Advanced

From the Delta Chat FAQ.

Advanced

Experimental Features

At Settings → Advanced → Experimental Features you can try out features we are working on.

The features may be unstable and may be changed or removed.

You can find more information and give feedback in the Forum.

What are Relays?

Relays are used to temporarily hold messages in case your device is offline. Relays are cheap and dumb servers, that do not store any user data as group states, your name or avatar - all those exist only on your device. Relays are operated by different groups and people, not under the control of Delta Chat developers.

By default, relays are automatically set up, so you do not need to care about that. However, if you want to, you can configure relays at Settings → Advanced → Relays:

• You can remove a relay from the relay list (by long-tapping on it) and choosing the remove action. Before you remove your last relay, you will need to add another relay first.

• You can add a relay by scanning its QR code or pasting its invite link; chatmail.at/relays shows some publically known ones. If you have multiple relays, you will receive messages on all of them.

Adding or removing a relay will automatically inform your chat partners so they start or stop using a relay for chatting with you, respectively.

Can I use a classic email address with Delta Chat?

Yes, but only if the email address is used exclusively by chatmail clients.

It is not supported to share usage of an email address with non-chatmail apps or web-based mailers, for the following reasons:

• Non-chatmail apps are largely not accomplishing automatic end-to-end email encryption for their users, while chatmail apps and relays pervasively enforce end-to-end encryption and other security standards.

• Non-chatmail apps use email servers as a long-term message archive while chatmail clients use email servers for ephemeral instant message forwarding.

• Supporting the full variety of classic email setups would require considerable development and maintenance efforts, and complicate making chatmail-based messaging more resilient, reliable and fast.

How can I configure a chat profile with a classic email address as relay?

First off, please do not use the same classic email address also from non-chatmail classic email apps unless you are prepared to deal with encrypted messages in the inbox, double notifications, accidentally deleted emails or similar annoyances.

You can configure a email address for chatting at New Profile → Use Other Server → Use Classic Mail as Relay. Note that classic email providers will generally not support Push Notifications and have other limitations, see Provider Overview. Chatmail uses the default INBOX for relay; ensure the provider setup does too. 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 .

I want to manage my own server for Delta Chat. What do you recommend?

Any well behaving email server setup will do fine except if your users’ devices require Google/Apple Push Notifications to work properly.

We generally recommend to set up a chatmail relay. Chatmail is a community-driven project that encompasses both the setup of relays and core Rust developments that power chatmail clients of which Delta Chat is the most well known.

What is “Send statistics to Delta Chat’s developers”?

We would like to improve Delta Chat with your help, which is why Delta Chat for Android asks whether you want to send anonymous usage statistics.

You can turn it on and off at Settings → Advanced → Send statistics to Delta Chat’s developers.

When you turn it on, weekly statistics will be automatically sent to a bot.

We are interested e.g. in statistics like:

• How many contacts are added by scanning a QR code or opening an invite link?

• Which versions of Delta Chat are being used?

• What errors occur for users?

We will not collect any personally identifiable information about you.

I’m interested in the technical details. Can you tell me more?

See Standards used in Delta Chat.