I remember there was a Video Chat option in Delta Chat. Today I checked all my Android and desktop instances, and none of them have it anymore, it just disappeared. Any idea what happened? Did an update removed it, and if so, why? It was a useful feature.
Also, unrelated problem, but still annoying: that so-called nagging about “add second device” NEVER worked for me. Both devices were on the same WiFi (many times on many different WiFis, so it is not a WiFi problem), and they never found each other. I do not even understand why they are necessary, but that’s only me. As all instances check the same IMAP server, I have no idea why this extra step is necessary… normally everything is fine without it, too.
So, what happened to Video Chat? Btw, the solution is simple (but cumbersome), manually typing meet.systemli.org/whatever and sending this URL to the other party, but it was easier to press a button… TIA
This option is replaced with built-in video calls, they can be enabled in experimental settings:
The main difference is that you don’t need to trust an instance like meet.systemli.org, new calls are end-to-end encrypted. The downside is that there are no group calls, but as you noted you can open a call on such Jitsi Meet instance and send a link manually in this case. Old feature was basically a placeholder for natively integrated calls, it is now removed to avoid confusion due to having multiple ways to make calls, describing the difference between the two features etc.
No matter what Jitsi Meet is like (personally I tried to avoid using it), it doesn’t actually encrypt your calls — there’s an end-to-end option, but it only works in some browsers, and once enabled it slows down the traffic terribly. Besides, the whole browser-based approach made it harder for my users to trust it. So if you prefer relying on third-party services, just stick to using hyperlinks.
Thank you both for the answers, but a) what is the difference between the gplay and fdroid versions? I do not use gplay at all (I have a linux phone with android support only), I usually use f-droid for every apk, or just the plain apks themselves to install anything… if not available on f-droid, I resort to Aurora or Aptoide, they usually cover every possible existing apk in the world. I try to de-googlify my life. Having said that, I did find an update to v2.25 and just updated on Aurora. I cannot see any video chat option in this new 2.25 version. So, shall I try the older, 2.22 f-droid version from the links, perhaps it has video chat feature? if so, why the new 2.25 version does not have it? Confused… thanks for any insights!
I think this link Index of /android/beta/ has all the versions, including the new 2.25 version ones. So, if I understand correctly, the video chat function is only available as a “beta”, not for the mainstream version?
Somewhat unrelated, but if would be SO NICE if there would be a Refresh possibility somewhere, somehow in the UI, because I have no idea how to refresh my email account (like on any normal email client, refresh downloads the new messages), and this results in annoying waiting, waiting, waiting for some mysterious auto-refresh happening, particularly annoying when I upload a file on the desktop, and then trying to download the same file from the android phone, using the Saved Messages feature… I just cannot trigger a refresh, the file is already in that folder, but I get it many minutes later (sometimes 10+ minutes), and that could be solved easily with a REFRESH button… am I asking too much?
Not sure what I am doing wrong, but downloaded the DEV versions (betas) for f-droid, installed them, but I see absolutely NO DIFFERENCE with the standard version. No video chat feature anywhere in it, internal or external, nothing. Both v2.25 are identical, dev or no dev version.
Also, I asked how to solve the “infinitely growing” storage issue, which already filled up my small 32 GB internal storage phone, I tried everything possible to keep the storage down to less than 500 MB (deleting old messages from the phone, re-installing it fresh and importing backup profile, etc), but it just keeps filling up the storage, so I had to uninstall it and cannot use it on that phone, alas.
I am a bit puzzled… is it really that difficult to limit the storage on the phone to a certain amount, while keeping all messages on the server? I have unlimited space for my emails on my server, but very limited space on my favorite old phone (which is better than any new phones, hence I prefer to use it), namely only 32 GB which is small by today’s standards, but enough (for me) for every app, except Delta Chat, which cannot store old (or all) emails on an SD card… Sad that I must use Delta Chat on newer, less useful phones only.
if there would be a Refresh possibility somewhere, somehow in the UI
there is no one by default. the app will detect messages automatically - as most other instant messengers.
we do not want to have a “overscroll” or a button that ppl then press ten times a second addictively
if this is not the case reproducibly, this is a bug and should be fixed. but we would need more details (in general, note that shared usage is not supported and classic providers may not play well with chatmail otherwise - greylisting, filters, reputation management etc.)
Thanks… well, it just does not instantly refresh, most of the time I have to wait 5-10 minutes before it does. Does it on both my “old” and “new” phones (Android 11 on Sailfish and Android 13 on a MotoG13). It only waits that long for the Saved Messages “chat”, the others are usually instant indeed. Sorry for littering this “video chat” topic with storage and refresh problems, just wanted to summarize what frustrates me with an otherwise excellent product (well, at this stage only an “idea”, not a finished product yet)…
