1#Conversations
2Conversations - the very last word in instant messaging
3
4[](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations)
5
6
7
8##Design principles
9* Be as beautiful and easy to use as possible without sacrificing security or
10 privacy
11* Rely on existing, well established protocols (XMPP)
12* Do not require a Google Account or specifically Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
13* Require as little permissons as possible
14
15##Features
16* End-to-end encryption with either OTR or openPGP
17* Sending and receiving images
18* Intuitive UI that follows Android Design guidelines
19* Syncs with desktop client
20* Conferences (with support for bookmarks)
21* Address book integration
22* Multiple Accounts / unified inbox
23* Very low impact on battery life
24
25
26###XMPP Features
27Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an extensible
28protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called XEP’s.
29Conversations supports a couple of those to make the overall userexperience better. There is a
30chance that your current XMPP server does not support these extensions.
31Therefore to get the most out of Conversations you should consider either switching to an
32XMPP server that does or - even better - run your own XMPP server for you and
33your friends.
34These XEPs are - as of now:
35* XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams - or rather mod_proxy65. Will be used to tranfer files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
36* XEP-0138: Stream Compression saves bandwith
37* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to survive small network outages and changes of the underlying TCP connection.
38* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to
39 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
40 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
41* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwith on poor mobile connections
42
43##Contributors
44(In order of appearance)
45
46###Code
47* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
48* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
49* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
50
51###Logo
52* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys)
53
54###Translations
55* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
56* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
57* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
58* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
59* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/rostovtsev) (Russian)
60* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
61* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)
62
63##FAQ
64###General
65####How do I install Conversations?
66Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
67software developer you can check out the sources from github and use ant to
68build your apk file.
69
70The more convenient way - which not only gives you automatic updates but also
71supports the further development of Conversations - is to buy the App in the Google
72[Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
73####I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
74I accept donations over PayPal and BitCoin. For donations via PayPal you can use the email address donate@siacs.eu or the button below.
75
76[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
77
78**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For larger
79contributons please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk about bank
80transfer (SEPA).
81
82My Bitcoin Address is: 1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu
83
84####How do I create an account?
85XMPP like email for example is a federated protocol which means that there is
86not one company you can create your 'official xmpp account' with but there are
87hundreds or even thousands of provider out there. To find one use a web search
88engine of your choice. Or maybe your univeristy has one. Or you can run your own.
89Or ask a friend to run one. Once you found one you can use Conversations to
90create an account. Just select 'register new account on server' within the
91create account dialog.
92
93####Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
94You can join our conference room on conversations@conference.siacs.eu A lot of
95people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
96Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
97you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
98section of this document.
99
100####I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
101I'm available for hire. Contact me at inputmice@siacs.eu
102
103####How does the address book integration work?
104The address bock integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
105neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
106address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
107add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
108the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
109your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
110details within Conversations. This will start an add to address book intent with the jabber ID
111as payload. This doesn’t require Conversations to have write permissions on your
112address book but also doesn’t require you to copy past Jabber ID from one app to
113another.
114####Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority
115Status are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarly
116works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
117automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
118activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
119something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
120of status always implies an impact on your privacy. (Are you sure you want
121everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1224am?!)
123
124In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
125messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
126(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
127whether or not your messages are being read.
128Similar things can be said for priorites. In the past priorties have been used
129(By servers, not by clients!) to route your messages to one specific client.
130With carbon messages (XEP-0280, supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no
131longer necessary. Using priorities to route OTR messages isn't pratical either
132because they are not changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client
133(the client which sent the last message) are much better.
134
135Unfortunatly these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
136adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
137instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
138implementing new, improved technologies into other XMPP clients as well.
139
140Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
141Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
142other clients.
143
144####Conversations is missing a certain feature
145I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the issue tracker on github.
146Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone else
147already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I like it
148I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will close
149it. (Usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature request
150that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you. Commenting with
151+1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind nor will it accelerate the
152development.
153
154####You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
155Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
156merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
157
158####I need a feature and I need it now!
159I am available for hire. Contact me JID: inputmice@siacs.eu
160
161###Security
162####Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
163In most cases OTR should be the encryption method of choice. It works out of the box with most contacts as long as they are online.
164However PGP can be in some cases (carbonated messages to multiple clients) be
165more flexible.
166####How do I use openPGP
167Before you continue reading you should notice that the openPGP support in
168Conversations is marked as experimental. This is not because it will make the app
169unstable but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for a
170widespread use. The way PGP works is that you trust Key IDs instead of XMPP- or email addresses. So in theory your contact list should consist of Public-Key-IDs instead of email addresses. But of course no email or xmpp client out there implements these concepts. Plus PGP in the context of instant messaging has a couple of downsides. It is vulnerable to replay attacks, it is rather verbose, and decrypting and encrypting takes longer than OTR. It is however asynchronous and works well with carbonated messages.
171
172To use openpgp you have to install the opensource app OpenKeychain (www.openkeychain.org) and then long press on the account in manage accounts and choose renew PGP announcement from the contextual menu.
173####How does the encryption for conferences work?
174For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP. (OTR does not
175work with multiple participents.) Every participant has to announce their
176OpenPGP key. (See answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
177a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
178in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
179that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
180touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
181to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key.
182This works best in very small conferences with contacts you are already using
183OpenPGP with. This feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only
184client that uses XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows
185nor disallows this.)
186###Development
187####How do I build Conversations
188Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
189```
190git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
191cd Conversations
192git submodule update --init --recursive
193ant clean
194ant debug
195```
196####I found a bug
197Please report it to our issue tracker. If your app crashes please provide a
198stack trace. If you are experiencing missbehaviour please provide detailed
199steps to reproduce.
200Always mention whether you are running the latest Play Store version or the
201current HEAD.