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-0138: Stream Compression saves bandwidth
44* XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol for avatars
45* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to survive small network outages and
46 changes of the underlying TCP connection.
47* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to
48 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
49 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
50* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
51* XEP-0352: Client State Indication let the server know whether or not
52 Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by
53 withholding unimportant packages.
54
55## Team
56
57#### Head of Development
58
59* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/inputmice)
60
61#### Code Contributions
62
63(In order of appearance)
64
65* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
66* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
67* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
68* [M. Dietrich](https://github.com/emdete)
69* [betheg](https://github.com/betheg)
70
71#### Logo
72
73* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys)
74
75#### Translations
76
77* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
78* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
79* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
80* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
81* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/qooob) (Russian)
82* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
83* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)
84* [Aizaz AZ](http://www.linkedin.com/in/aizazhaider) (Chinese)
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 ant 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).
99
100#### I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
101
102I accept donations over PayPal, Bitcoin and Flattr. For donations via PayPal you
103can use the email address `donate@siacs.eu` or the button below.
104
105[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
106
107**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For
108larger contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk
109about bank transfer (SEPA).
110
111My Bitcoin Address is: `1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu`
112
113
114[](https://flattr.com/submit/auto?user_id=inputmice&url=http%3A%2F%2Fconversations.siacs.eu&title=Conversations&tags=github&category=software)
115
116#### How do I create an account?
117
118XMPP, like email, is a federated protocol which means that there is not one
119company you can create an 'official XMPP account' with. Instead there are
120hundreds, or even thousands, of provider out there. To find one use a web search
121engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your
122own. Or ask a friend to run one. Once you've found one, you can use
123Conversations to create an account. Just select 'register new account on server'
124within the create account dialog.
125
126#### Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
127
128You can join our conference room on
129[conversations@conference.siacs.eu](xmpp:conversations@conference.siacs.eu?join)
130A lot of people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
131Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
132you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
133section of this document.
134
135#### I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
136
137I'm available for hire. Contact me at `inputmice@siacs.eu`.
138
139#### How does the address book integration work?
140
141The address book integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
142neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
143address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
144add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
145the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
146your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
147details within Conversations. This will start an "add to address book" intent
148with the JID as the payload. This doesn't require Conversations to have write
149permissions on your address book but also doesn't require you to copy/paste a
150JID from one app to another.
151
152#### I get 'delivery failed' on my messages
153
154If you get delivery failed on images it's probably because the recipient lost
155network connectivity during reception. In that case you can try it again at a
156later time.
157
158For text messages the answer to your question is a little bit more complex.
159When you see 'delivery failed' on text messages, it is always something that is
160being reported by the server. The most common reason for this is that the
161recipient failed to resume a connection. When a client loses connectivity for a
162short time the client usually has a five minute window to pick up that
163connection again. When the client fails to do so because the network
164connectivity is out for longer than that all messages sent to that client will
165be returned to the sender resulting in a delivery failed.
166
167Other less common reasons are that the message you sent didn't meet some
168criteria enforced by the server (too large, too many). Another reason could be
169that the recipient is offline and the server doesn't provide offline storage.
170
171Usually you are able to distinguish between these two groups in the fact that
172the first one happens always after some time and the second one happens almost
173instantly.
174
175#### Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority?
176
177Statuses are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
178works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
179automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
180activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
181something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
182of status always implies an impact on your privacy (are you sure you want
183everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1844am‽).
185
186In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
187messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
188(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
189whether or not your messages are being read. Similar things can be said for
190priorities. In the past priorities have been used (by servers, not by clients!)
191to route your messages to one specific client. With carbon messages (XEP-0280,
192supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no longer necessary. Using
193priorities to route OTR messages isn't practical either because they are not
194changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client (the client which sent
195the last message) are much better.
196
197Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
198adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
199instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
200implementing new, improved technologies and getting them into other XMPP clients
201as well.
202
203Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
204Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
205other clients.
206
207#### Conversations is missing a certain feature
208
209I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the [issue tracker][issues] on
210GitHub. Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone
211else already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I
212like it I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will
213close it (usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature
214request that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you.
215Commenting with +1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind, nor
216will it accelerate the development.
217
218#### You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
219
220Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
221merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
222
223#### I need a feature and I need it now!
224
225I am available for hire. Contact me via XMPP: `inputmice@siacs.eu`
226
227### Security
228
229#### Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
230
231In most cases OTR should be the encryption method of choice. It works out of the
232box with most contacts as long as they are online. However PGP can, in some
233cases, (message carbons to multiple clients) be more flexible.
234
235#### How do I use OpenPGP
236
237Before you continue reading you should note that the OpenPGP support in
238Conversations is experimental. This is not because it will make the app unstable
239but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for widespread use.
240The way PGP works is that you trust Key IDs instead of JID's or email addresses.
241So in theory your contact list should consist of Public-Key-IDs instead of
242JID's. But of course no email or XMPP client out there implements these
243concepts. Plus PGP in the context of instant messaging has a couple of
244downsides: It is vulnerable to replay attacks, it is rather verbose, and
245decrypting and encrypting takes longer than OTR. It is however asynchronous and
246works well with message carbons.
247
248To use OpenPGP you have to install the open source app
249[OpenKeychain](www.openkeychain.org) and then long press on the account in
250manage accounts and choose renew PGP announcement from the contextual menu.
251
252#### How does the encryption for conferences work?
253
254For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP (OTR does not
255work with multiple participants). Every participant has to announce their
256OpenPGP key (see answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
257a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
258in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
259that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
260touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
261to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key. This works best in
262very small conferences with contacts you are already using OpenPGP with. This
263feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only client that uses
264XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows nor disallows
265this.)
266
267### Development
268
269#### How do I build Conversations
270
271Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
272
273 git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
274 cd Conversations
275 ./gradlew build
276
277### How do I update/add external libraries?
278
279If the library you want to update is in Maven Central or JCenter (or has its own
280Maven repo), add it or update its version in `build.gradle`. If the library is
281in the `libs/` directory, you can update it using a subtree merge by doing the
282following (using `minidns` as an example):
283
284 git remote add minidns https://github.com/rtreffer/minidns.git
285 git fetch minidns
286 git merge -s subtree minidns master
287
288To add a new dependency to the `libs/` directory (replacing "name", "branch" and
289"url" as necessary):
290
291 git remote add name url
292 git merge -s ours --no-commit name/branch
293 git read-tree --prefix=libs/name -u name/branch
294 git commit -m "Subtree merged in name"
295
296#### How do I debug Conversations
297
298If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
299the UI (other than the fact that something didn't work). However with adb
300(android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of Conversations.
301These information are especially useful if you are experiencing trouble with
302your connection or with file transfer.
303
304 adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
305
306#### I found a bug
307
308Please report it to our [issue tracker][issues]. If your app crashes please
309provide a stack trace. If you are experiencing misbehaviour please provide
310detailed steps to reproduce. Always mention whether you are running the latest
311Play Store version or the current HEAD. If you are having problems connecting to
312your XMPP server your file transfer doesn’t work as expected please always
313include a logcat debug output with your issue (see above).
314
315[issues]: https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/issues