I’m new to Delta-Chat. Came here looking for an alternative to Whatsapp etc., which all require installing an app and have their proprietary protocols.
Websearch told me,DeltaChat would make a difference: EMail would be used as a fallback, if the recipient hasnt DeltaChat installed himself.
How can I initialize a chat without sending a QR-Code, forcing the other party to install DeltaChat?
Thanks for all the good work!
You can also send the URL in the QR code, there’s a copy button for that also on the invite screen.
Note that if the other party does not have DC, they are expected to have another email client with the encryption plugin installed.
Thanks for the quick reply, Ian!
Doesnt the URL sent by EMail just contain an invitation to install DC?
How is the chat-text sent to a recipient without DC?
first of all, for new user, it is strongly encouraged to add contacts by scanning QR code or send invite links around, see FAQ - Delta Chat
background: while using SMTP and IMAP, Delta Chat and the chatmail relays enforce end-to-end-encryption and protection against machine-in-the-middle by default - this is not doable when writing “just so” to an email address. the websearch is wrong in that regard. for advanced or existing user there are some options to use Delta Chat on profile creation, but as said, this is not recommended when trying Delta Chat out, and one really needs to know what one is doing; it is not the encouraged workflow.
Thanks R10S!
Reviewing my web search, most of the sites seem to be roughly 5 years old and obviously outdated.
At the time DC biggest advantage was described as being able to communicate with other clients via email, without those having to install anything.
I believe this to be the basic requirement for broad distribution of a messenger considering the dominance of whatsapp and the likes.
I understand, that encryption poses a challenge. Users with such requirements will undoubtedly install DC, but only after being initially contacted via an email, that doesnt force them to install something.
we really tried hard with that “just use your existing address”, and also i personally would like to have that seen succeeding.
but at the end, it did not work out. for various reasons - eg. it is too complicated for the average user to log in, unsolvable notification problems, no guaranteed encryption capabilities. and, also bigtech as google was making it harder and harder to go that way, eg. weird compliances, flagging encrypted messages as spam and so on. therefore, some years ago, we then invented chatmail relays, which is not built on tech controlled by bigtech, eg. no ip-reputation, no greylisting, no weird limits as few messages per day.
it clearly resulted in some user turning the back from Delta Chat, esp. those seeing it mostly as a fancy email client.
but at the same time, we got and get tons of new user, and still have far more adaption than ever in the past.
The encryption plugin is OpenPGP.