path: root/README.md

#Conversations
Conversations - the very last word in instant messaging

[![Google Play](http://developer.android.com/images/brand/en_generic_rgb_wo_45.png)](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations)

![screenshots](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/siacs/Conversations/master/screenshots.png)

##Design principles
* Be as beautiful and easy to use as possible without sacrificing security or
  privacy
* Rely on existing, well established protocols (XMPP)
* Do not require a Google Account or specifically Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
* Require as little permissons as possible

##Features
* End-to-end encryption with either OTR or openPGP
* Sending and receiving images
* Indication when your contact has read your message
* Intuitive UI that follows Android Design guidelines
* Pictures / Avatars for your Contacts
* Syncs with desktop client
* Conferences (with support for bookmarks)
* Address book integration
* Multiple Accounts / unified inbox
* Very low impact on battery life


###XMPP Features
Conversations works with every XMPP server out there. However XMPP is an extensible
protocol. These extensions are standardized as well in so called XEP’s.
Conversations supports a couple of those to make the overall user experience better. There is a
chance that your current XMPP server does not support these extensions.
Therefore to get the most out of Conversations you should consider either switching to an
XMPP server that does or - even better - run your own XMPP server for you and
your friends.
These XEPs are - as of now:
* XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams - or rather mod_proxy65. Will be used to transfer files if both parties are behind a firewall (NAT).
* XEP-0138: Stream Compression saves bandwidth
* XEP-0163: Personal Eventing Protocol for avatars
* XEP-0198: Stream Management allows XMPP to survive small network outages and changes of the underlying TCP connection.
* XEP-0280: Message Carbons which automatically syncs the messages you send to
  your desktop client and thus allows you to switch seamlessly from your mobile
  client to your desktop client and back within one conversation.
* XEP-0237: Roster Versioning mainly to save bandwidth on poor mobile connections
* XEP-0352: Client State Indication let the server know whether or not
  Conversations is in the background. Allows the server to save bandwidth by
  withholding unimportent packages.

##Team
####Head of Development
* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/inputmice)

####Code Contributions
(In order of appearance)
* [Rene Treffer](https://github.com/rtreffer)
* [Andreas Straub](https://github.com/strb)
* [Alethea Butler](https://github.com/alethea)
* [M. Dietrich](https://github.com/emdete)
* [betheg](https://github.com/betheg)

####Logo
* [Diego Turtulici](http://efesto.eigenlab.org/~diesys)

####Translations
* [Sergio Cárdenas](https://github.com/kruks23) (Spanish)
* [Benoit Bouvarel](https://github.com/BenoitBouvarel) (French)
* [Daniel Gultsch](https://github.com/iNPUTmice) (German)
* [Aitor Beriain](https://github.com/beriain) (Basque)
* [Ilia Rostovtsev](https://github.com/rostovtsev) (Russian)
* [Jelmer Vernooij](https://github.com/jelmer) (Dutch)
* [Anders Sandblad](https://github.com/andersruneson) (Swedish)

##FAQ
###General
####How do I install Conversations?
Conversations is entirely open source and licensed under GPLv3. So if you are a
software developer you can check out the sources from github and use ant to
build your apk file.

The more convenient way - which not only gives you automatic updates but also
supports the further development of Conversations - is to buy the App in the Google
[Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations).
####I don't have a Google Account but I would still like to make a contribution
I accept donations over PayPal and BitCoin. For donations via PayPal you can use the email address donate@siacs.eu or the button below.

[![Donate with PayPal](https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif)](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CW3SYT3KG5PDL)

**Disclaimer:** I'm not a huge fan of PayPal and their business policies. For larger
contributions please get in touch with me beforehand and we can talk about bank
transfer (SEPA).

My Bitcoin Address is: 1NxSU1YxYzJVDpX1rcESAA3NJki7kRgeeu

####How do I create an account?
XMPP like email for example is a federated protocol which means that there is
not one company you can create your 'official xmpp account' with but there are
hundreds or even thousands of provider out there. To find one use a web search
engine of your choice. Or maybe your university has one. Or you can run your own.
Or ask a friend to run one. Once you found one you can use Conversations to
create an account. Just select 'register new account on server' within the
create account dialog.

####Conversations doesn't work for me. Where can I get help?
You can join our conference room on conversations@conference.siacs.eu A lot of
people in there are able to answer basic questions about the usage of
Conversations or can provide you with tips on running your own XMPP server. If
you found a bug or your app crashes please read the Developer / Report Bugs
section of this document.

####I need professional support with Conversations or setting up my server
I'm available for hire. Contact me at inputmice@siacs.eu

####How does the address book integration work?
The address bock integration was designed to protect your privacy. Conversations
neither uploads contacts from your address book to your server nor fills your
address book with unnecessary contacts from your online roster. If you manually
add a Jabber ID to your phones address book Conversations will use the name and
the profile picture of this contact. To make the process of adding Jabber IDs to
your address book easier you can click on the profile picture in the contact
details within Conversations. This will start an add to address book intent with the jabber ID
as payload. This doesn’t require Conversations to have write permissions on your
address book but also doesn’t require you to copy past Jabber ID from one app to
another.

