Send Message to a Gmail Address, and Get Replies? [from chatmail or other mailbox in DC]

[blr]

Delta Chat version
Delta Chat Desktop 1.56.0 (git: v1.55.0-17-g9a3b9942-prepare-release-1.56.0)

guys… where’s the instructions for old geezers??

i thought i could send a “chat” to an email address (gmail), and have it send a secure message to that person? but i don’t see how to do that? (note: the chats don’t have to be “live” back and forth, but should last a week or two or so?)

i am not signing into delta chat with my gmail, i got a delta chat email address to use it with.

am i doing it wrong?

… i just tried sending from my gmail to my delta email address. no message showed up. maybe i’m not understanding delta chat right.

[Simon]

To send to non-delta-chat/chatmail addresses you have 3 options:

• you use a classical email address that was not created in delta chat and send from there
• the recipient uses deltachat and you scan their qr code or use their invite link to establish contact.

chatmail/deltachat addresses only support sending and receiving encrypted emails.
Bring your own email account to chat with everyone that has email.

you can have as many profiles/accounts in the deltachat app as you like. Think of delta chat as an email client like thunderbird or the old outlook app before it was in the cloud.

[skadge]

Sorry to bring up this old thread (that was the first hit from my search engine): with the new move towards deprecrating support for non-chatmail relays, does this means that sending messages to a non-chatmail email address is now defacto not possible? (…considering that most regular email servers don’t support end-to-end encryption)

I know that the delta.chat website does not anymore reference ‘email’ on the landing page. Just want to be sure…

[ian]

@skadge Encryption needs to be supported by the client of your peer, not the server of their mailbox:

How-to: Delta Chat interoperability with other ENCRYPTED email clients

Situation: you or a friend is using ProtonMail, Mutt, K9-Mail, Thunderbird or other email client with encryption support, the other is using Delta Chat and you want to chat. From now on it will be assumed you are the one using Delta Chat while the other peer is using the classic email app. In Delta Chat you can export your public key as vcard, you then need to import that key from that vcard in the other email clients that support encryption, if the other person share their key via another ch…

Is it possible to communicate with non-DC user? (interoperability with email)

let’s say, some person A isn’t yet convinced to install chatmail clients on their devices, but they use email and, if necessary, they could try a certain MUA (one supporting Autocrypt etc), and do some technical setup (import PGP keys) in advance, to connect with person B (a delta chat enjoyer). is it possible to for person B to use DeltaChat (or another chatmail client?) to communicate with person A, without person A installing any chatmail clients, relying only on well-known, established pr…

[skadge]

Thanks for taking the time to answer, and yes, of course, the issue is with the client, not the server.

The problem, of course, is that for many users (all the ones using webmails, like gmail, etc), the concept of server vs client is (at best) muddled.

I understand the rationale for enforcing e2ee. Unfortunately, by making this choice, deltachat is becoming less relevant for many users (the ones using deltachat as an easy-to-use email client, like my kids, who do not have a phone number, but could still chat with their gmail friends… and where using deltachat to easily email themselves photos, videos, etc to thier school email account). I would have loved that deltachat would have maintained a solid support for classic email.

[ian]

Could you please specify your exact problem that you need help with? Did you manage to add a classic email account on your Delta Chat installation? You should still be able to send unencrypted mail via a classic account.

• FAQ - Delta Chat

A chat profile using a classic email address allows to to send and receive unencrypted messages. These messages, and the chats they appear in, are marked with an email icon.

Also, could you please share the URL where you read that support for non-chatmail relays will be deprecated? This seems to go around a lot nowadays, and thus needs to be reworded to reduce the chance for misunderstanding.