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://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations&referrer=utm_source%3Dcodeberg">
7 <img src="https://conversations.im/images/get-it-on-play.png" alt="Get it on Google Play" height="80">
8 </a>
9 <a href="https://f-droid.org/packages/eu.siacs.conversations">
10 <img src="https://fdroid.gitlab.io/artwork/badge/get-it-on.png" alt="Get it on F-Droid" height="80">
11 </a>
12</p>
13
14<p align="center">
15<img src="https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations/raw/branch/master/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/01.png" width="216"/>
16<img src="https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations/raw/branch/master/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/02.png" width="216"/>
17<img src="https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations/raw/branch/master/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/03.png" width="216"/>
18<img src="https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations/raw/branch/master/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/04.png" width="216"/>
19<img src="https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations/raw/branch/master/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/05.png" width="216"/>
20</p>
21
22## Design principles
23
24* Be as beautiful and easy to use as possible without sacrificing security or
25 privacy
26* Rely on existing, well established protocols (XMPP)
27* Do not require a Google Account or specifically Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
28
29## Features
30
31* End-to-end encryption with [OMEMO](http://conversations.im/omemo/) or [OpenPGP](http://openpgp.org/about/)
32* Send and receive images as well as other kind of files
33* [Encrypted audio and video calls (DTLS-SRTP)](https://help.conversations.im)
34* Share your location
35* Send voice messages
36* Indication when your contact has read your message
37* Intuitive UI that follows Android Design guidelines
38* Pictures / Avatars for your Contacts
39* Synchronizes with desktop client
40* Conferences (with support for bookmarks)
41* Address book integration
42* Multiple accounts / unified inbox
43* Very low impact on battery life
44
45
46### XMPP Features
47
48Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an
49extensible protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called
50XEP's. Conversations supports a couple of these to make the overall user
51experience better. There is a chance that your current XMPP server does not
52support these extensions; therefore to get the most out of Conversations you
53should consider either switching to an XMPP server that does or — even better —
54run your own XMPP server for you and your friends. These XEP's are:
55
56* [XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0065.html) will be used to transfer
57 files if both parties are behind a firewall or NAT.
58* [XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0163.html) for avatars and OMEMO.
59* [XEP-0191: Blocking command](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0191.html) lets you blacklist spammers or block contacts
60 without removing them from your roster.
61* [XEP-0198: Stream Management](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0198.html) allows XMPP to survive small network outages and
62 changes of the underlying TCP connection.
63* [XEP-0215: External Service Discovery](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0215.html) will be used to discover STUN and TURN servers which facilitate P2P A/V calls.
64* [XEP-0280: Message Carbons](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0280.html) which automatically syncs the messages you send to
65 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
66 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
67* [XEP-0237: Roster Versioning](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0237.html) mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
68* [XEP-0313: Message Archive Management](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0313.html) synchronize message history with the
69 server. Catch up with messages that were sent while Conversations was
70 offline.
71* [XEP-0352: Client State Indication](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0352.html) lets the server know whether or not
72 Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by
73 withholding unimportant packages.
74* [XEP-0363: HTTP File Upload](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0363.html) allows you to share files in conferences
75 and with offline contacts.
76
77## FAQ
78
79### General
80
81#### How do I install Conversations?
82
83Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
84software developer you can check out the sources from Codeberg and use Gradle to
85build your APK file.
86
87Conversations is available on [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations) and on [F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.siacs.conversations/).
88
89#### How do I create an account?
90XMPP, 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.
91
92##### Domain hosting
93Using 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.
94
95Learn more about [conversations.im Jabber/XMPP domain hosting](https://account.conversations.im/domain/).
96
97##### Running your own
98If you already have a server somewhere and are willing and able to put the necessary work in you can run your own XMPP server.
99
100As of 2023 XMPP has reached a level of maturity where all major XMPP servers ([ejabberd](https://ejabberd.im), [Prosody](https://prosody.im), [Openfire](https://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/), [Tigase](https://tigase.net/xmpp-server/)) should work well with Conversations.
