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
81Translations are managed on [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/conversations/)
82
83## FAQ
84
85### General
86
87#### How do I install Conversations?
88
89Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
90software developer you can check out the sources from GitHub and use ant to
91build your apk file.
92
93The more convenient way — which not only gives you automatic updates but also
94supports the further development of Conversations — is to buy the App in the
95Google [Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
96
97#### I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
98
99I accept donations over PayPal, Bitcoin and Flattr. For donations via PayPal you
100can use the email address `donate@siacs.eu` or the button below.
101
102[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
103
104**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For
105larger contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk
106about bank transfer (SEPA).
107
108My Bitcoin Address is: `1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu`
109
110
111[](https://flattr.com/submit/auto?user_id=inputmice&url=http%3A%2F%2Fconversations.siacs.eu&title=Conversations&tags=github&category=software)
112
113#### How do I create an account?
114
115XMPP, like email, is a federated protocol which means that there is not one
116company you can create an 'official XMPP account' with. Instead there are
117hundreds, or even thousands, of provider out there. To find one use a web search
118engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your
119own. Or ask a friend to run one. Once you've found one, you can use
120Conversations to create an account. Just select 'register new account on server'
121within the create account dialog.
122
123#### Where can I set up a custom hostname / port
124Conversations will automatically look up the SRV records for your domain name
125which can point to any hostname port combination. If your server doesn’t provide
126those please contact your admin and have them read
127[this](http://prosody.im/doc/dns#srv_records)
128
129#### Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
130
131You can join our conference room on `conversations@conference.siacs.eu`.
132A lot of people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
133Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
134you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
135section of this document.
136
137#### I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
138
139I'm available for hire. Contact me at `inputmice@siacs.eu`.
140
141#### How does the address book integration work?
142
143The address book integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
144neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
145address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
146add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
147the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
148your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
149details within Conversations. This will start an "add to address book" intent
150with the JID as the payload. This doesn't require Conversations to have write
151permissions on your address book but also doesn't require you to copy/paste a
152JID from one app to another.
153
154#### I get 'delivery failed' on my messages
155
156If you get delivery failed on images it's probably because the recipient lost
157network connectivity during reception. In that case you can try it again at a
158later time.
159
160For text messages the answer to your question is a little bit more complex.
161When you see 'delivery failed' on text messages, it is always something that is
162being reported by the server. The most common reason for this is that the
163recipient failed to resume a connection. When a client loses connectivity for a
164short time the client usually has a five minute window to pick up that
165connection again. When the client fails to do so because the network
166connectivity is out for longer than that all messages sent to that client will
167be returned to the sender resulting in a delivery failed.
168
169Other less common reasons are that the message you sent didn't meet some
170criteria enforced by the server (too large, too many). Another reason could be
171that the recipient is offline and the server doesn't provide offline storage.
172
173Usually you are able to distinguish between these two groups in the fact that
174the first one happens always after some time and the second one happens almost
175instantly.
176
177#### Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority?
178
179Statuses are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
180works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
181automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
182activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
183something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
184of status always implies an impact on your privacy (are you sure you want
185everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1864am‽).
187
188In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
189messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
190(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
191whether or not your messages are being read. Similar things can be said for
192priorities. In the past priorities have been used (by servers, not by clients!)
193to route your messages to one specific client. With carbon messages (XEP-0280,
194supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no longer necessary. Using
195priorities to route OTR messages isn't practical either because they are not
196changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client (the client which sent
197the last message) are much better.
198
199Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
200adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
201instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
202implementing new, improved technologies and getting them into other XMPP clients
203as well.
204
205Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
206Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
207other clients.
208
209#### Conversations is missing a certain feature
210
211I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the [issue tracker][issues] on
212GitHub. Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone
213else already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I
214like it I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will
215close it (usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature
216request that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you.
217Commenting with +1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind, nor
218will it accelerate the development.
219
220#### You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
221
222Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
223merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
224
225#### I need a feature and I need it now!
226
227I am available for hire. Contact me via XMPP: `inputmice@siacs.eu`
228
229### Security
230
231#### Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
232
233In most cases OTR should be the encryption method of choice. It works out of the
234box with most contacts as long as they are online. However PGP can, in some
235cases, (message carbons to multiple clients) be more flexible.
236
237#### How do I use OpenPGP
238
239Before you continue reading you should note that the OpenPGP support in
240Conversations is experimental. This is not because it will make the app unstable
241but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for widespread use.
242The way PGP works is that you trust Key IDs instead of JID's or email addresses.
243So in theory your contact list should consist of Public-Key-IDs instead of
244JID's. But of course no email or XMPP client out there implements these
245concepts. Plus PGP in the context of instant messaging has a couple of
246downsides: It is vulnerable to replay attacks, it is rather verbose, and
247decrypting and encrypting takes longer than OTR. It is however asynchronous and
248works well with message carbons.
249
250To use OpenPGP you have to install the open source app
251[OpenKeychain](www.openkeychain.org) and then long press on the account in
252manage accounts and choose renew PGP announcement from the contextual menu.
253
254#### How does the encryption for conferences work?
255
256For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP (OTR does not
257work with multiple participants). Every participant has to announce their
258OpenPGP key (see answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
259a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
260in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
261that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
262touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
263to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key. This works best in
264very small conferences with contacts you are already using OpenPGP with. This
265feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only client that uses
266XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows nor disallows
267this.)
268
269### Development
270
271#### How do I build Conversations
272
273Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
274
275 git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
276 cd Conversations
277 ./gradlew build
278
279
280[](https://travis-ci.org/siacs/Conversations)
281
282### How do I update/add external libraries?
283
284If the library you want to update is in Maven Central or JCenter (or has its own
285Maven repo), add it or update its version in `build.gradle`. If the library is
286in the `libs/` directory, you can update it using a subtree merge by doing the
287following (using `minidns` as an example):
288
289 git remote add minidns https://github.com/rtreffer/minidns.git
290 git fetch minidns
291 git merge -s subtree minidns master
292
293To add a new dependency to the `libs/` directory (replacing "name", "branch" and
294"url" as necessary):
295
296 git remote add name url
297 git merge -s ours --no-commit name/branch
298 git read-tree --prefix=libs/name -u name/branch
299 git commit -m "Subtree merged in name"
300
301#### How do I debug Conversations
302
303If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
304the UI (other than the fact that something didn't work). However with adb
305(android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of Conversations.
306These information are especially useful if you are experiencing trouble with
307your connection or with file transfer.
308
309 adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
310
311#### I found a bug
312
313Please report it to our [issue tracker][issues]. If your app crashes please
314provide a stack trace. If you are experiencing misbehaviour please provide
315detailed steps to reproduce. Always mention whether you are running the latest
316Play Store version or the current HEAD. If you are having problems connecting to
317your XMPP server your file transfer doesn’t work as expected please always
318include a logcat debug output with your issue (see above).
319
320[issues]: https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/issues