1<h1 align="center">Conversations</h1>
2
3<p align="center">Conversations: the very last word in instant messaging</p>
4
5<p align="center">
6 <a href="https://conversations.im/j/conversations@conference.siacs.eu">
7 <img src="https://inverse.chat/badge.svg?room=conversations@conference.siacs.eu"
8 alt="chat on our conference room">
9 </a>
10 <a href="https://travis-ci.org/siacs/Conversations">
11 <img src="https://travis-ci.org/siacs/Conversations.svg?branch=master"
12 alt="build status">
13 </a>
14 <a href="https://bountysource.com/teams/siacs">
15 <img src="https://api.bountysource.com/badge/tracker?tracker_id=519483" alt="Bountysource">
16 </a>
17</p>
18
19<p align="center">
20 <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub">
21 <img src="https://conversations.im/images/en-play-badge.png"
22 alt="Google Play">
23 </a>
24 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WD35AAC/">
25 <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/AmazonMobileApps/amazon-apps-store-us-black.png"
26 alt="Amazon App Store">
27 </a>
28</p>
29
30
31
32## Design principles
33
34* Be as beautiful and easy to use as possible without sacrificing security or
35 privacy
36* Rely on existing, well established protocols (XMPP)
37* Do not require a Google Account or specifically Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
38* Require as few permissions as possible
39
40## Features
41
42* End-to-end encryption with [OMEMO](http://conversations.im/omemo/) or [OpenPGP](http://openpgp.org/about/)
43* Send and receive images as well as other kind of files
44* Share your location via an external [plug-in](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations.sharelocation&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub)
45* Send voice messages via an external [plug-in](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations.voicerecorder&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub)
46* Indication when your contact has read your message
47* Intuitive UI that follows Android Design guidelines
48* Pictures / Avatars for your Contacts
49* Syncs with desktop client
50* Conferences (with support for bookmarks)
51* Address book integration
52* Multiple accounts / unified inbox
53* Very low impact on battery life
54
55
56### XMPP Features
57
58Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an
59extensible protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called
60XEP's. Conversations supports a couple of these to make the overall user
61experience better. There is a chance that your current XMPP server does not
62support these extensions; therefore to get the most out of Conversations you
63should consider either switching to an XMPP server that does or — even better —
64run your own XMPP server for you and your friends. These XEP's are:
65
66* [XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0065.html) (or mod_proxy65). Will be used to transfer
67 files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
68* [XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0163.html) for avatars and OMEMO.
69* [XEP-0191: Blocking command](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0191.html) lets you blacklist spammers or block contacts
70 without removing them from your roster.
71* [XEP-0198: Stream Management](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0198.html) allows XMPP to survive small network outages and
72 changes of the underlying TCP connection.
73* [XEP-0280: Message Carbons](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0280.html) which automatically syncs the messages you send to
74 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
75 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
76* [XEP-0237: Roster Versioning](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0237.html) mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
77* [XEP-0313: Message Archive Management](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0313.html) synchronize message history with the
78 server. Catch up with messages that were sent while Conversations was
79 offline.
80* [XEP-0352: Client State Indication](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0352.html) lets the server know whether or not
81 Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by
82 withholding unimportant packages.
83* [XEP-0363: HTTP File Upload](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0363.html) allows you to share files in conferences
84 and with offline contacts.
85
86## FAQ
87
88### General
89
90#### How do I install Conversations?
91
92Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
93software developer you can check out the sources from GitHub and use Gradle to
94build your apk file.
95
96The more convenient way — which not only gives you automatic updates but also
97supports the further development of Conversations — is to buy the App in the
98Google [Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub).
99
100Buying the App from the Play Store will also give you access to our [beta test](#beta).
101
102#### I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
103
104I accept donations over PayPal, bank transfer and various crypto currencies. For donations via PayPal you
105can use the email address `donate@siacs.eu` or the button below.
106
107[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
108
109**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For
110larger contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk
111about bank transfer (SEPA).
112
113##### Crypto currencies
114
115Bitcoin: `1AeqNAcg85APAZj9BZfAjdFCC5zesqXp2B`
116
117Bitcoin Cash: `16ABkXzYAwWz8Y5DcWFfbBRqL63g3hzEaU`
118
119Ether: `0x5c4e5239cd9c6f4a909e4e8361526e2e3c8ba9fa`
120
121#### How do I create an account?
122XMPP, like email, is a federated protocol, which means that there is not one company you can create an *official XMPP account* with. Instead there are hundreds, or even thousands, of providers out there. One of those providers is our very own [conversations.im](https://account.conversations.im). If you don’t like to use *conversations.im* use a web search engine of your choice to find another provider. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your own. Or ask a friend to run one. Once you've found one, you can use Conversations to create an account. Just select *register new account* on server within the create account dialog.
