Preguntes freqüents

Què és Delta Chat?

Delta Chat és una nova aplicació de xat que envia els missatges via correu electrònic, xifrat si és posible, amb Autocrypt. No cal pas que et donis d’alta enlloc, només has de fer servir el teu actual compte de correu electrònic amb amb Delta Chat.

Com puc trobar gent amb qui xatejar?

Amb Delta Chat pots escriure a qualsevol adreça de correu electrònic, fins i tot si el destinatari no usa Delta Chat. No cal que ell s’instal·li la mateixa app que tu, com passa amb els altres programes de missatgeria.

What are the advantages of Delta Chat compared to other messengers?

Which messages do appear in Delta Chat?

By default, Delta Chat shows all e-mails.

At “Settings -> Chats & Media -> Show Classic E-Mails”, you can change this. You have these options:

What if I expect a message from someone I didn’t write to in the past?

Does Delta Chat support images, videos and other attachments?

How can I add or switch between multiple accounts?

You can easily work with additional accounts on Delta Chat mobile and desktop clients by clicking either:

You may also wish to learn how to add accounts to multiple devices.

Who sees my profile picture?

Does Delta Chat support HTML e-mails?

Why do I have to enter my E-Mail password into Delta Chat? Is this secure?

As with other E-Mail programs like Thunderbird, K9-Mail, or Outlook, the program needs the password so you can use it to send mails. Of course, the password is stored only on your device. The password is only transmitted to your E-Mail provider (when you login), which has access to your mails anyway.

If you use an E-Mail provider with OAuth2 support like gmail.com or yandex.ru, there is no need to store your password on the device. In this case, only an access token is used.

As Delta Chat is Open Source, you can check the Source Code if you want to verify that your credentials are handled securely. We are happy about feedback which makes the app more secure for all of our users.

Which permissions does Delta Chat need?

Depending on the operating system in use, you may be asked to grant permissions to the app. This is what Delta Chat does with these permissions:

What means Pinning, Muting, Archiving?

Use these tools to organize your chats and keep everything in its place:

To archive or pin a chat, long tap (Android), use the chat’s menu (Android/Desktop) or swipe to the left (iOS); to mute a chat, use the chat’s menu (Android/Desktop) or the chat’s profile (iOS).

What does the green dot mean?

How can I delete my account?

As you use an e-mail account for Delta Chat, how you can delete your account depends on your e-mail provider. We don’t have any control over your e-mail account, so unfortunately we can’t help you with that.

If you want to keep the account, but uninstall Delta Chat, it is recommended to leave any group chat before uninstalling Delta Chat.

Groups

Creation of a group

Add members to a group

I have deleted myself by accident.

I do not want to receive the messages of a group any longer.

What do the ticks shown beside outgoing messages mean?

What happens if I turn on “Delete old messages from server”?

What happens if I turn on “Delete old messages from device”?

Encryption

Does Delta Chat support end-to-end-encryption?

What do I have to do to activate the end-to-end-encryption?

If end-to-end-encryption is not available, is the connection not encrypted at all?

How can I verify cryptographic status with a sender?

If you are within immediate distance of the chat partner:

If you are not near the chat partner, you can check the status manually in the “Encryption” dialog (user profile on Android/iOS or right-click a user’s chat-list item on desktop):

How can I check the encryption of messages?

How can I ensure message encryption and deletion?

The best way to ensure every message is encrypted, and metadata deleted as quickly as possible is creating a verified group and turning on disappearing messages.

Verified groups are always encrypted and protected against MITM attacks.

Metadata can’t be encrypted, as the server needs to know where to deliver your messages. But turning on “disappearing messages” deletes the messages on the server after they were delivered.

If you need the messages on your device, but not on the server, you can also agree in the group to turn on “delete messages from server automatically”.

If you want to protect a 1:1 conversation like this, you should create a verified group with only 2 people. If the other person loses their device but not their account, you can still communicate in the 1:1 chat. (Read more)

Which standards are used for end-to-end-encryption?

What is the difference between verified groups and 1:1 chats with verified contacts?

Does Delta Chat support Perfect Forward Secrecy?

How does Delta Chat protect my Metadata?

Can I reuse my existing private key?

If you don’t have a key or don’t even know you would need one - don’t worry: Delta Chat generates keys as needed, you don’t have to hit a button for it.

I can’t import my existing PGP key into Delta Chat.

The most likely cause is that your key is encrypted and/or uses a password. Such keys are not supported by Delta Chat. You could remove the passphrase encryption and the password and try the import again. If you want to keep your passphrase you’ll have to create an e-mail alias for use with Delta Chat such that Delta Chat’s key is tied to this e-mail alias.

