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##Team
48####Head of Development
49* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/inputmice)
50
51####Code Contributions
52(In order of appearance)
53* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
54* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
55* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
56* [M. Dietrich](https://github.com/emdete)
57* [betheg](https://github.com/betheg)
58
59####Logo
60* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys)
61
62####Translations
63* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
64* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
65* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
66* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
67* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/rostovtsev) (Russian)
68* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
69* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)
70
71##FAQ
72###General
73####How do I install Conversations?
74Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
75software developer you can check out the sources from github and use ant to
76build your apk file.
77
78The more convenient way - which not only gives you automatic updates but also
79supports the further development of Conversations - is to buy the App in the Google
80[Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
81####I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
82I accept donations over PayPal and BitCoin. For donations via PayPal you can use the email address donate@siacs.eu or the button below.
83
84[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
85
86**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For larger
87contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk about bank
88transfer (SEPA).
89
90My Bitcoin Address is: 1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu
91
92####How do I create an account?
93XMPP like email for example is a federated protocol which means that there is
94not one company you can create your 'official xmpp account' with but there are
95hundreds or even thousands of provider out there. To find one use a web search
96engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your own.
97Or ask a friend to run one. Once you found one you can use Conversations to
98create an account. Just select 'register new account on server' within the
99create account dialog.
100
101####Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
102You can join our conference room on conversations@conference.siacs.eu A lot of
103people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
104Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
105you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
106section of this document.
107
108####I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
109I'm available for hire. Contact me at inputmice@siacs.eu
110
111####How does the address book integration work?
112The address bock integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
113neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
114address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
115add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
116the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
117your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
118details within Conversations. This will start an add to address book intent with the jabber ID
119as payload. This doesn’t require Conversations to have write permissions on your
120address book but also doesn’t require you to copy past Jabber ID from one app to
121another.
122####Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority
123Status are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
124works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
125automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
126activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
127something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
128of status always implies an impact on your privacy. (Are you sure you want
129everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1304am?!)
131
132In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
133messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
134(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
135whether or not your messages are being read.
136Similar things can be said for priorities. In the past priorities have been used
137(By servers, not by clients!) to route your messages to one specific client.
138With carbon messages (XEP-0280, supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no
139longer necessary. Using priorities to route OTR messages isn't pratical either
140because they are not changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client
141(the client which sent the last message) are much better.
142
143Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
144adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
145instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
146implementing new, improved technologies into other XMPP clients as well.
147
148Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
149Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
150other clients.
151
152####Conversations is missing a certain feature
153I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the issue tracker on github.
154Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone else
155already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I like it
156I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will close
157it. (Usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature request
158that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you. Commenting with
159+1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind nor will it accelerate the
160development.
161
162####You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
163Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
164merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
165
166####I need a feature and I need it now!
167I am available for hire. Contact me JID: inputmice@siacs.eu
168
169###Security
170####Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
171In 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.
172However PGP can be in some cases (carbonated messages to multiple clients) be
173more flexible.
174####How do I use openPGP
175Before you continue reading you should notice that the openPGP support in
176Conversations is marked as experimental. This is not because it will make the app
177unstable but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for a
178widespread 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.
179
180To 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.
181####How does the encryption for conferences work?
182For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP. (OTR does not
183work with multiple participants.) Every participant has to announce their
184OpenPGP key. (See answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
185a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
186in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
187that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
188touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
189to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key.
190This works best in very small conferences with contacts you are already using
191OpenPGP with. This feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only
192client that uses XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows
193nor disallows this.)
194###Development
195####How do I build Conversations
196Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
197```
198git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
199cd Conversations
200git submodule update --init --recursive
201ant clean
202ant debug
203```
204####How do I debug Conversations
205If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
206the UI. (Other than the fact that something didn't work)
207However with adb (android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of
208Conversations. These information are especially useful if you are experiencing
209troubles with your connection or with file transfer.
210````
211adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
212````
213####I found a bug
214Please report it to our issue tracker. If your app crashes please provide a
215stack trace. If you are experiencing missbehaviour please provide detailed
216steps to reproduce.
217Always mention whether you are running the latest Play Store version or the
218current HEAD.
219If you are having problems connecting to your XMPP server your file transfer
220doesn’t work as expected please always include a logcat debug output with your
221issue. (See above)