123
124##### Domain hosting
125Using your own domain not only gives you a more recognizable Jabber ID, it also gives you the flexibility to migrate your account between different XMPP providers. This is a good compromise between the responsibilities of having to operate your own server and the downsides of being dependent on a single provider.
126
127Learn more about [conversations.im Jabber/XMPP domain hosting](https://account.conversations.im/domain/).
128
129##### Running your own
130If you already have a server somewhere and are willing and able to put the necessary work in, one alternative-in the spirit of federation-is to run your own. We recommend either [Prosody](https://prosody.im/) or [ejabberd](https://www.ejabberd.im/). Both of which have their own strengths. Ejabberd is slightly more mature nowadays but Prosody is arguably easier to set up.
131
132For Prosody you need a couple of so called [community modules](https://modules.prosody.im/) most of which are maintained by the same people that develop Prosody.
133
134If you pick ejabberd make sure you use the latest version. Linux Distributions might bundle some very old versions of it.
135
136#### Where can I set up a custom hostname / port
137Conversations will automatically look up the SRV records for your domain name
138which can point to any hostname port combination. If your server doesn’t provide
139those please contact your admin and have them read
140[this](http://prosody.im/doc/dns#srv_records). If your server operator is unwilling
141to fix this you can enable advanced server settings in the expert settings of
142Conversations.
143
144#### I get 'Incompatible Server'
145
146As regular user you should be picking a different server. The server you selected
147is probably insecure and/or very old.
148
149If you are a server administrator you should make sure that your server provides
150either STARTTLS or [XEP-0368: SRV records for XMPP over TLS](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0368.html).
151
152On rare occasions this error message might also be caused by a server not providing
153a login (SASL) mechanism that Conversations is able to handle. Conversations supports
154SCRAM-SHA1, PLAIN, EXTERNAL (client certs) and DIGEST-MD5.
155
156#### I get 'Bind failure'. What does that mean?
157
158Some Bind failures are transient and resolve themselves after a reconnect.
159
160When trying to connect to OpenFire the bind failure can be a permanent problem when the domain part of the Jabber ID entered in Conversations doesn’t match the domain the OpenFire server feels responsible for. For example OpenFire is configured to use the domain `a.tld` but the Jabber ID entered is `user@b.tld` where `b.tld` also points to the same host. During bind OpenFire tries to reassign the Jabber to `user@a.tld`. Conversations doesn’t like that.
161This can be fixed by creating a new account in Conversations that uses the Jabber ID `user@a.tld`.
162
163Note: This is kind of a weird quirk in OpenFire. Most other servers would just throw a 'Server not responsible for domain' error instead of attempting to reassign the Jabber ID.
164
165Maybe you attempted to use the Jabber ID `test@b.tld` because `a.tld` doesn’t point to the correct host. In that case you might have to enable the extended connection settings in the expert settings of Conversations and set a host name.
166
167#### How do XEP-0357: Push Notifications work?
168You need to be running the Play Store version of Conversations and your server needs to support push notifications.¹ Because *Google Cloud Notifications (GCM)* are tied with an API key to a specific app your server can not initiate the push message directly. Instead your server will send the push notification to the Conversations App server (operated by us) which then acts as a proxy and initiates the push message for you. The push message sent from our App server through GCM doesn’t contain any personal information. It is just an empty message which will wake up your device and tell Conversations to reconnect to your server. The information send from your server to our App server depends on the configuration of your server but can be limited to your account name. (In any case the Conversations App server won't redirect any information through GCM even if your server sends this information.)
169
170In summary Google will never get hold of any personal information besides that *something* happened. (Which doesn’t even have to be a message but can be some automated event as well.) We - as the operator of the App server - will just get hold of your account name (without being able to tie this to your specific device).
171
172If you don’t want this simply pick a server which does not offer Push Notifications or build Conversations yourself without support for push notifications. (This is available via a gradle build flavor.) Non-play store source of Conversations like the Amazon App store will also offer a version without push notifications. Conversations will just work as before and maintain its own TCP connection in the background.
173
174 ¹ Your server only needs to support the server side of [XEP-0357: Push Notifications](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0357.html). If you use the Play Store version you do **not** need to run your own app server. The server modules are called *mod_cloud_notify* on Prosody and *mod_push* on ejabberd.
175
176#### Conversations doesn’t work for me. Where can I get help?
177
178You can join our conference room on `conversations@conference.siacs.eu`.
179A lot of people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
180Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
181you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
182section of this document.
183
184#### I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
185
186I'm available for hire. Contact me at `inputmice@siacs.eu`.
