I think the killer features are simple:

1. Actually decentralised. Not tomorrow, not theorical, not a work-in-progress. Decentralised: NOW.

2. WebXDC apps taking advantage of that decentralisation are going to be one of its biggest pulls. PixelSocial can entirely overtake local neighbourhood/family FB groups for example once is a bit more feature-complete.

3. Everything's encrypted without annoying you like Matrix

4. UI feels famiiliar like old pre-FB-purchase Whatsapp. Smaller learning curves or no curves at alll, are awesome.

#Deltachat

oh wait there's more?

Why isn't any of this in the docs?

#Deltachat #Chatmail

it's a neat idea to postpone server choice until later, and onboard with some default.

#deltachat apps are currently learning to use multiple addresses at once ("multi-transport"), along with cryptographic hardening against evil server operators. The goal is to provide multi-server onboarding by default, and to automate server migrations (although for a while there will be an advanced settings interface where it's manually managed). You'd be onboarding "to the network" :)

Self-hosted Delta Chat?

I've been thinking more about the hurtle of getting friends and family to use federated/self-hosted services. One of the issues to onboarding is people not "getting" the idea of picking an instance. This has led, in part, to "default" instances, like mastadon.social, that grow so large it almost defeates the idea.

I've been thinking that I really wish #DeltaChat had a web client. I have had a MUCH more difficult time getting folks to try that out than even #fediverse SNS. But I was thinking how the heck are you going to pull that off without @delta having to host the overhead for a robust web client and possibly host a gigantic server system that has to grow exponentially to keep everyone's email from all the possible email providers, really defeating the goal of their project.

This morning, I thought of a possible solution to both problems. What if you have a built-in transfer requirement. So you start with a default, say pleb.joinmastodon.org or noob.delta.chat and after a certain time (3 months or something) you have to either transfer to a new instance, including hosting your own client for in browser decryption web access to your encrypted mail chats or your account (in the case of #mastodon) or web client access (in the case of Delta Chat) is shut off.

Do you think this could work?

@delta_chat

Well, maybe we need to be more clear what we are trying to do: #deltachat apps are a cross-platform private messenger suite, that aims to provide a consistent UX/UI for users with lots of experience using WhatsApp and Signal.

Telegram has good fast UX but is hardly a private messenger (it has a central cleartext database of everyone and everything).

Matrix and XMPP are well-esteemed fellows in federated messaging, but so far didn't grow a WA/Signal-level cross-platform messaging UX.

YMMV

Mental note of an idea before I forget and never tell anyone: @thunderbird should adopt and dig in deep on being the best in class mobile and desktop client for #DeltaChat in addition to being an email and RSS reader. Compete on simplicity and features against closed, commercial Messangers, not just corporate email. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

cc: @delta

elegiría mejor #DeltaChat

Quedó comprobado que #Signal utiliza los servidores de Amazon que, al momento de sufrir un colapso, la mensajería quedaría fuera de servicio.

The easiest way to install chatmail server is a small project written by a single person, meanwhile the #deltachat official server installation process is cluster of unintelligible documentation and a docker image that need multiple commands to setup properly.

How does that one dev build a better hosting experience than a company?

@largo some user-visible differences to Signal:

- onboarding with #deltachat is among the fastest in the industry

- easy to create multiple chat profiles

- multi-device setup and export/import are easy, also between different platforms

- no phone number needed so eg children can participate without forcing a SIM card on them, and without making them discoverable anywhere

- shopping lists, travel checklists, and games like Wonster (a wordle-clone) or Tetris are available for group fun

Signal just released a "poll" feature with great fanfare, while all #deltachat apps already integrated a full suite of chat-shared apps, checklists, polls, shopping lists, calendar, editor + tons of games.

Better, anyone can create new apps, eg as github/codeberg forks from existing apps, and post it to their chats for instant deployment. No need to ask for permission, register an account, and no hosting or DNS: actually "server-less" and fully end-to-end encrypted :)

webxdc.org/apps

Any data that is collected on servers will eventually leak or be abused otherwise.

By design, no one can enumerate #deltachat profiles which are private and not published on any server. Conversely, #chatmail relays do not see or collect private data or metadata.