101
102Interoperability with Prosody and ejabberd is tested fairly regularly just because of their market share but we occasionally test with other servers too and fix issues as soon as we are being made aware of them.
103
104The default configurations are usually fine but you might want to use the [Conversations Compliance Suite](https://compliance.conversations.im) after install just to be sure.
105
106#### Where can I set up a custom hostname / port
107Conversations will automatically look up the SRV records for your domain name
108which can point to any hostname port combination. If your server doesn’t provide
109those please contact your admin and have them read
110[this](http://prosody.im/doc/dns#srv_records). If your server operator is unwilling
111to fix this you can enable advanced server settings in the expert settings of
112Conversations.
113
114#### I get 'Incompatible Server'
115
116As regular user you should be picking a different server. The server you selected
117is probably insecure and/or very old.
118
119If you are a server administrator you should make sure that your server provides
120either STARTTLS or [XEP-0368: SRV records for XMPP over TLS](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0368.html).
121
122On rare occasions this error message might also be caused by a server not providing
123a login (SASL) mechanism that Conversations is able to handle. Conversations supports
124SCRAM-SHA1, PLAIN, EXTERNAL (client certs) and DIGEST-MD5.
125
126#### I get 'Bind failure'. What does that mean?
127
128Some Bind failures are transient and resolve themselves after a reconnect.
129
130When 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.
131This can be fixed by creating a new account in Conversations that uses the Jabber ID `user@a.tld`.
132
133Note: 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.
134
135Maybe 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.
136
137#### I get 'Stream opening error'. What does that mean?
138
139In most cases this error is caused by ejabberd advertising support for TLSv1.3 but not properly supporting it. This can happen if the OpenSSL version on the server already supports TLSv1.3 but the fast\_tls wrapper library used by ejabberd not (properly) support it. Upgrading fast\_tls and ejabberd or - theoretically - downgrading OpenSSL should fix the issue. A work around is to explicitly disable TLSv1.3 support in the ejabberd configuration. More information can be found on [this issue on the ejabberd issue tracker](https://github.com/processone/ejabberd/issues/2614).
140
141#### Conversations is consuming a lot of battery, what can I do?
142
143Battery attribution on Android can be misleading. Conversations may appear to consume a lot of battery because it’s active, but this doesn’t necessarily mean it drains your battery significantly faster. For example, if your phone lasts 24 hours with Conversations and 25 hours without it, the impact is only about an hour, which is often negligible for most users who charge their phones nightly.
144
145To check for potential issues, use the account server info screen in Conversations to verify whether server features are consistently available. Additionally, ensure your session age is appropriately long (e.g., several days or since the last time you restarted your phone). A session age of just minutes might indicate a problem unless you recently turned on your phone.
146
147Battery usage percentages can also be deceptive. On low-usage days, Conversations might rank high simply because it’s running, even if its actual impact is minimal compared to something like taking a photo with the camera. Evaluating battery life with and without the app under similar conditions is the best way to assess its true effect.
148
149#### I’m getting this annoying permanent notification
150
151Starting with Conversations 2.3.6 Conversations releases distributed over the Google Play Store will display a permanent notification if you are running it on Android 8 and above. This is a rule that it is essentially enforced by the Google Play Store. (You won’t have the problem of a *forced* foreground notification if you are getting your app from F-Droid.)
152
153However you can disable the notification via settings of the operating system. (Not settings in Conversations.)
154
155**The battery consumption and the entire behavior of Conversations will remain the same (as good or as bad as it was before). Why is Google doing this to you? We have no idea.**
156
157##### Android <= 7.1 or Conversations from F-Droid (all Android versions)
158The foreground notification is still controlled over the expert settings within Conversations as it always has been. Whether or not you need to enable it depends on how aggressive the non-standard 'power saving' features are that your phone vendor has built into the operating system.
159
160##### Android 8.x
161Long press the permanent notification and disable that particular type of notification by moving the slider to the left. This will make the notification disappear but create another notification (this time created by the operating system itself.) that will complain about Conversations (and other apps) using battery. Starting with Android 8.1 you can disable that notification again with the same method described above.
