1# Conversations
2
3Conversations: the very last word in instant messaging
4
5[](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub) [](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WD35AAC/)
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 [OMEMO](http://conversations.im/omemo/), [OTR](https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/), or [OpenPGP](http://www.openpgp.org/about_openpgp/)
20* Send and receive images as well as other kind of files
21* Share your location via an external [plug-in](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations.sharelocation&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub)
22* Indication when your contact has read your message
23* Intuitive UI that follows Android Design guidelines
24* Pictures / Avatars for your Contacts
25* Syncs with desktop client
26* Conferences (with support for bookmarks)
27* Address book integration
28* Multiple accounts / unified inbox
29* Very low impact on battery life
30
31
32### XMPP Features
33
34Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an
35extensible protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called
36XEP's. Conversations supports a couple of these to make the overall user
37experience better. There is a chance that your current XMPP server does not
38support these extensions; therefore to get the most out of Conversations you
39should consider either switching to an XMPP server that does or — even better —
40run your own XMPP server for you and your friends. These XEP's are:
41
42* [XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0065.html) (or mod_proxy65). Will be used to transfer
43 files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
44* [XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0163.html) for avatars and OMEMO.
45* [XEP-0191: Blocking command](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0191.html) lets you blacklist spammers or block contacts
46 without removing them from your roster.
47* [XEP-0198: Stream Management](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0198.html) allows XMPP to survive small network outages and
48 changes of the underlying TCP connection.
49* [XEP-0280: Message Carbons](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0280.html) which automatically syncs the messages you send to
50 your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
51 client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
52* [XEP-0237: Roster Versioning](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0237.html) mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
53* [XEP-0313: Message Archive Management](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0313.html) synchronize message history with the
54 server. Catch up with messages that were sent while Conversations was
55 offline.
56* [XEP-0352: Client State Indication](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0352.html) lets the server know whether or not
57 Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by
58 withholding unimportant packages.
59* [XEP-0363: HTTP File Upload](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0363.html) allows you to share files in conferences and with offline
60 contacts. Requires an [additional component](https://github.com/siacs/HttpUploadComponent)
61 on your server. Alternatively, an [Ejabberd contrib-module](https://github.com/processone/ejabberd-contrib/tree/master/mod_http_upload) and a [Prosody module](http://modules.prosody.im/mod_http_upload.html) are available.
62
63## Team
64
65#### Head of Development
66
67* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/inputmice)
68
69#### Code Contributions
70
71(In order of appearance)
72
73* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer) ([PRs](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+author%3Artreffer+is%3Amerged))
74* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb) ([PRs](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+author%3Astrb+is%3Amerged))
75* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea) ([PRs](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+author%3Aalethea+is%3Amerged))
76* [M. Dietrich](https://github.com/emdete) ([PRs](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+author%3Aemdete+is%3Amerged))
77* [betheg](https://github.com/betheg) ([PRs](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+author%3Abetheg+is%3Amerged))
78* [Sam Whited](https://github.com/SamWhited) ([PRs](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+author%3ASamWhited+is%3Amerged))
79* [BrianBlade](https://github.com/BrianBlade) ([PRs](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+author%3ABrianBlade+is%3Amerged))
80
81#### Logo
82* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/qooob) (Progress)
83* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys) (Original)
84* [fiaxh](https://github.com/fiaxh) (OMEMO)
85
86#### Translations
87Translations are managed on [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/conversations/)
88
89## FAQ
90
91### General
92
93#### How do I install Conversations?
94
95Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
96software developer you can check out the sources from GitHub and use Gradle to
97build your apk file.
98
99The more convenient way — which not only gives you automatic updates but also
100supports the further development of Conversations — is to buy the App in the
101Google [Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub).
102
103Buying the App from the Play Store will also give you access to our [beta test](#beta).
104
105#### I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
106
107I accept donations over PayPal, Bitcoin and Flattr. For donations via PayPal you
108can use the email address `donate@siacs.eu` or the button below.
109
110[](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)
111
112**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For
113larger contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk
114about bank transfer (SEPA).
115
116My Bitcoin Address is: `1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu`
117
118
119[](https://flattr.com/submit/auto?user_id=inputmice&url=http%3A%2F%2Fconversations.siacs.eu&title=Conversations&tags=github&category=software)
120
121#### How do I create an account?
122
123XMPP, like email, is a federated protocol which means that there is not one
124company you can create an 'official XMPP account' with. Instead there are
125hundreds, or even thousands, of provider out there. To find one use a web search
126engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your
127own. Or ask a friend to run one. Once you've found one, you can use
128Conversations to create an account. Just select 'register new account on server'
129within the create account dialog.