####I get 'delivery failed' on my messages
If you get delivery failed on images it’s probably because the recipient lost
network connectivity during recepiton. In that case you can try it again at a
later time.

For text messages the answer to your question is a little bit more complex.
'delivery failed' on text messages is always something that is being reported by
the server. The most common reason for this is that the recipient failed to
resume a connection. When a client loses connectivity for a short time the client
usually has a five minute window to pick up that connection again. When the
client fails to do so because the network connectivity is out for longer than
that all messages sent to that client will be returned to the sender resulting
in a delivery failed.

Other less common reasons are that the message you sent didn’t meet some
criterias enforced by the server. (Too large, too many) Another reason could be
that the recipient is offline and the server doesn’t provide offline storage.

Usually you are able to distinguish between these two groups in the fact that
the first one happens always after some time and the second one happens almost
instantly.

####Where can I see the status of my contacts? How can I set a status or priority
Status are a horrible metric. Setting them manually to a proper value rarely
works because users are either lazy or just forget about them. Setting them
automatically does not provide quality results either. Keyboard or mouse
activity as indicator for example fails when the user is just looking at
something (reading an article, watching a movie). Furthermore automatic setting
of status always implies an impact on your privacy. (Are you sure you want
everybody in your contact list to know that you have been using your computer at
4am?!)

In the past status has been used to judge the likelihood of whether or not your
messages are being read. This is no longer necessary. With Chat Markers
(XEP-0333, supported by Conversations since 0.4) we have the ability to **know**
whether or not your messages are being read.
Similar things can be said for priorities. In the past priorities have been used
(By servers, not by clients!) to route your messages to one specific client.
With carbon messages (XEP-0280, supported by Conversations since 0.1) this is no
longer necessary. Using priorities to route OTR messages isn't pratical either
because they are not changeable on the fly. Metrics like last active client
(the client which sent the last message) are much better.

Unfortunately these modern replacements for legacy XMPP features are not widely
adopted. However Conversations should be an instant messenger for the future and
instead of making Conversations compatible with the past we should work on
implementing new, improved technologies into other XMPP clients as well.

Making these status and priority optional isn't a solution either because
Conversations is trying to get rid of old behaviours and set an example for
other clients.

####Conversations is missing a certain feature
I'm open for new feature suggestions. You can use the issue tracker on github.
Please take some time to browse through the issues to see if someone else
already suggested it. Be assured that I read each and every ticket. If I like it
I will leave it open until it's implemented. If I don't like it I will close
it. (Usually with a short comment). If I don't comment on an feature request
that's probably a good sign because this means I agree with you. Commenting with
+1 on either open or closed issues won't change my mind nor will it accelerate the
development.

####You closed my feature request but I want it really really badly
Just write it yourself and send me a pull request. If I like it I will happily
merge it if I don't at least you and like minded people get to enjoy it.

####I need a feature and I need it now!
I am available for hire. Contact me JID: inputmice@siacs.eu

###Security
####Why are there two end-to-end encryption methods and which one should I choose?
In 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.
However PGP can be in some cases (carbonated messages to multiple clients) be
more flexible.
####How do I use openPGP
Before you continue reading you should notice that the openPGP support in
Conversations is marked as experimental. This is not because it will make the app
unstable but because the fundamental concepts of PGP aren't ready for a
widespread 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.

To 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.
####How does the encryption for conferences work?
For conferences the only supported encryption method is OpenPGP. (OTR does not
work with multiple participants.) Every participant has to announce their
OpenPGP key. (See answer above). If you would like to send encrypted messages to
a conference you have to make sure that you have every participant's public key
in your OpenKeychain. Right now there is no check in Conversations to ensure
that. You have to take care of that yourself. Go to the conference details and
touch every key id (The hexadecimal number below a contact). This will send you
to OpenKeychain which will assist you on adding the key.
This works best in very small conferences with contacts you are already using
OpenPGP with. This feature is regarded experimental. Conversations is the only
client that uses XEP-0027 with conferences. (The XEP neither specifically allows
nor disallows this.)
###Development
####How do I build Conversations
Make sure to have ANDROID_HOME point to your Android SDK
```
git clone https://github.com/siacs/Conversations.git
cd Conversations
git submodule update --init --recursive
ant clean
ant debug
```
####How do I debug Conversations
If something goes wrong Conversations usually exposes very little information in
the UI. (Other than the fact that something didn't work)
However with adb (android debug bridge) you squeeze some more information out of
Conversations. These information are especially useful if you are experiencing
troubles with your connection or with file transfer.
````
adb -d logcat -v time -s conversations
````
####I found a bug
Please report it to our issue tracker. If your app crashes please provide a
stack trace. If you are experiencing missbehaviour please provide detailed
steps to reproduce.
Always mention whether you are running the latest Play Store version or the
current HEAD.
If you are having problems connecting to your XMPP server your file transfer
doesn’t work as expected please always include a logcat debug output with your
issue. (See above)