Delta Chat supports common OpenPGP private key formats, however, it is unlikely that private keys from all sources will be fully supported. This is not the main goal of Delta Chat. In fact, the majority of new users will not have any key prior to using Delta Chat. We do, however, try to support private keys from as many sources as possible.

Removing the password from the private key will depend on the software you use to manage your PGP keys. With Enigmail, you can set your password to an empty value in the Key Management window. With GnuPG you can set it via the command line. For other programs, you should be able to find a solution online.

Multi-client

Can I use Delta Chat on multiple devices at the same time?

Yes. Delta Chat 1.36 comes with a new, experimental function for using the same account on different devices:

In contrast to many other messengers, after successful transfer, both devices are completely independent. One device is not needed for the other to work.

Troubleshooting

Manual Transfer

This method is only recommended if “Add Second Device” as described above does not work.

Are there any plans for introducing a Delta Chat Web Client?

What is the “Send Copy to Self” setting good for?

Sending a copy of your messages to yourself ensures that you receive your own messages on all devices. If you have multiple devices and don’t turn it on, you see only the messages from other people, and the messages you send from the current device.

The copy is sent to the Inbox, and then moved to the DeltaChat folder; it’s not put into the “Sent” folder. Delta Chat never uploads anything to the Sent folder because this would mean uploading a message twice (once through SMTP, and once through IMAP to Sent folder).

The default setting for copy-to-self is “no”.

Why can I choose to watch the “Sent” folder?

The only reason one wants to watch the Sent folder is if you are using another mail program (like Thunderbird) next to your Delta Chat app, and want your MUA to participate in chat conversations.

However, we recommend using the Delta Chat Desktop Client; you can download it on get.delta.chat. The option to watch the “Sent” folder might go away in the future. It was introduced at a time where there was no Delta Chat Desktop client available on all platforms.

Why can I choose not to watch the DeltaChat folder?

Some people use Delta Chat as a regular email client, and want to use the Inbox folder for their mail, instead of the DeltaChat folder. If you disable “Watch DeltaChat folder”, you should also disable “move chat messages to DeltaChat”. Otherwise, deleting messages or multi-device setups might not work properly.

Private Apps / webxdc

In Delta Chat, you can share “private apps”, attachments with an .xdc file extension. They can do very different things, and make Delta Chat a truly extendable messenger. The technical term is webxdc.

How private are private apps?

Where can I get private apps?

How can I create my own private apps?

Experimental Features

We are very grateful about feedback on these features - do you want to share your ideas? Join the Forum to contribute. (You like experiments? Register through “Sign up -> with Delta Chat”!)

How can I use audio/video calls with Delta Chat?

What is a verified group? Why is it experimental?

What are Broadcast Lists and how can I use them?

How can I share my location with my chat partners?

What does the experimental database encryption actually protect?

Why can I choose to only watch the DeltaChat folder?

This is an experimental setting for some people who are experimenting with server-side rules. Not all providers support this, but with some you can move all mails with a “Chat-Version” header to the DeltaChat folder. Normally, this would be done by the Delta Chat app.

Enabling “Only Fetch from DeltaChat folder” makes sense if you have both:

In this case, Delta Chat doesn’t need to watch the Inbox, and it’s enough to only watch the DeltaChat folder.

How can I change my account to a different e-mail address?

  1. Change your address at the “Password and Account” seetings screen in Delta Chat, enter your password (and if necessary, server settings) for the new account
  2. If possible, make your old e-mail provider forward all e-mails to your new email address
  3. Tell your contacts that you changed your address. If you write this to a verified group, they will acknowledge this automatically.

To learn about the details behind this, read our blogpost on it.

Miscellaneous

Does Delta Chat work with my e-mail-provider?

I want to manage my own e-mail server for Delta Chat. What do you recommend?

If Delta Chat uses E-Mail, is it really an Instant Messenger?

Is Delta Chat compatible with Protonmail / Tutanota / Criptext?

I’m interested in the technical details. Can you tell me more?

Was Delta Chat independently audited for security vulnerabilities?

The Delta Chat project underwent four independent security audits in the last years:

How are Delta Chat developments funded?

Delta Chat does not receive any Venture Capital and is not indebted, and under no pressure to produce huge profits, or to sell users and their friends and family to advertisers (or worse). We rather use public funding sources, so far from EU and US origins, to help our efforts in instigating a decentralized and diverse chat messaging eco-system based on Free and Open-Source community developments.

Concretely, Delta Chat developments have so far been funded from these sources:

The monetary funding mentioned above is mostly organized by merlinux GmbH in Freiburg (Germany), and is distributed to more than a dozen contributors world-wide.

Please see Delta Chat Contribution channels for both monetary and and other contribution possibilities.