1Easy to use, reliable, battery friendly. With built-in support for images, group chats and e2e encryption.
 2
 3Design principles:
 4
 5* Be as beautiful and easy to use as possible without sacrificing security or privacy
 6* Rely on existing, well established protocols
 7* Do not require a Google Account or specifically Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
 8* Require as few permissions as possible
 9
10Features:
11
12* End-to-end encryption with either <a href="http://conversations.im/omemo/">OMEMO</a> or <a href="http://openpgp.org/about/">OpenPGP</a>
13* Sending and receiving images
14* Intuitive UI that follows Android Design guidelines
15* Pictures / Avatars for your Contacts
16* Syncs with desktop client
17* Conferences (with support for bookmarks)
18* Address book integration
19* Multiple accounts / unified inbox
20* Very low impact on battery life
21
22Conversations makes it very easy to create an account on the conversations.im
23server. Using that server comes with an annual fee of 8 Euro after a 6 month
24trial period. However Conversations will work with any other XMPP server as
25well. A lot of XMPP servers are run by volunteers and are free of charge.
26
27XMPP Features:
28
29Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an
30extensible protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called
31XEP’s. Conversations supports a couple of those to make the overall user
32experience better. There is a chance that your current XMPP server does not
33support these extensions. Therefore to get the most out of Conversations you
34should consider either switching to an XMPP server that does or - even better -
35run your own XMPP server for you and your friends.
36
37These XEPs are - as of now:
38
39* XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams (or mod_proxy65). Will be used to transfer files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
40* XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol for avatars
41* XEP-0191: Blocking command lets you blacklist spammers or block contacts without removing them from your roster.
42* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to survive small network outages and changes of the underlying TCP connection.
43* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
44* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
45* XEP-0313: Message Archive Management synchronize message history with the server. Catch up with messages that were sent while Conversations was offline.
46* XEP-0352: Client State Indication lets the server know whether or not Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by withholding unimportant packages.
47* XEP-0363: HTTP File Upload allows you to share files in conferences and with offline contacts. Requires an additional component on your server.