187
188#### How does the address book integration work?
189
190The address book integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
191neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
192address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
193add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
194the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
195your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
196details within Conversations. This will start an "add to address book" intent
197with the JID as the payload. This doesn't require Conversations to have write
198permissions on your address book but also doesn't require you to copy/paste a
199JID from one app to another.
200
201#### I get 'delivery failed' on my messages
202
203If you get delivery failed on images it's probably because the recipient lost
204network connectivity during reception. In that case you can try it again at a
205later time.
206
207For text messages the answer to your question is a little bit more complex.
208When you see 'delivery failed' on text messages, it is always something that is
209being reported by the server. The most common reason for this is that the
210recipient failed to resume a connection. When a client loses connectivity for a
211short time the client usually has a five minute window to pick up that
212connection again. When the client fails to do so because the network
213connectivity is out for longer than that all messages sent to that client will
214be returned to the sender resulting in a delivery failed.
215
216Instead of returning a message to the sender both ejabberd and prosody have the
217ability to store messages in offline storage when the disconnecting client is
218the only client. In prosody this is available via an extra module called
219```mod_smacks_offline```. In ejabberd this is available via some configuration
220settings.
221
222Other less common reasons are that the message you sent didn't meet some
223criteria enforced by the server (too large, too many). Another reason could be
224that the recipient is offline and the server doesn't provide offline storage.
225
226Usually you are able to distinguish between these two groups in the fact that
227the first one happens always after some time and the second one happens almost
228instantly.
229
230#### Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority?
231
232Statuses are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
233works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
234automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
235activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
236something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
237of status always implies an impact on your privacy (are you sure you want
238everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
2394am‽).
240
241In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
242messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
243(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
244whether or not your messages are being read. Similar things can be said for
245priorities. In the past priorities have been used (by servers, not by clients!)
246to route your messages to one specific client. With carbon messages (XEP-0280,
247supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no longer necessary. Using
248priorities to route OTR messages isn't practical either because they are not
249changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client (the client which sent
250the last message) are much better.
251
252Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
253adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
254instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
255implementing new, improved technologies and getting them into other XMPP clients
256as well.
257
258Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
259Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
260other clients.
261
262#### Translations
263Translations are managed on [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/conversations/)
264
265#### How do I backup / move Conversations to a new device?
266On the one hand Conversations supports Message Archive Management to keep a server side history of your messages so when migrating to a new device that device can display your entire history. However that does not work if you enable OMEMO due to its forward secrecy. (Read [The State of Mobile XMPP in 2016](https://gultsch.de/xmpp_2016.html) especially the section on encryption.)
267
268If you migrate to a new device and would still like to keep your history please use a third party backup tool like [oandbackup](https://github.com/jensstein/oandbackup) (needs root access on the device) or ```adb backup``` (no root access needed) from your computer. It is important that you deactivate your account before backup and activate it only after a successful restore, otherwise OMEMO might not work afterwards. Also, remember that you can **only** transfer the backup to either the same version of Android or to a newer one (eg. 5.1.1 -> 5.1.1 or 5.1.1 -> 6.0.1).
269
270#### Conversations is missing a certain feature
271
272I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the [issue tracker][issues] on
273GitHub. Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone
274else already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I
275like it I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will
276close it (usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature
277request that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you.
278Commenting with +1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind, nor
279will it accelerate the development.
280
281#### You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
282
283Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
284merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
285
286#### I need a feature and I need it now!
287
288I am available for hire. Contact me via XMPP: `inputmice@siacs.eu`
289
290### Security
291
292#### Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
293
294* OMEMO works even when a contact is offline, and works with multiple devices. It also allows asynchronous file-transfer when the server has [HTTP File Upload](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0363.html). However, OMEMO not widely support and is currently implemented only implemented [by a handful of clients](https://omemo.top).
295* OpenPGP (XEP-0027) is a very old encryption method that has some advantages over OMEMO but should only be used by people who what they are doing.
296
297#### How do I use OpenPGP
298
299Before you continue reading you should note that the OpenPGP support in
300Conversations is experimental. This is not because it will make the app unstable
301but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for widespread use.
302The way PGP works is that you trust Key IDs instead of JID's or email addresses.
303So in theory your contact list should consist of Public-Key-IDs instead of
304JID's. But of course no email or XMPP client out there implements these
305concepts. Plus PGP in the context of instant messaging has a couple of
306downsides: It is vulnerable to replay attacks and it is rather verbose.
307
308To use OpenPGP you have to install the open source app
309[OpenKeychain](http://www.openkeychain.org) and then long press on the account in
310manage accounts and choose renew PGP announcement from the contextual menu.
311
312#### OMEMO is grayed out. What do I do?