130
131#### Where can I set up a custom hostname / port
132Conversations will automatically look up the SRV records for your domain name
133which can point to any hostname port combination. If your server doesn’t provide
134those please contact your admin and have them read
135[this](http://prosody.im/doc/dns#srv_records). If your server operator is unwilling
136to fix this you can enable advanced server settings in the expert settings of
137Conversations.
138
139#### I get 'Incompatible Server'
140
141As regular user you should be picking a different server. The server you selected
142is probably insecure and/or very old.
143
144If you are a server administrator you should make sure that your server provides
145STARTTLS. XMPP over TLS (on a different port) is not sufficient.
146
147On rare occasions this error message might also be caused by a server not providing
148a login (SASL) mechanism that Conversations is able to handle. Conversations supports
149SCRAM-SHA1, PLAIN, EXTERNAL (client certs) and DIGEST-MD5.
150
151#### How do XEP-0357: Push Notifications work?
152You need to be running the Play Store version of Conversations and your server needs to support push notifications.¹ Because *Google Cloud Notifications (GCM)* are tied with an API key to a specific app your server can not initiate the push message directly. Instead your server will send the push notification to the Conversations App server (operated by us) which then acts as a proxy and initiates the push message for you. The push message sent from our App server through GCM doesn’t contain any personal information. It is just an empty message which will wake up your device and tell Conversations to reconnect to your server. The information send from your server to our App server depends on the configuration of your server but can be limited to your account name. (In any case the Conversations App server won't redirect any information through GCM even if your server sends this information.)
153
154In summary Google will never get hold of any personal information besides that *something* happened. (Which doesn’t even have to be a message but can be some automated event as well.) We - as the operator of the App server - will just get hold of your account name (without being able to tie this to your specific device).
155
156If you don’t want this simply pick a server which does not offer Push Notifications or build Conversations yourself without support for push notifications. (This is available via a gradle build flavor.) Non-play store source of Conversations like the Amazon App store will also offer a version without push notifications. Conversations will just work as before and maintain its own TCP connection in the background.
157
158 ¹ Your server only needs to support the server side of [XEP-0357: Push Notifications](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0357.html). If you use the Play Store version you do **not** need to run your own app server. The server modules are called *mod_cloud_notify* on Prosody and *mod_push* on ejabberd.
159
160#### Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
161
162You can join our conference room on `conversations@conference.siacs.eu`.
163A lot of people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
164Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
165you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
166section of this document.
167
168#### I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
169
170I'm available for hire. Contact me at `inputmice@siacs.eu`.
171
172#### How does the address book integration work?
173
174The address book integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
175neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
176address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
177add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
178the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
179your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
180details within Conversations. This will start an "add to address book" intent
181with the JID as the payload. This doesn't require Conversations to have write
182permissions on your address book but also doesn't require you to copy/paste a
183JID from one app to another.
184
185#### I get 'delivery failed' on my messages
186
187If you get delivery failed on images it's probably because the recipient lost
188network connectivity during reception. In that case you can try it again at a
189later time.
190
191For text messages the answer to your question is a little bit more complex.
192When you see 'delivery failed' on text messages, it is always something that is
193being reported by the server. The most common reason for this is that the
194recipient failed to resume a connection. When a client loses connectivity for a
195short time the client usually has a five minute window to pick up that
196connection again. When the client fails to do so because the network
197connectivity is out for longer than that all messages sent to that client will
198be returned to the sender resulting in a delivery failed.
199
200Other less common reasons are that the message you sent didn't meet some
201criteria enforced by the server (too large, too many). Another reason could be
202that the recipient is offline and the server doesn't provide offline storage.
203
204Usually you are able to distinguish between these two groups in the fact that
205the first one happens always after some time and the second one happens almost
206instantly.
207
208#### Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority?
209
210Statuses are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
211works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
212automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
213activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
214something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
215of status always implies an impact on your privacy (are you sure you want
216everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
2174am‽).
218
219In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
220messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
221(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
222whether or not your messages are being read. Similar things can be said for
223priorities. In the past priorities have been used (by servers, not by clients!)
224to route your messages to one specific client. With carbon messages (XEP-0280,
225supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no longer necessary. Using
226priorities to route OTR messages isn't practical either because they are not
227changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client (the client which sent
228the last message) are much better.
229
230Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
231adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
232instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
233implementing new, improved technologies and getting them into other XMPP clients
234as well.
235
236Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
237Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
238other clients.
239
240#### Conversations is missing a certain feature
241
242I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the [issue tracker][issues] on
243GitHub. Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone
244else already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I
245like it I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will
246close it (usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature
247request that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you.
248Commenting with +1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind, nor
249will it accelerate the development.
