diff --git a/src/chat/index.ts b/src/chat/index.ts
index 7194524f5f..4d9ddaf9bb 100644
--- a/src/chat/index.ts
+++ b/src/chat/index.ts
@@ -26,11 +26,6 @@ const ChatContentTopic = 'dingpu';
     console.log(`\t- ${address}`);
   });
 
-  // TODO: Automatically subscribe, tracked with
-  // https://github.com/status-im/js-waku/issues/17
-  await waku.relay.subscribe();
-  console.log('Subscribed to waku relay');
-
   const rl = readline.createInterface({
     input: process.stdin,
     output: process.stdout,
diff --git a/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts b/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts
index d85ece6a13..48d5ae08a6 100644
--- a/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts
+++ b/src/lib/waku_relay/index.spec.ts
@@ -34,9 +34,6 @@ describe('Waku Relay', () => {
 
     await waku1.dialWithMultiAddr(waku2.libp2p.peerId, waku2.libp2p.multiaddrs);
 
-    await waku1.relay.subscribe();
-    await waku2.relay.subscribe();
-
     await Promise.all([
       new Promise((resolve) =>
         waku1.libp2p.pubsub.once('pubsub:subscription-change', () =>
@@ -107,7 +104,6 @@ describe('Waku Relay', () => {
         nimWaku = new NimWaku(makeLogFileName(this));
         await nimWaku.start({ staticnode: multiAddrWithId });
 
-        await waku.relay.subscribe();
         await new Promise((resolve) =>
           waku.libp2p.pubsub.once('gossipsub:heartbeat', resolve)
         );
@@ -180,8 +176,6 @@ describe('Waku Relay', () => {
         nimWaku = new NimWaku(this.test?.ctx?.currentTest?.title + '');
         await nimWaku.start();
 
-        await waku.relay.subscribe();
-
         await waku.dial(await nimWaku.getMultiaddrWithId());
 
         // Wait for identify protocol to finish
@@ -276,8 +270,6 @@ describe('Waku Relay', () => {
           waku2.dial(nimWakuMultiaddr),
         ]);
 
-        await Promise.all([waku1.relay.subscribe(), waku2.relay.subscribe()]);
-
         await Promise.all([
           new Promise((resolve) =>
             waku1.libp2p.pubsub.once('gossipsub:heartbeat', resolve)
diff --git a/src/lib/waku_relay/index.ts b/src/lib/waku_relay/index.ts
index 018ca5fe20..58362b18bc 100644
--- a/src/lib/waku_relay/index.ts
+++ b/src/lib/waku_relay/index.ts
@@ -294,11 +294,8 @@ export class WakuRelayPubsub extends Gossipsub {
 
 // This class provides an interface to execute the waku relay protocol
 export class WakuRelay {
-  constructor(private pubsub: Pubsub) {}
-
-  // At this stage we are always using the same topic so we do not pass it as a parameter
-  async subscribe() {
-    await this.pubsub.subscribe(constants.RelayDefaultTopic);
+  constructor(private pubsub: Pubsub) {
+    this.pubsub.subscribe(constants.RelayDefaultTopic);
   }
 
   async publish(message: WakuMessage) {