But wait, there is more :)

We are currently evolving end-to-end security protocols and UX to **survive an attacker fully taking over a server**. The attacker shall not even be able to message users, let alone impersonate anyone.

While #cloudflare US-east1 is busy fixing a good part of the Internet, parts of Matrix/Element, X etc down, good old decentralized #chatmail continues unimpeded and without degradation :)

In other news, there is a new #freebsd community maintained ❤️ #deltachat desktop install:

pkg install deltachat-desktop

thanks @feld and others!

@delta

Hi, can you help:
It seems that #deltachat notification system goes to "sleep" from time to time in android (Google Pixel 6a) so that I don't receive push notifications until I open the app. I haven't yet figured out the mechanism in this problem. I have set notification priority to max. It seems that I need to activate Background Connection from notification settings for things to work. But it shouldn't be necessary nowadays since Google push notifications should do the trick..?

this is not your grandfather's twitter bootstrap framework.

finalizing design for #deltachat #chatmail system. by hackers for hackers.

Seniorzy korzystają z bankowości online, robią zakupy w sieci, kontaktują się z rodziną przez komunikatory.

Więcej informacji 👉 lttr.ai/Ak61M

#Wyzwanie5Kroków #cryptomator #deltachat

next #ArcaneChat (and #DeltaChat) releases will have support for #RFC 9788 (Header Protection for Cryptographically Protected Email)

probably they will be one of the first email clients to support it, how cool is that?

rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9788.htm…

Here's a proof-of-concept example of a Delta.Chat bot for .NET

It's pretty basic, especially since I can't get #open-rpc-generator to generate #csharp code, seems to be limited to #rust and #typescript

To use it, follow the `import` instructions and provide your own implementation of `IMessageProcessor`.

#deltachat

github.com/timothyparez/deltac…

GitHub - timothyparez/deltachat-dotnet-bot: Proof-of-Concept .NET bot implementation for Delta.Chat

Proof-of-Concept .NET bot implementation for Delta.Chat - timothyparez/deltachat-dotnet-bot

^GitHub

#introduction

So finally #ArcaneChat has official presence in social media! 🎉

ArcaneChat is a decentralized anonymous chat app, with multi-profile and multi-device support, fully compatible with #DeltaChat

arcanechat.me

ArcaneChat

Private chats for the family

^{arcanechat.me}

We were surprised to hear today that Forbes.ru (a subsidiary of the global Forbes brand it seems) recently published an article quoting an expert recommending to use #deltachat on the backdrop of restrictions of Signal, Whatsapp, Telegram, Discord and Viber in Russian networks.

forbes.ru/tekhnologii/548966-n…

Не гасите ваши экраны: чем заменить Telegram и WhatsApp

На фоне учащающейся недоступности самых популярных у россиян мессенджеров Forbes опросил экспертов, чем их можно заменить. Они советуют использовать мессенджеры, поддерживающие сквозное шифрование и децентрализованное хранение данных. А также установ

^{Анастасия Гаврилюк (Forbes.ru)}

Does anyone know if it’s possible to download and install #deltachat in China without a VPN? I assume it is possible to chat across the firewall.

@delta any idea?

#deltachat is a private messaging app. It'd be easy enough to offer various public groups to boost onboarding, and let everyone play. But one would land in a large group that isn't very private, with lots of needs for moderation tooling, troll handling and other social-media issues. Not our current cup of tea.

We are grateful for the many folks here onboarding their families, projects or friends, founding special-interest chats, setting up #chatmail relays etc. This is wonderful, cheers!

Many experts caught up in the past crypto/decentralization discourse fail to recognize one key innovation area of #deltachat and #chatmail efforts:

A user interface (UI) and experience (UX) that mimicks and closely resembles Whatsapp and Telegram ... who both have a central cleartext database of identities, social graphs and, in the case of Telegram, also messages and media, of billions of users!

We prefer to ground every discussion in UX/UI terms and measure security by outcomes for users.

What if a state tries to mandate us as #deltachat app devs/distributors to shut down a chat profile?

Nothing. It can't be done.

We have no list of chat identities, have no handle or data about them, and don't mediate the message transfer.

