1#Conversations
2Conversations is an open source XMPP (formally known as Jabber) client for
3Android 4.0+ smart phones.
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
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* Holo UI
18* Syncs with your desktop client
19* Group Chats
20* Address book integration
21* Multiple Accounts / unified inbox
22
23###XMPP Features
24Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an extensible
25protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called XEP’s.
26Conversations supports a couple of those to make the overall userexperience better. There is a
27chance that your current XMPP server does not support these extensions.
28Therefore to get the most out of Conversations you should consider either switching to an
29XMPP server that does or - even better - run your own XMPP server for you and
30your friends.
31These XEPs are - as of now:
32* XEP-0138: Stream Compression saves bandwith
33* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to surive small network outages and changes of the underlying TCP connection.
34* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to
35 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
36 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
37* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwith on poor mobile connections
38
39##FAQ
40###General
41####How do I install Conversations?
42Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
43software developer you can check out the sources from github and use ant to
44build your apk file.
45
46The more convenient way - which not only gives you automatic updates but also
47supports the further development of Conversations - is to buy the App in the Google
48[Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
49
50
51####How do I create an account?
52XMPP like email for example is a federated protocol which means that there is
53not one company you can create your 'official xmpp account' with but there are
54hundreds or even thousands of provider out there. To find one use a web search
55engine of your choice. Or maybe your univeristy has one. Or you can run your own.
56Or ask a friend to run one. Once you found one you can use Conversations to
57create an account. Just select 'register new account on server' within the
58create account dialog.
59####How does the address book integration work?
60The address bock integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
61neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
62address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
63add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
64the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
65your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
66detais within Conversations. This will start an add to address book intent with the jabber ID
67as payload. This doesn’t require Conversations to have write permissions on your
68address book but also doesn’t require you to copy past Jabber ID from one app to
69another.
70###Security
71####Why are there to end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
72In 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.
73However PGP can be in some cases (carbonated messages to multiple clients) be
74more flexible.
75####How do I use openPGP
76Before you continue reading you should notice that the openPGP support in
77Conversations is marked as experimental. This is not because it will make the app
78unstable but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for a
79widespread 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 attacs, it is rather verbose, decryping and encrypting takes longer than OTR. It is however asynchronous and works well with carbonated messages.
80
81To 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.
82###Development
83####How do I build Conversations
84Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
85```
86git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
87cd Conversations
88git submodule update --init --recursive
89ant clean
90ant debug
91```