Clients talk only with relays, so your data is pulled from relays. There are a couple of discovering mechanism that permit that automatically, if you don't find the same relays after the login you have to instruct the app to use yours entering them manually. 

 Okay got it. Thanks again! Once I'm more familiar with amethyst in general I'll check out coracle. Any other clients you would recommend? 

 For mobile you can try Yana, less features but lighter.

For desktop, Gossip.
But I alert you that it's a little hardcore  :) 

 Thank you for the recommendations! 

 Remember to add a Lighting address to receive zaps! 

 Working on that! Thank you :) 

 yo, i wanted to follow up and say i downloaded and have been using Gossip, and it's downright brilliant. great rec!