Newbie questions

[link2xt]

@uhgwt436

I just discovered the use of an AutoCrypt message to make sure new messages show up on all devices, combined with bcc copy-to-self to make sure outgoing messages are also synced. This seems to work but only seems to sync messages /after/ the AutoCrypt numbers have been entered on a new device. Is it possible to sync old messages as well to a new device and if so, how?

Generally Delta Chat does not download old messages. You can trick it into doing so by removing the messages both on the server and locally and then copying them back to the Delta Chat folder so they appear as new messages, but they will appear as the new messages at the end of the chat. Preferred way to setup new devices is to backup on the old device, which has all the messages, and restore the backup on the new device. Make sure to enable “Send copy to self” manually. See Multiclient FAQ section for details: FAQ - Delta Chat

@uhgwt436

I originally downloaded the app on three phones and on one of them (not the first one set up) my first Delta Chat friend’s name shows up together with the e-mail address, on the others only the e-mail address. Is this possibly a bug?

Name is attached to the contact when you receive a message with the name in the From: field. Also the name can be imported from the address book on your phone, which may contain the name on one phone but not the other.

@uhgwt436

What is the maximum size of a file/video/other message that can’t be sent? Is this dependent on the e-mail systems in use between the sender and receiver(s)?

The upper limit is 49 MiB, above which Delta Chat refuses to send the messages, but it is recommended to keep the size around 25 MiB. The problem here is that it is possible that your receiver side provider may reject the message if it is too large, and we don’t know the size each receiver provider accepts in advance.

@uhgwt436

I like the fact that in Telegram I send a webpage, Telegram renders an excerpt of the beginning of the webpage which is very nice. This does not seem to be the case in DC. Is this something you plan to do?

There is a separate feature request for that, I commented there: Generate link preview

@uhgwt436

To check what is visible in my e-mail account I logged in as a regular user using their web interface. I found what seems to be a new folder DeltaChat that contains both sent and received messages. To my surprise, the first two messages my friend sent to me - sent before I accepted the friend request - can be seen in cleartext here. Am I correct in assuming that this is always the case until the second person has accepted the friend request?

It does not matter whether a contact request is accepted. Each message sent by Delta Chat contains an Autocrypt header with the sender public key. Until you receive such a public key from your friend, you cannot encrypt messages to them, so they are sent unencrypted. This is indicated by the lack of a small padlock on the message in the UI. Messages are not encrypted if there is no public key available or one of the users switched off the setting “prefer encryption”. In groups it is decided by “majority vote” whether it is encrypted or not.

On Android, you can check the encryption status in the contact profile, “Encryption” menu item. If you want to be 100% sure messages are encrypted, you can also verify with your friend via the QR-code and create a “verified group” after that, where messages are never sent if they are not going to be encrypted. In the future there is a plan to rename this into “protected chats” and allow to switch protection on for 1:1 chats too.