Onboarding centralized? [add contact with vCard, besides i.delta.chat]

[session]

delta chat has the great and easy onboarding mechanism but it it centralized - it does just work over https://i.delta.chat - or is there on other way to add profiles/contacts without the https://i.delta.chat links ?

[link2xt]

You can read how invite links work at GitHub - deltachat/invite: Invite links for deltachat · GitHub
Delta Chat handles the links internally and does not depend on i.delta.chat website to be up.

https://i.delta.chat is a fallback for the case when user does not have Delta Chat installed, telling to install Delta Chat and using the link inside the app. No data about the contact is sent to i.delta.chat even when you open the link in a browser.

I have previously wrote a longer post at

The life-changing magic of WKD

Nothing is leaked to https://i.delta.chat. i.delta.chat can be down and you can firewall it away, the link will still work. https://i.delta.chat is a static website that is only used as a fallback for users who click on it while having no Delta Chat installed, it then gives them instruction to install delta chat and open the link with it. Even when you open it in a browser, the web server does not receive any email addresses because this data is after the # symbol (in the URI fragment). This is…

@session

or is there on other way to add profiles/contacts without the https://i.delta.chat links ?

You can use vCards for this. Send a contact as an attachment (you can send contact “Me” to self as well), then export it, then send it any way you like.

[session]

Ok Thanks - but i still do not understand how to make new contact without i.delta.chat

@link2xt

You can use vCards for this. Send a contact as an attachment (you can send contact “Me” to self as well), then export it, then send it any way you like.

How does this work in detail?

[link2xt]

vCard contains the contact name, OpenPGP key, avatar and so on. This is all you need to write a message to the contact.

[session]

how to generate a vCard from within DC and how to import a vCard from within DC

[link2xt]

1. Click “attach” button, select “Contact”:
   

   

2. Select the contact that you want to send. For the contact “Me”, scroll to the very bottom:
   

3. Contact gets attached to the message, send it:
   

   

4. If you want to transfer it outside Delta Chat, click “Export”:
   

   
   
   You can transfer the file however you want.

5. To add the contact, click on the message with the attachment.

See also related proposal to make it easier:

Easy way to share own vCard

vCards is the preferred way of sharing contacts in Delta Chat now. When you select “Contact” in attach menu, vCard of the contact gets attached. There is however no easy way to send your own vCard to someone, e.g. in another messenger. Workaround is to send a vCard of self-contact to self into Saved messages, then to “Export attachment”, then attach it somewhere. I think a good place to have a “Share” button is in my own profile on the same screen where I can change my name and avatar, both on…

[session]

super - . great it works with vCards -

thanks for that Workaround… and yes it would be nice if it would be more easy to do

[session]

Export and Import of vCards should be offered by placed buttons in menus where they are easily found.

[ian]

Not sure whether you went through all the linked threads, but just so it is also mentioned here, you can equivalently add contacts using openpgp4fpr links (and its QR code form) without spelling out https://i.delta.chat. In none of the mentioned combinations would a centralized service be contacted - invitations are processed between the DC clients of the two peers involved directly. You would then share a link such as the following with your friend:

openpgp4fpr:A11808CEE7890F00B54EB64183C1FA40200635D5#a=chatbot%40testrun.org&n=Mia&i=1uiiAtibina&s=iyHlIA_MABH