250
251#### You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
252
253Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
254merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.
255
256#### I need a feature and I need it now!
257
258I am available for hire. Contact me via XMPP: `inputmice@siacs.eu`
259
260### Security
261
262#### Why are there three end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
263
264* OTR is a legacy encryption method. It works out of the box with most contacts as long as they are online.
265* OMEMO works even when a contact is offline, and works with multiple devices. It also allows asynchronous file-transfer when the server has [HTTP File Upload](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0363.html). However, OMEMO is not as widely supported as OTR and is currently implemented only by Conversations and Gajim. OMEMO should be preferred over OTR for contacts who use Conversations.
266* OpenPGP (XEP-0027) is a very old encryption method that has some advantages over OTR but should only be used by experts who know what they are doing.
267
268#### How do I use OpenPGP
269
270Before you continue reading you should note that the OpenPGP support in
271Conversations is experimental. This is not because it will make the app unstable
272but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for widespread use.
273The way PGP works is that you trust Key IDs instead of JID's or email addresses.
274So in theory your contact list should consist of Public-Key-IDs instead of
275JID's. But of course no email or XMPP client out there implements these
276concepts. Plus PGP in the context of instant messaging has a couple of
277downsides: It is vulnerable to replay attacks, it is rather verbose, and
278decrypting and encrypting takes longer than OTR. It is however asynchronous and
279works well with message carbons.
280
281To use OpenPGP you have to install the open source app
282[OpenKeychain](http://www.openkeychain.org) and then long press on the account in
283manage accounts and choose renew PGP announcement from the contextual menu.
284
285#### How does the encryption for conferences work?
286
287For conferences only OMEMO and OpenPGP are suppored as encryption method. (OTR
288does not work with multiple participants).
289
290##### OMEMO
291
292OMEMO encryption works only in private (members only) conferences that are non-anonymous.
293You need to have presence subscription with every member of the conference.
294You can verify that by going into the conference details, long press every member and start
295a conversation with them. (Or select 'contact details' if they are already in your contact
296list)
297
298The owner of a conference can make a public conference private by going into the conference
299details and hit the settings button (the one with the gears) and select both *private* and
300*members only*.
301
302##### OpenPGP
303
304Every participant has to announce their OpenPGP key (see answer above).
305If you would like to send encrypted messages to a conference you have to make
306sure that you have every participant's public key in your OpenKeychain.
307Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensurethat.
308You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
309touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
310to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key. This works best in
311very small conferences with contacts you are already using OpenPGP with. This
312feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only client that uses
313XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows nor disallows
314this.)
315
316### Development
317
318<a name="beta"></a>
319#### Beta testing
320If you bought the App on [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations)
321you can get access to the latest beta version by joining the
322[Conversations Beta Testers](https://plus.google.com/communities/107649347599361240873)
323community on Google+ and then using [this link](https://play.google.com/apps/testing/eu.siacs.conversations)
324to sign up for the beta test.
325
326#### How do I build Conversations
327
328Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK. Use the Android SDK Manager to install missing dependencies.
329
330 git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
331 cd Conversations
332 ./gradlew assembleFreeRelease
333
334There are two build flavors available. *free* and *playstore*. Unless you know what you are doing you only need *free*.
335
336
337[](https://travis-ci.org/siacs/Conversations)
338
339### How do I update/add external libraries?
340
341If the library you want to update is in Maven Central or JCenter (or has its own
342Maven repo), add it or update its version in `build.gradle`. If the library is
343in the `libs/` directory, you can update it using a subtree merge by doing the
344following (using `minidns` as an example):
345
346 git remote add minidns https://github.com/rtreffer/minidns.git
347 git fetch minidns
348 git merge -s subtree minidns master
349
350To add a new dependency to the `libs/` directory (replacing "name", "branch" and
351"url" as necessary):
352
353 git remote add name url
354 git merge -s ours --no-commit name/branch
355 git read-tree --prefix=libs/name -u name/branch
356 git commit -m "Subtree merged in name"
357
358#### How do I debug Conversations
359
360If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
361the UI (other than the fact that something didn't work). However with adb
362(android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of Conversations.
363These information are especially useful if you are experiencing trouble with
364your connection or with file transfer.
365
366 adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
367
368#### I found a bug
369
370Please report it to our [issue tracker][issues]. If your app crashes please
371provide a stack trace. If you are experiencing misbehavior please provide
372detailed steps to reproduce. Always mention whether you are running the latest
373Play Store version or the current HEAD. If you are having problems connecting to
374your XMPP server your file transfer doesn’t work as expected please always
375include a logcat debug output with your issue (see above).
376
377[issues]: https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/issues