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 user experience 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 transfer files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
36* XEP-0138: Stream Compression saves bandwidth
37* XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol for avatars
38* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to survive small network outages and changes of the underlying TCP connection.
39* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to
40 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
41 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
42* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
43* XEP-0352: Client State Indication let the server know whether or not
44 Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by
45 withholding unimportent packages.
46
47##Contributors
48(In order of appearance)
49
50###Code
51* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
52* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
53* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
54
55###Logo
56* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys)
57
58###Translations
59* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
60* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
61* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
62* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
63* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/rostovtsev) (Russian)
64* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
65* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)
66
67##FAQ
68###General
69####How do I install Conversations?
70Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
71software developer you can check out the sources from github and use ant to
72build your apk file.
73
74The more convenient way - which not only gives you automatic updates but also
75supports the further development of Conversations - is to buy the App in the Google
76[Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
77####I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
78I accept donations over PayPal and BitCoin. For donations via PayPal you can use the email address donate@siacs.eu or the button below.
79
80[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
81
82**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For larger
83contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk about bank
84transfer (SEPA).
85
86My Bitcoin Address is: 1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu
87
88####How do I create an account?
89XMPP like email for example is a federated protocol which means that there is
90not one company you can create your 'official xmpp account' with but there are
91hundreds or even thousands of provider out there. To find one use a web search
92engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your own.
93Or ask a friend to run one. Once you found one you can use Conversations to
94create an account. Just select 'register new account on server' within the
95create account dialog.
96
97####Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
98You can join our conference room on conversations@conference.siacs.eu A lot of
99people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
100Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
101you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
102section of this document.
103
104####I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
105I'm available for hire. Contact me at inputmice@siacs.eu
106
107####How does the address book integration work?
108The address bock integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
109neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
110address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
111add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
112the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
113your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
114details within Conversations. This will start an add to address book intent with the jabber ID
115as payload. This doesn’t require Conversations to have write permissions on your
116address book but also doesn’t require you to copy past Jabber ID from one app to
117another.
118####Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority
119Status are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
120works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
121automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
122activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
123something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
124of status always implies an impact on your privacy. (Are you sure you want
125everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1264am?!)
127
128In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
129messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
130(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
131whether or not your messages are being read.
132Similar things can be said for priorities. In the past priorities have been used
133(By servers, not by clients!) to route your messages to one specific client.
134With carbon messages (XEP-0280, supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no
135longer necessary. Using priorities to route OTR messages isn't pratical either
136because they are not changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client
137(the client which sent the last message) are much better.
138
139Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
140adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
141instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
142implementing new, improved technologies into other XMPP clients as well.
143
144Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
145Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
146other clients.
147
148####Conversations is missing a certain feature
149I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the issue tracker on github.
150Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone else
151already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I like it
152I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will close
153it. (Usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature request
154that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you. Commenting with
155+1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind nor will it accelerate the
156development.
157
158####You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
159Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
160merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
161
162####I need a feature and I need it now!
163I am available for hire. Contact me JID: inputmice@siacs.eu
164
165###Security
166####Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
167In 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.
168However PGP can be in some cases (carbonated messages to multiple clients) be
169more flexible.
170####How do I use openPGP
171Before you continue reading you should notice that the openPGP support in
172Conversations is marked as experimental. This is not because it will make the app
173unstable but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for a
174widespread 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.
175
176To 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.
177####How does the encryption for conferences work?
178For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP. (OTR does not
179work with multiple participants.) Every participant has to announce their
180OpenPGP key. (See answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
181a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
182in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
183that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
184touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
185to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key.
186This works best in very small conferences with contacts you are already using
187OpenPGP with. This feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only
188client that uses XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows
189nor disallows this.)
190###Development
191####How do I build Conversations
192Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
193```
194git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
195cd Conversations
196git submodule update --init --recursive
197ant clean
198ant debug
199```
200####How do I debug Conversations
201If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
202the UI. (Other than the fact that something didn't work)
203However with adb (android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of
204Conversations. These information are especially useful if you are experiencing
205troubles with your connection or with file transfer.
206````
207adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
208````
209####I found a bug
210Please report it to our issue tracker. If your app crashes please provide a
211stack trace. If you are experiencing missbehaviour please provide detailed
212steps to reproduce.
213Always mention whether you are running the latest Play Store version or the
214current HEAD.
215If you are having problems connecting to your XMPP server your file transfer
216doesn’t work as expected please always include a logcat debug output with your
217issue. (See above)