162
163##### Android 9.0+
164Long press the permanent notification and press the info `(i)` button to get into the App info screen. In that screen touch the 'Notification' entry. In the next screen remove the checkbox for the 'Foreground service' entry.
165
166#### How do XEP-0357: Push Notifications work?
167You need to be running the Play Store version of Conversations and your server needs to support push notifications.¹ Because *Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)* 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](https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/p2) (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 FCM 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 sent 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 FCM even if your server sends this information.)
168
169In 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).
170
171If 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.
172
173You can find a detailed description of how your server, the app server and FCM are interacting with each other in the [README.md](https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/p2/src/branch/master/README.md) of the Conversations App Server.
174
175 Âą If you use the Play Store version you do **not** need to run your own app server. Your server only needs to support the server side of [XEP-0357: Push Notifications](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0357.html) and [XEP-0198: Stream Management](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0198.html). The prosody server modules are called *mod_cloud_notify* and *mod_smacks*. The ejabberd server modules are called *mod_push* and *mod_stream_mgmt*.
176
177
178#### But why do I need a permanent notification if I use Google Push?
179FCM (Google Push) allows an app to wake up from *Doze* which is (as the name suggests) a hibernation feature of the Android operating system that cuts the network connection and also reduces the number of times the app is allowed to wake up (to ping the server for example). The app can ask to be excluded from doze. Non push variants of the app (from F-Droid or if the server doesn’t support it) will do this on first start up. So if you get exemption from *Doze*, or if you get regular push events sent to you, Doze should not pose a threat to Conversatons working properly. But even with *Doze* the app is still open in the background (kept in memory); it is just limited in the actions it can do. Conversations needs to stay in memory to hold certain session state (online status of contacts, join status of group chats, …). However with Android 8 Google changed all of this again and now an App that wants to stay in memory needs to have a foreground service which is visible to the user via the annoying notification. But why does Conversations need to hold that state? XMPP is a statefull protocol that has a lot of per-session information; packets need to be counted, presence information needs to be held, some features like Message Carbons get activated once per session, MAM catch-up happens once, service discovery happens only once; the list goes on. When Conversations was created in early 2014 none of this was a problem because apps were just allowed to stay in memory. Basically every XMPP client out there holds that information in memory because it would be a lot more complicated trying to persist it to disk. An entire rewrite of Conversations in the year 2019 would attempt to do that and would probably succeed however it would require exactly that; a complete rewrite which is not feasible right now. That’s by the way also the reason why it is difficult to write an XMPP client on iOS. Or more broadly put this is also the reason why other protocols are designed as or migrated to stateless protocols (often based on HTTP); take for example the migration of IMAP to [JMAP](https://jmap.io/).
180
181#### How does the address book integration work?
182
183Address book integration is only available in the F-Droid version.
184
185The address book integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
186neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
187address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
188add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
189the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
190your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
191details within Conversations. This will start an "add to address book" intent
192with the JID as the payload. This doesn't require Conversations to have write
193permissions on your address book but also doesn't require you to copy/paste a
194JID from one app to another.
195
196#### I get 'delivery failed' on my messages
197
198If you get delivery failed on images it's probably because the recipient lost
199network connectivity during reception. In that case you can try it again at a
200later time.
201
202For text messages the answer to your question is a little bit more complex.
203When you see 'delivery failed' on text messages, it is always something that is
204being reported by the server. The most common reason for this is that the
205recipient failed to resume a connection. When a client loses connectivity for a
206short time the client usually has a five minute window to pick up that
207connection again. When the client fails to do so because the network
208connectivity is out for longer than that all messages sent to that client will
209be returned to the sender resulting in a delivery failed.
210
211Instead of returning a message to the sender both ejabberd and prosody have the
212ability to store messages in offline storage when the disconnecting client is
213the only client. In prosody this is available via an extra module called
214```mod_smacks_offline```. In ejabberd this is available via some configuration
215settings.
216
217Other less common reasons are that the message you sent didn't meet some
218criteria enforced by the server (too large, too many). Another reason could be
219that the recipient is offline and the server doesn't provide offline storage.