313OMEMO has two requirements: Your server and the server of your contact need to support PEP. Both of you can verify that individually by opening your account details and selecting ```Server info``` from the menu. The appearing table should list PEP as available. The second requirement is mutual presence subscription. You can verify that by opening the contact details and see if both check boxes *Send presence updates* and *Receive presence updates* are checked.
314
315#### How does the encryption for conferences work?
316
317For conferences only OMEMO and OpenPGP are supported as encryption method..
318
319##### OMEMO
320
321OMEMO encryption works only in private (members only) conferences that are non-anonymous.
322
323The server of all participants need to pass the OMEMO [Compliance Test](https://conversations.im/compliance).
324In other words they either need to run version 18.01+ of ejabberd or have the `omemo_all_access` module installed on Prosody.
325
326The owner of a conference can make a public conference private by going into the conference
327details and hit the settings button (the one with the gears) and select both *private* and
328*members only*.
329
330If OMEMO is grayed out long pressing the lock icon will reveal some quick hints on why OMEMO
331is disabled.
332
333##### OpenPGP
334
335Every participant has to announce their OpenPGP key (see answer above).
336If you would like to send encrypted messages to a conference you have to make
337sure that you have every participant's public key in your OpenKeychain.
338Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure that.
339You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
340touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
341to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key. This works best in
342very small conferences with contacts you are already using OpenPGP with. This
343feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only client that uses
344XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows nor disallows
345this.)
346
347#### What is Blind Trust Before Verification / why are messages marked with a red lock?
348
349Read more about the concept on https://gultsch.de/trust.html
350
351### What clients do I use on other platforms
352There are XMPP Clients available for all major platforms.
353#### Windows / Linux
354For your desktop computer we recommend that you use [Gajim](https://gajim.org). You need to install the plugins `OMEMO`, `HTTP Upload` and `URL image preview` to get the best compatibility with Conversations. Plugins can be installed from within the app.
355#### iOS
356Unfortunately we don‘t have a recommendation for iPhones right now. There are two clients available [ChatSecure](https://chatsecure.org/) and [Monal](https://monal.im/). Both with their own pros and cons.
357
358
359### Development
360
361<a name="beta"></a>
362#### Beta testing
363If you bought the App on [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations)
364you can get access to the the latest beta version by signing up using [this link](https://play.google.com/apps/testing/eu.siacs.conversations).
365
366#### How do I build Conversations
367
368Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK. Use the Android SDK Manager to install missing dependencies.
369
370 git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
371 cd Conversations
372 ./gradlew assembleFreeDebug
373
374There are two build flavors available. *free* and *playstore*. Unless you know what you are doing you only need *free*.
375
376
377[](https://travis-ci.org/siacs/Conversations)
378
379#### How do I update/add external libraries?
380
381If the library you want to update is in Maven Central or JCenter (or has its own
382Maven repo), add it or update its version in `build.gradle`. If the library is
383in the `libs/` directory, you can update it using a subtree merge by doing the
384following (using `minidns` as an example):
385
386 git remote add minidns https://github.com/rtreffer/minidns.git
387 git fetch minidns
388 git merge -s subtree minidns master
389
390To add a new dependency to the `libs/` directory (replacing "name", "branch" and
391"url" as necessary):
392
393 git remote add name url
394 git merge -s ours --no-commit name/branch
395 git read-tree --prefix=libs/name -u name/branch
396 git commit -m "Subtree merged in name"
397
398#### How do I debug Conversations
399
400If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
401the UI (other than the fact that something didn't work). However with adb
402(android debug bridge) you can squeeze some more information out of Conversations.
403These information are especially useful if you are experiencing trouble with
404your connection or with file transfer.
405
406To use adb you have to connect your mobile phone to your computer with an USB cable
407and install `adb`. Most Linux systems have prebuilt packages for that tool. On
408Debian/Ubuntu for example it is called `android-tools-adb`.
409
410Furthermore you might have to enable 'USB debugging' in the Developer options of your
411phone. After that you can just execute the following on your computer:
412
413 adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
414
415If need be there are also some Apps on the PlayStore that can be used to show the logcat
416directly on your rooted phone. (Search for logcat). However in regards to further processing
417(for example to create an issue here on Github) it is more convenient to just use your PC.
418
419#### I found a bug
420
421Please report it to our [issue tracker][issues]. If your app crashes please
422provide a stack trace. If you are experiencing misbehavior please provide
423detailed steps to reproduce. Always mention whether you are running the latest
424Play Store version or the current HEAD. If you are having problems connecting to
425your XMPP server your file transfer doesn’t work as expected please always
426include a logcat debug output with your issue (see above).
427
428[issues]: https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/issues