1#Conversations
2Conversations is an open source XMPP (formerly 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* Sending and receiving images
18* Holo UI
19* Syncs with your desktop client
20* Group Chats
21* Address book integration
22* Multiple Accounts / unified inbox
23
24###XMPP Features
25Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an extensible
26protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called XEP’s.
27Conversations supports a couple of those to make the overall userexperience better. There is a
28chance that your current XMPP server does not support these extensions.
29Therefore to get the most out of Conversations you should consider either switching to an
30XMPP server that does or - even better - run your own XMPP server for you and
31your friends.
32These XEPs are - as of now:
33* XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams - or rather mod_proxy65. Will be used to tranfer files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
34* XEP-0138: Stream Compression saves bandwith
35* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to survive small network outages and changes of the underlying TCP connection.
36* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to
37 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
38 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
39* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwith on poor mobile connections
40
41##Contributors
42(In order of appearance)
43
44###Code
45* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
46* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
47* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
48
49###Logo
50* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys)
51
52###Translations
53* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
54* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
55* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
56* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
57* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/rostovtsev) (Russian)
58* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
59* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)
60
61##FAQ
62###General
63####How do I install Conversations?
64Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
65software developer you can check out the sources from github and use ant to
66build your apk file.
67
68The more convenient way - which not only gives you automatic updates but also
69supports the further development of Conversations - is to buy the App in the Google
70[Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
71####I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
72I accept donations over PayPal and BitCoin. For donations via PayPal you can use the email address donate@siacs.eu or the button below.
73
74[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
75
76**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For larger
77contributons please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk about bank
78transfer (SEPA).
79
80My Bitcoin Address is: 1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu
81
82####How do I create an account?
83XMPP like email for example is a federated protocol which means that there is
84not one company you can create your 'official xmpp account' with but there are
85hundreds or even thousands of provider out there. To find one use a web search
86engine of your choice. Or maybe your univeristy has one. Or you can run your own.
87Or ask a friend to run one. Once you found one you can use Conversations to
88create an account. Just select 'register new account on server' within the
89create account dialog.
90
91####Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
92You can join our conference room on conversations@conference.siacs.eu A lot of
93people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
94Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
95you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
96section of this document.
97
98####I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
99I'm available for hire. Contact me at inputmice@siacs.eu
100
101####How does the address book integration work?
102The address bock integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
103neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
104address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
105add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
106the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
107your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
108details within Conversations. This will start an add to address book intent with the jabber ID
109as payload. This doesn’t require Conversations to have write permissions on your
110address book but also doesn’t require you to copy past Jabber ID from one app to
111another.
112####Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority
113Status are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarly
114works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
115automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
116activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
117something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
118of status always implies an impact on your privacy. (Are you sure you want
119everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
1204am?!)
121
122In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
123messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
124(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
125whether or not your messages are being read.
126Similar things can be said for priorites. In the past priorties have been used
127(By servers, not by clients!) to route your messages to one specific client.
128With carbon messages (XEP-0280, supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no
129longer necessary. Using priorities to route OTR messages isn't pratical either
130because they are not changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client
131(the client which sent the last message) are much better.
132
133Unfortunatly these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
134adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
135instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
136implementing new, improved technologies into other XMPP clients as well.
137
138Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
139Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
140other clients.
141
142####Conversations is missing a certain feature
143I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the issue tracker on github.
144Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone else
145already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I like it
146I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will close
147it. (Usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature request
148that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you. Commenting with
149+1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind nor will it accelerate the
150development.
151
152####You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
153Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
154merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
155
156####I need a feature and I need it now!
157I am available for hire. Contact me JID: inputmice@siacs.eu
158
159###Security
160####Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
161In 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.
162However PGP can be in some cases (carbonated messages to multiple clients) be
163more flexible.
164####How do I use openPGP
165Before you continue reading you should notice that the openPGP support in
166Conversations is marked as experimental. This is not because it will make the app
167unstable but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for a
168widespread 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.
169
170To 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.
171####How does the encryption for conferences work?
172For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP. (OTR does not
173work with multiple participents.) Every participant has to announce their
174OpenPGP key. (See answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
175a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
176in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
177that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
178touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
179to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key.
180This works best in very small conferences with contacts you are already using
181OpenPGP with. This feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only
182client that uses XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows
183nor disallows this.)
184###Development
185####How do I build Conversations
186Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
187```
188git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
189cd Conversations
190git submodule update --init --recursive
191ant clean
192ant debug
193```
194####I found a bug
195Please report it to our issue tracker. If your app crashes please provide a
196stack trace. If you are experiencing missbehaviour please provide detailed
197steps to reproduce.
198Always mention whether you are running the latest Play Store version or the
199current HEAD.