220
221Usually you are able to distinguish between these two groups in the fact that
222the first one happens always after some time and the second one happens almost
223instantly.
224
225#### Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority?
226
227Statuses are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
228works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
229automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
230activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
231something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
232of status always implies an impact on your privacy (are you sure you want
233everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
2344am‽).
235
236In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
237messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
238(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
239whether or not your messages are being read.
240* one check mark âś“: message has been send (arrived at server)
241* two check marks âś“âś“: message has arrived at receiver
242* text _"has read up to this point"_: receiver has read the message (receiver might has read notifications turned off)
243
244Similar things can be said for priorities. In the past priorities have been used
245(by servers, not by clients!) to route your messages to one specific client.
246With carbon messages (XEP-0280, supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no
247longer necessary.
248
249#### Translations
250Translations are managed on [Weblate](https://translate.codeberg.org/projects/conversations/).
251
252You can log in with your Codeberg account and start translating.
253
254#### How do I backup / move Conversations to a new device?
255
256See the dedicated guides for
257- [backups](docs/user/backup.md)
258- [migrations](docs/user/migrating_to_new_device.md)
259
260#### Can I export my chats as plain text files?
261
262There is a tool called [ceb2txt](https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/ceb2txt) that can convert backup file (.ceb) into txt files.
263
264#### Conversations is missing a certain feature
265
266I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the [issue tracker][https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations/issues]
267on Codeberg. Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone
268else already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I
269like it I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will
270close it (usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature
271request that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you.
272Commenting with +1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind, nor
273will it accelerate the development.
274
275#### You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
276
277Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
278merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
279
280#### I need a feature and I need it now!
281
282I am available for hire. Find contact information on [my website](https://gultsch.de).
283
284### Security
285
286#### Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
287
288* 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 [by a handful of clients](https://omemo.top).
289* OpenPGP (XEP-0027) is a very old encryption method that has some advantages over OMEMO but should only be used by people who know what they are doing.
290
291#### How do I use OpenPGP
292
293Before you continue reading you should note that the OpenPGP support in
294Conversations is experimental. This is not because it will make the app unstable
295but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for widespread use.
296The way PGP works is that you trust Key IDs instead of JID's or email addresses.
297So in theory your contact list should consist of Public-Key-IDs instead of
298JID's. But of course no email or XMPP client out there implements these
299concepts. Plus PGP in the context of instant messaging has a couple of
300downsides: It is vulnerable to replay attacks and it is rather verbose.
301
302To use OpenPGP you have to install the open source app
303[OpenKeychain](http://www.openkeychain.org) and then long press on the account in
304manage accounts and choose renew PGP announcement from the contextual menu.
305
306#### OMEMO is grayed out. What do I do?
307OMEMO is only available in 1:1 chats and private (members-only, non-anonymous) group chats. Encrypting public group chats makes little to no sense since anyone (including a hypothetical attacker) can join and a user couldn’t possibily verify all participants anyway. Furthermore for a lot of public group chat it is desirable to give new comers access to the full history.
308
309#### OMEMO doesn’t work. I get a 'Something went wrong' message in the 'Trust OMEMO Fingerprints' screen.
310OMEMO 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 that the initial sender needs to have access to the published key material. This can either be achieved by having 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) or by using a server that makes the public key material accessible to anyone. In the [Compliance Tester](https://compliance.conversations.im) this is indicated by the 'OMEMO' feature. Since it is very common that the first messages are exchanged *before* adding each other to the contact list it is desirable to use servers that have 'OMEMO support'.
311
312#### How does the encryption for group chats work?
313
314##### OMEMO
315
316OMEMO encryption works only in private (members only) conferences that are non-anonymous. Non-anonymous (being able to discover the real JID of other participants) is a technical requirement to discover the key material. Members only is a sort of arbitrary requirement imposed by Conversations. (see 'OMEMO is grayed out')
317
318The server of all participants need to pass the OMEMO [Compliance Test](https://conversations.im/compliance/).
319In other words they either need to run ejabberd 18.01+ or Prosody 0.11+.
