1# Conversations
2
3Conversations: the very last word in instant messaging
4
5[](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations)
6
7
8
9## Design principles
10
11* Be as beautiful and easy to use as possible without sacrificing security or
12 privacy
13* Rely on existing, well established protocols (XMPP)
14* Do not require a Google Account or specifically Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
15* Require as few permissions as possible
16
17## Features
18
19* End-to-end encryption with either [OTR](https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/) or [OpenPGP](http://www.openpgp.org/about_openpgp/)
20* Sending and receiving images
21* Indication when your contact has read your message
22* Intuitive UI that follows Android Design guidelines
23* Pictures / Avatars for your Contacts
24* Syncs with desktop client
25* Conferences (with support for bookmarks)
26* Address book integration
27* Multiple accounts / unified inbox
28* Very low impact on battery life
29
30
31### XMPP Features
32
33Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an
34extensible protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called
35XEP's. Conversations supports a couple of these to make the overall user
36experience better. There is a chance that your current XMPP server does not
37support these extensions; therefore to get the most out of Conversations you
38should consider either switching to an XMPP server that does or — even better —
39run your own XMPP server for you and your friends. These XEP's are:
40
41* XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams (or mod_proxy65). Will be used to transfer
42 files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
43* XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol for avatars
44* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to survive small network outages and
45 changes of the underlying TCP connection.
46* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to
47 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
48 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
49* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
50* XEP-0313: Message Archive Management synchronize message history with the
51 server. Catch up with messages that were sent while Conversations was
52 offline.
53* XEP-0352: Client State Indication lets the server know whether or not
54 Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by
55 withholding unimportant packages.
56* XEP-0191: Blocking command lets you blacklist spammers or block contacts
57 without removing them from your roster.
58
59## Team
60
61#### Head of Development
62
63* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/inputmice)
64
65#### Code Contributions
66
67(In order of appearance)
68
69* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
70* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
71* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
72* [M. Dietrich](https://github.com/emdete)
73* [betheg](https://github.com/betheg)
74* [Sam Whited](https://github.com/SamWhited)
75
76#### Logo
77* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/qooob) (Progress)
78* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys) (Original)
79
80#### Translations
81
82* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
83* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
84* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
85* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
86* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/qooob) (Russian)
87* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
88* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)
89* [Aizaz AZ](http://www.linkedin.com/in/aizazhaider) (Chinese)
90* [Jaroslav Lichtblau] (https://github.com/svetlemodry) (Czech)
91
92## FAQ
93
94### General
95
96#### How do I install Conversations?
97
98Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
99software developer you can check out the sources from GitHub and use ant to
100build your apk file.
101
102The more convenient way — which not only gives you automatic updates but also
103supports the further development of Conversations — is to buy the App in the
104Google [Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
105
106#### I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
107
108I accept donations over PayPal, Bitcoin and Flattr. For donations via PayPal you
109can use the email address `donate@siacs.eu` or the button below.
110
111[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
112
113**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For
114larger contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk
115about bank transfer (SEPA).
116
117My Bitcoin Address is: `1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu`
118
119
120[](https://flattr.com/submit/auto?user_id=inputmice&url=http%3A%2F%2Fconversations.siacs.eu&title=Conversations&tags=github&category=software)
121
122#### How do I create an account?
123
124XMPP, like email, is a federated protocol which means that there is not one
125company you can create an 'official XMPP account' with. Instead there are
126hundreds, or even thousands, of provider out there. To find one use a web search
127engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your
128own. Or ask a friend to run one. Once you've found one, you can use
129Conversations to create an account. Just select 'register new account on server'
130within the create account dialog.
131
132#### Where can I set up a custom hostname / port
133Conversations will automatically look up the SRV records for your domain name
134which can point to any hostname port combination. If your server doesn’t provide
135those please contact your admin and have them read
136[this](http://prosody.im/doc/dns#srv_records)
137
138#### Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
139
140You can join our conference room on `conversations@conference.siacs.eu`.
141A lot of people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
142Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
143you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
144section of this document.
145
146#### I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
147
148I'm available for hire. Contact me at `inputmice@siacs.eu`.
149
150#### How does the address book integration work?
151
152The address book integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
153neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
154address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
155add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
156the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
157your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
158details within Conversations. This will start an "add to address book" intent
159with the JID as the payload. This doesn't require Conversations to have write
160permissions on your address book but also doesn't require you to copy/paste a
161JID from one app to another.
162
163#### I get 'delivery failed' on my messages
164
165If you get delivery failed on images it's probably because the recipient lost
166network connectivity during reception. In that case you can try it again at a
167later time.
168
169For text messages the answer to your question is a little bit more complex.
