Miscellaneous

From the Delta Chat FAQ.

Miscellaneous

Which permissions does Delta Chat need?

Some features require certain permissions, e.g. you need to grant camera permission if you want to scan an invite QR code.

See Privacy Policy for a detailed overview.

Where can my friends find Delta Chat?

Delta Chat is available for all major and some minor platforms:

• The official website, https://delta.chat/download shows all options in detail

• If unavailable, use the mirror at https://deltachat.github.io/deltachat-pages

• Open one of the following app stores and search for “Delta Chat”: Google Play Store, F-Droid, Huawei App Gallery, iOS and macOS App Store, Microsoft Store

• Check the package manager of your Linux distributions

• Android APKs are also available on https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-android/releases

How are Delta Chat developments funded?

Delta Chat does not receive any Venture Capital and is not indebted, and under no pressure to produce huge profits, or to sell users and their friends and family to advertisers (or worse). We rather use public funding sources, so far from EU and US origins, to help our efforts in instigating a decentralized and diverse chat messaging eco-system based on Free and Open-Source community developments.

Concretely, Delta Chat developments have so far been funded from these sources, ordered chronologically:

• In 2023 and 2024 we got accepted in the Next Generation Internet (NGI) program for our work in webxdc PUSH, along with collaboration partners working on webxdc evolve, webxdc XMPP, DeltaTouch and DeltaTauri. All of these projects are partially completed or to be completed in early 2025.

• In 2021 we received further EU funding for two Next-Generation-Internet proposals, namely for EPPD - email provider portability directory (~97K EUR) and AEAP - email address porting (~90K EUR) which resulted in better multi-profile support, improved QR-code contact and group setups and many networking improvements on all platforms.

• The NLnet foundation granted in 2019/2020 EUR 46K for completing Rust/Python bindings and instigating a Chat-bot eco-system.

• The Open Technology Fund gave us a first 2018/2019 grant (~$200K) during which we majorly improved the Android app and released a first Desktop app beta version, and which moreover moored our feature developments in UX research in human rights contexts, see our concluding Needfinding and UX report. The second 2019/2020 grant (~$300K) helped us to release Delta/iOS versions, to convert our core library to Rust, and to provide new features for all platforms.

• The NEXTLEAP EU project funded the research and implementation of verified groups and setup contact protocols in 2017 and 2018 and also helped to integrate end-to-end Encryption through Autocrypt.

• Sometimes we receive one-time donations from private individuals. For example, in 2021 a generous individual bank-wired us 4K EUR with the subject “keep up the good developments!”. 💜 We use such money to fund development gatherings or to care for ad-hoc expenses that can not easily be predicted for, or reimbursed from, public funding grants. Receiving more donations also helps us to become more independent and long-term viable as a contributor community.

  Donate Money

• Last but by far not least, several pro-bono experts and enthusiasts contributed and contribute to Delta Chat developments without receiving money, or only small amounts. Without them, Delta Chat would not be where it is today, not even close.

The monetary funding mentioned above is mostly organized by merlinux GmbH in Freiburg (Germany), and is distributed to more than a dozen contributors world-wide.

Please see Delta Chat Contribution channels for both monetary and other contribution possibilities.