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
44##Contributors
45(In order of appearance)
46
47###Code
48* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
49* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
50* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
51
52###Logo
53* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys)
54
55###Translations
56* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
57* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
58* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
59* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
60* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/rostovtsev) (Russian)
61* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
62* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)
63
64##FAQ
65###General
66####How do I install Conversations?
67Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
68software developer you can check out the sources from github and use ant to
69build your apk file.
70
71The more convenient way - which not only gives you automatic updates but also
72supports the further development of Conversations - is to buy the App in the Google
73[Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
74####I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
75I accept donations over PayPal and BitCoin. For donations via PayPal you can use the email address donate@siacs.eu or the button below.
76
77[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
78
79**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For larger
80contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk about bank
81transfer (SEPA).
82
83My Bitcoin Address is: 1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu
84
85####How do I create an account?
86XMPP like email for example is a federated protocol which means that there is
87not one company you can create your 'official xmpp account' with but there are
88hundreds or even thousands of provider out there. To find one use a web search
89engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your own.
90Or ask a friend to run one. Once you found one you can use Conversations to
91create an account. Just select 'register new account on server' within the
92create account dialog.
93
94####Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
95You can join our conference room on conversations@conference.siacs.eu A lot of
96people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
97Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
98you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
99section of this document.
100
101####I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
102I'm available for hire. Contact me at inputmice@siacs.eu
103
104####How does the address book integration work?
105The address bock integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
106neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
107address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
108add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
109the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
110your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
111details within Conversations. This will start an add to address book intent with the jabber ID
112as payload. This doesn’t require Conversations to have write permissions on your
113address book but also doesn’t require you to copy past Jabber ID from one app to
114another.
115####Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority
116Status are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
117works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
118automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
119activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
120something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
121of status always implies an impact on your privacy. (Are you sure you want
122everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1234am?!)
124
125In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
126messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
127(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
128whether or not your messages are being read.
129Similar things can be said for priorities. In the past priorities have been used
130(By servers, not by clients!) to route your messages to one specific client.
131With carbon messages (XEP-0280, supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no
132longer necessary. Using priorities to route OTR messages isn't pratical either
133because they are not changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client
134(the client which sent the last message) are much better.
135
136Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
137adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
138instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
139implementing new, improved technologies into other XMPP clients as well.
140
141Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
142Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
143other clients.
144
145####Conversations is missing a certain feature
146I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the issue tracker on github.
147Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone else
148already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I like it
149I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will close
150it. (Usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature request
151that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you. Commenting with
152+1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind nor will it accelerate the
153development.
154
155####You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
156Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
157merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
158
159####I need a feature and I need it now!
160I am available for hire. Contact me JID: inputmice@siacs.eu
161
162###Security
163####Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
164In 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.
165However PGP can be in some cases (carbonated messages to multiple clients) be
166more flexible.
167####How do I use openPGP
168Before you continue reading you should notice that the openPGP support in
169Conversations is marked as experimental. This is not because it will make the app
170unstable but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for a
171widespread 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.
172
173To 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.
174####How does the encryption for conferences work?
175For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP. (OTR does not
176work with multiple participants.) Every participant has to announce their
177OpenPGP key. (See answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
178a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
179in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
180that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
181touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
182to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key.
183This works best in very small conferences with contacts you are already using
184OpenPGP with. This feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only
185client that uses XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows
186nor disallows this.)
187###Development
188####How do I build Conversations
189Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
190```
191git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
192cd Conversations
193git submodule update --init --recursive
194ant clean
195ant debug
196```
197####How do I debug Conversations
198If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
199the UI. (Other than the fact that something didn't work)
200However with adb (android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of
201Conversations. These information are especially useful if you are experiencing
202troubles with your connection or with file transfer.
203````
204adb -d logcat -v time -s xmppService
205````
206####I found a bug
207Please report it to our issue tracker. If your app crashes please provide a
208stack trace. If you are experiencing missbehaviour please provide detailed
209steps to reproduce.
210Always mention whether you are running the latest Play Store version or the
211current HEAD.
212If you are having problems connecting to your XMPP server your file transfer
213doesn’t work as expected please always include a logcat debug output with your
214issue. (See above)