It is time for a major release 2.x for Delta Chat!
You can read soon about all the changes it brings, but for now we want you to test a preview of the upcoming release.
You can still keep older versions on your second device - they interact smoothly.
So whats new?
End-to-end Encryption is default now. So no more green check marks or padlocks
If you have chats with some unverified E-Mail contacts those will be clearly distinguished by showing an E-Mail icon instead of an avatar
If you experience any unexpected behaviour let us know!
We also change the versioning and the release previews now: the first 2 digits in the version are always connected to the Delta Chat Core version that is in use. The 3rd digit may increase with smaller updates.
Be especially aware of the mandatory backup (!) this time
since during upgrade your account data is migrated to a new state and you should not downgrade again with the migrated accounts.
We will only rarely do full test releases anymore, but provide preview-releases for download here: Index of /desktop/preview/
Please report the found bugs either here in this forum topic or even better
as issue on GitHub.
Important: please backup your current setup (or most important accounts)
before upgrading in order to be safe when trying test-releases. You can
find this option under Settings > Chats and Media > Backup.
An envelope icon for messages that are not encrypted is unexpected. I’d only seen envelopes used to indicate the presence of encryption (because the encryption envelope hides the message inside, just as a physical envelope hides its contents). The fairly well-known Mailvelope software also uses this encryption=envelope metaphor.
A postcard icon for unencrypted messages would follow this metaphor. The word “Unencrypted” would be clearer.
An envelope icon for messages that are not encrypted is unexpected
Well, I would say in most places all over the net the envelope is used for email, not for encrypted messages. So most users will associate it with email, while a “postcard” icon would be hard to recognize. Although technically you are right…
You’re right, I’ve also seen envelope icons used in contrast to, say, a telephone handset icon , to mean e-mail or snailmail. But here I think the contrast is between encrypted and unencrypted mail?
I don’t think my postcard icon suggestion was very good, either.
None of those icons seem like good suggestions. Maybe we need a dedicated icon that represents encryption. A schematic scytale? An Enigma-machine rotor?
The padlock symbol is typically used to represent encryption, and an open padlock or padlock with strikethru when there is no encryption, but if the symbol is very small you need careful attention to the design to make sure users can easily distinguish between an open and cloesd padlock.
This is probably the most clear and the most obvious.
Is it now impossible to have E2EE in Deltachat unless you create a Chatmail account in a Deltachat client?
Porting E2EE accounts from Deltachat currently requires hacking to manually extract the keys, so is clearly unsupported. Porting accounts to Deltachat is gaining official support, but does it mean that
a) You lose your old keys and the keys of your contacts, but can choose whether to use E2EE with new keys (generated in Deltachat) or plain text.
b) You can’t use encryption with imported accounts.
You get the exact same e2ee capabilities when using a classic server.
plus you can send and receive classic, not-e2ee, email only with classic server.
due to other drawbacks [1], however, Chatmail is recommended. classic server should be used only if you really know what you’re doing. and then using a dedicated account, which also answers most key questions. for the vast majority of users, Chatmail is clearly the better way to use Delta Chat.
classic email do not support instant delivery notifications, no instant onboarding and no e2ee-only-mode. and then there is often bad support of messaging by big tech as google, apple & co ↩︎
It is time for a major release 2.x for Delta Chat! 
instead of an avatar
Be especially aware of the mandatory backup (!) this time 
used in contrast to, say, a telephone handset icon 
, to mean e-mail or snailmail. 
But here I think the contrast is between encrypted and unencrypted mail?