320
321(Alternatively it would also work if all participants had each other in their contact list; But that rarely is the case in larger group chats.)
322
323The owner of a conference can make a public conference private by going into the conference
324details and hit the settings button (the one with the gears) and select both *private* and
325*members only*.
326
327##### OpenPGP
328
329Every participant has to announce their OpenPGP key (see answer above).
330If you would like to send encrypted messages to a conference you have to make
331sure that you have every participant's public key in your OpenKeychain.
332Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure that.
333You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
334touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
335to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key. This works best in
336very small conferences with contacts you are already using OpenPGP with. This
337feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only client that uses
338XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows nor disallows
339this.)
340
341#### What is Blind Trust Before Verification / why are messages marked with a red lock?
342
343Read more about the concept on https://gultsch.de/trust.html
344
345
346### Development
347
348<a name="beta"></a>
349#### Beta testing
350If you bought the App on [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations)
351you can get access to the the latest beta version by signing up using [this link](https://play.google.com/apps/testing/eu.siacs.conversations).
352
353#### How do I build Conversations
354
355Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK. Use the Android SDK Manager to install missing dependencies.
356
357Alternatively (and to avoid thinking about environment variables), create a file called local.properties, in the root of the Conversations build tree,
358with the following contents:
359
360```
361## This file must *NOT* be checked into Version Control Systems,
362# as it contains information specific to your local configuration.
363#
364# Location of the SDK. This is only used by Gradle.
365# For customization when using a Version Control System, please read the
366# header note.
367#Wed May 20 16:21:35 CST 2020
368ndk.dir=Path-To-Ndk
369sdk.dir=Path-To-Sdk
370```
371
372Then issue the following commands in order to build the apk.
373
374 git clone https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations.git
375 cd Conversations
376 ./gradlew assembleConversationsFreeDebug
377
378There are two build flavors available. *free* and *playstore*. Unless you know what you are doing you only need *free*.
379
380You will find the apks in the `./build/outputs/apk/conversationsFree/debug/` directory.
381
382Be careful, the resulting apks will not install unless you delete your existing Conversations installation (which will delete all the messages from your phone, and if you have used OMEMO, you will not be able to restore them from the server).
383Do it at your own risk.
384
385You, though, can make your own build a "test build", that can be installed alongside the normal (F-Droid or Google Play) Conversations:
386
387In the file `build.gradle`, find the line `applicationId "eu.siacs.conversations"` , and replace it with `applicationId "my.conversations.fork"`, also below replace "Conversations" appName with "MyCFork".
388Then the resulting APK can be installed ALONGSIDE normal Conversations. And have a different name so it's not confusing
389
390WARNING: DO NOT REPLACE ANYTHING ELSE ANYWHERE ELSE, DO NOT REPLACE THIS PROJECT WIDE. JUST 2 strings in THAT specific file!
391
392#### How do I debug Conversations
393
394If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
395the UI (other than the fact that something didn't work). However with adb
396(android debug bridge) you can squeeze some more information out of Conversations.
397These information are especially useful if you are experiencing trouble with
398your connection or with file transfer.
399
400To use adb you have to connect your mobile phone to your computer with an USB cable
401and install `adb`. Most Linux systems have prebuilt packages for that tool. On
402Debian/Ubuntu for example it is called `android-tools-adb`.
403
404Furthermore you might have to enable 'USB debugging' in the Developer options of your
405phone. After that you can just execute the following on your computer:
406
407 adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
408
409If need be there are also some Apps on the PlayStore that can be used to show the logcat
410directly on your rooted phone. (Search for logcat). However in regards to further processing
411(for example to create an issue here on Codeberg) it is more convenient to just use your PC.
412
413#### I found a bug
414
415Please report it to our [issue tracker](https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations/issues). If your app crashes please
416provide a stack trace. If you are experiencing misbehavior please provide
417detailed steps to reproduce. Always mention whether you are running the latest
418Play Store version or the current HEAD. If you are having problems connecting to
419your XMPP server your file transfer doesn’t work as expected please always
420include a logcat debug output with your issue (see above).