLDC 1.0

  The runtime layer underneath. Anything higher is backwards compatible.

• An internet connection

  See How to connect for the two main routes: Mobile data and Wi-Fi.

• 150 KB of free space

  RetroRelay installs in a small footprint. A few early Nokia phones cap app size at 128 KB — for those we offer a Lite version that fits under the limit.

What doesn't work?

• iPhone, Android, Windows phones

  They have their own ecosystems and don't run J2ME natively. RetroRelay is built for the devices that came before them.

• Pre-2003 phones without Java MIDP 2.0

  Very early phones and a handful of carrier-locked models.

The exception

An Android phone can run RetroRelay via a J2ME emulator. It works, but it's not really a "retro phone" experience and we don't officially support that path.

A note on QR scanning

The Authenticator can add an account by scanning its QR code with your phone's camera. Some manufacturers block camera access for Java apps, so on those handsets the scan won't start. When that happens, you can add the account from the website instead, by uploading a photo of the code or typing it in by hand.