170When you see 'delivery failed' on text messages, it is always something that is
171being reported by the server. The most common reason for this is that the
172recipient failed to resume a connection. When a client loses connectivity for a
173short time the client usually has a five minute window to pick up that
174connection again. When the client fails to do so because the network
175connectivity is out for longer than that all messages sent to that client will
176be returned to the sender resulting in a delivery failed.
177
178Other less common reasons are that the message you sent didn't meet some
179criteria enforced by the server (too large, too many). Another reason could be
180that the recipient is offline and the server doesn't provide offline storage.
181
182Usually you are able to distinguish between these two groups in the fact that
183the first one happens always after some time and the second one happens almost
184instantly.
185
186#### Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority?
187
188Statuses are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
189works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
190automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
191activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
192something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
193of status always implies an impact on your privacy (are you sure you want
194everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1954am‽).
196
197In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
198messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
199(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
200whether or not your messages are being read. Similar things can be said for
201priorities. In the past priorities have been used (by servers, not by clients!)
202to route your messages to one specific client. With carbon messages (XEP-0280,
203supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no longer necessary. Using
204priorities to route OTR messages isn't practical either because they are not
205changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client (the client which sent
206the last message) are much better.
207
208Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
209adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
210instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
211implementing new, improved technologies and getting them into other XMPP clients
212as well.
213
214Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
215Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
216other clients.
217
218#### Conversations is missing a certain feature
219
220I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the [issue tracker][issues] on
221GitHub. Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone
222else already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I
223like it I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will
224close it (usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature
225request that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you.
226Commenting with +1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind, nor
227will it accelerate the development.
228
229#### You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
230
231Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
232merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
233
234#### I need a feature and I need it now!
235
236I am available for hire. Contact me via XMPP: `inputmice@siacs.eu`
237
238### Security
239
240#### Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
241
242In most cases OTR should be the encryption method of choice. It works out of the
243box with most contacts as long as they are online. However PGP can, in some
244cases, (message carbons to multiple clients) be more flexible.
245
246#### How do I use OpenPGP
247
248Before you continue reading you should note that the OpenPGP support in
249Conversations is experimental. This is not because it will make the app unstable
250but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for widespread use.
251The way PGP works is that you trust Key IDs instead of JID's or email addresses.
252So in theory your contact list should consist of Public-Key-IDs instead of
253JID's. But of course no email or XMPP client out there implements these
254concepts. Plus PGP in the context of instant messaging has a couple of
255downsides: It is vulnerable to replay attacks, it is rather verbose, and
256decrypting and encrypting takes longer than OTR. It is however asynchronous and
257works well with message carbons.
258
259To use OpenPGP you have to install the open source app
260[OpenKeychain](www.openkeychain.org) and then long press on the account in
261manage accounts and choose renew PGP announcement from the contextual menu.
262
263#### How does the encryption for conferences work?
264
265For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP (OTR does not
266work with multiple participants). Every participant has to announce their
267OpenPGP key (see answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
268a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
269in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
270that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
271touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
272to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key. This works best in
273very small conferences with contacts you are already using OpenPGP with. This
274feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only client that uses
275XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows nor disallows
276this.)
277
278### Development
279
280#### How do I build Conversations
281
282Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
283
284 git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
285 cd Conversations
286 ./gradlew build
287
288
289[](https://travis-ci.org/siacs/Conversations)
290
291### How do I update/add external libraries?
292
293If the library you want to update is in Maven Central or JCenter (or has its own
294Maven repo), add it or update its version in `build.gradle`. If the library is
295in the `libs/` directory, you can update it using a subtree merge by doing the
296following (using `minidns` as an example):
297
298 git remote add minidns https://github.com/rtreffer/minidns.git
299 git fetch minidns
300 git merge -s subtree minidns master
301
302To add a new dependency to the `libs/` directory (replacing "name", "branch" and
303"url" as necessary):
304
305 git remote add name url
306 git merge -s ours --no-commit name/branch
307 git read-tree --prefix=libs/name -u name/branch
308 git commit -m "Subtree merged in name"
309
310#### How do I debug Conversations
311
312If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
313the UI (other than the fact that something didn't work). However with adb
314(android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of Conversations.
315These information are especially useful if you are experiencing trouble with
316your connection or with file transfer.
317
318 adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
319
320#### I found a bug
321
322Please report it to our [issue tracker][issues]. If your app crashes please
323provide a stack trace. If you are experiencing misbehaviour please provide
324detailed steps to reproduce. Always mention whether you are running the latest
325Play Store version or the current HEAD. If you are having problems connecting to
326your XMPP server your file transfer doesn’t work as expected please always
327include a logcat debug output with your issue (see above).
328
329[issues]: https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/issues