However, EU #Chatcontrol politicians and Russian authorities would want us to insert backdoors into our FOSS code. But that is nothing than can happen overnight, and we are fine with friendly forks already. Resilient private internet communication ftw :)

we hear you but it's the truth: by onboarding to #deltachat today you are diving into an experimental testrun of "the future of email" , also known as #chatmail chatmail.at

Finally we, as app distributors, want to fully disentangle from any "default" server. Testrun will become history :)

I agree. @delta did a great job with this UX. Built upon the email protocol (with e2ee encryption added) they are just as decentralized and federated as email, or for that matter Mastodon. They are a great deal MORE decentralized than Signal or say, BlueSky now. But their UX did an excellent job "hiding" the complexity. Others decentralized/federated platforms should learn from this example! #deltachat
chaos.social/@delta/1154793927…

Delta Chat

2025-11-02 09:28:14

We hereby challenge _all_ other messaging apps, FOSS or not, to provide a more convenient private onboarding experience than #deltachat

1. Install app
2. "Create new profile"
3. Enter nick name, tap "Agree and continue"
4. Tap "+" and "new contact" and provide/scan qr code/link

Voila! A secure private chat, familiar to those coming from Whatsapp or Telegram (without "AI", with #a11y).

Note: chat identities are private and can not be queried or discovered. Servers keep no track or metadata

1) there are bridges ("matterdelta") which provide interop with Matrix, XMPP, Telegrram, ssh and anything that Matterbridge provides. It doesn't preserve end-to-end encryption and so bridging bot choice is tricky.

2) There are growing efforts around 3rd party #chatmail clients chatmail.at/clients. Interoperability is "free" between all chatmail clients (#deltachat being the prominent one). Unlike #Signal we welcome third parties to the party :)

Chatmail: Clients

Chatmail provides FOSS infrastructure for interoperable, secure, speedy and reliable end-to-end encrypted messaging. Check out clients as Arcane Chat, Bots or Delta Chat today!

^chatmail.at

We hereby challenge _all_ other messaging apps, FOSS or not, to provide a more convenient private onboarding experience than #deltachat

1. Install app
2. "Create new profile"
3. Enter nick name, tap "Agree and continue"
4. Tap "+" and "new contact" and provide/scan qr code/link

Voila! A secure private chat, familiar to those coming from Whatsapp or Telegram (without "AI", with #a11y).

Note: chat identities are private and can not be queried or discovered. Servers keep no track or metadata

@delta@chaos.social desktop Linux client installed from an official arch repo for some reason doesn't work on my Arch Linux with Wayland and Sway installed.
After the launching through wmenu nothing happens. When launching through a terminal emulator I got an error:

[28650:1101/162426.452376:ERROR:ui/ozone/platform/x11/ozone_platform_x11.cc:250] Missing X server or $DISPLAY
[28650:1101/162426.452426:ERROR:ui/aura/env.cc:257] The platform failed to initialize.  Exiting.

deltachat-desktop --ozone-platform-hint=auto

@tech@mk.phreedom.club

#DeltaChat #Wayland #ArchLinux #Sway #Linux

Hey @delta! Reading this delta.chat/en/2025-05-22-brows… got me thinking. I live in Firefox but miss Chrome’s one-click “Install PWA as app”. What about a Tauri-based helper + a Firefox extension that wraps a PWA into a desktop app in one step? Hosting stays light: the PWA is cached; relays/self-hosted instances can serve the client. Keeps control with admins. Interested? 👍🏻

#Firefox #PWA #Tauri #DeltaChat #FOSS #OpenSource #SelfHosting #WebExtensions

Delta Chat: Delta Chat Desktop, but running inside of Firefox 🦊

As part of the project to port Delta Chat Desktop from Electron to Tauri1, we’ll showcase a setup where our Desktop app runs in Firefox and does not depend on Electron or Chromium anymore. This vid...

^delta.chat

Great post from @Jdm2 about his getting away from WhatsApp and looking into #deltachat

write.as/jdm2/deltachat-y-arca…

We also just reposted his invitation to a Puerto Rico group, because we think the way this group is instigated is exactly right: ask for people to drop into a DM, or like with the borken.social Fediverse instance: show an invite link only for authenticated users 🎯

Non-public invites maintain some privacy and sense of joiners and brings e2ee messaging to instance communities.