daniel

daniel, 19 days ago to random

We are finally going to upgrade our #ejabberd running on conversations.im, tomorrow, Saturday May 25th.

Unfortunately we won’t be able to do this without some down times throughout the day.

You can visit https://status.conversations.im/ for a simple up/down check or follow this thread for the occasional status update / progress report.

daniel, 1 month ago to random

#Conversations_im has just surpassed 250,000 installs on Google Play. 🥳

The official, publicly visible, install badges are handed out for 100k and 500k. Growth has been very linear over the last ten years so stay tuned for the next big milestone in 2034! 😜

daniel, 1 month ago to random

Continuing a tradition #Conversations_im is available for free on the Google Play Store for the next 7 days.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations

christian, 1 month ago to random

I used to think that #emoji #reactions are for the illiterate.

Then I got addicted to them in Signal and Matrix.

Now I can't wait for #Jabber clients to implement them. Why is this #XEP still experimental after 5 years, @larma ?
https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0444.html

#xmpp #xep444 #emojiReactions

thomas, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random German

Im #XMPP Netzwerk wird schon wieder hart gespammt und langsam hab ich keinen Bock mehr. Auch Jahrzehnte später hat die beteiligte SW (egal, was man nutzt) keine brauchbaren Antispammechanismen.

Als Server admin oder User kann man fast nur zusehen (oder viel Handarbeit einsetzen) 😩

daniel, 1 month ago to random

Are you running #Conversations_im on an Realme or OnePlus devices with stock ROM? Are calls still working for you on version 2.14.2 and above?

Not working would likely manifest itself as a dialog that says "Call not sent" or the operating system opening the default calling app instead of the Conversations UI. Incoming calls would likely be rejected as busy immediately. (There may or may not be other symptoms.)

Please let me know either way and tell me your Android version.

#XMPP

Codeberg, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

#CommunitySpotlight are you an #XMPP user?

Make sure to check out #Conversations https://codeberg.org/iNPUTmice/Conversations on #Codeberg!

daniel, 2 months ago to random

Conversations 2.15 reorganizes the settings into different categories. This gets rid of the old 'Expert Settings' which hid a lot of useful settings.

One nice setting that was previously hidden away in the expert settings is 'Direct Search'. This gives you direct access to the search field in the 'New Chat' screen. If you want to start a new chat with someone you only have to type enough characters to make the search result unique and then press enter.

https://gultsch.video/w/kwnmPPzGtaQk7AbMsBS6X4

daniel, 2 months ago to random

I was about to start a poll asking if #Conversations_im should add a fallback STUN server (stun.conversations.im) for the ~40% of #XMPP servers that don’t offer one via XEP-0215 External Service Discovery.

And then the network of our hosting provider went out for ~5 minutes acting as a good reminder of why the app doesn’t rely on centralized infrastructure…

apps, 2 months ago to random

It seems that #Fedilab started to fail for some instances. That happens on older devices (Android 5 and 6).
We will reintroduce conscrypt to patch the security provider for older devices.
https://github.com/google/conscrypt

daniel, 2 months ago to random

Ten years ago today I released version 0.1 of #Conversations_im on the Google Play Store as a paid app.

I believe that I have contributed significantly to normalizing the pay-for-the-binary business model for open source apps.

Ten years ago Conversations was one of the first apps to do this and definitely raised some eyebrows. Nowadays it feels like a pretty common thing.

A screenshot of the Conversations app showing an overview of open chats. It uses Material 3 design language.

daniel, 2 months ago to random

Google had accepted a version of Conversations with address book integration that explicitly asks the user for consent to process the contact list locally on their device before promoting for contacts permission. Our privacy policy included explicit wording w.r.t. local processing of the contact list.

However it is unthinkable for Google that someone would request contacts permission and then not upload them. A few days later they changed their mind and threatened to remove the app again.

daniel, 3 months ago to random

Unpopular opinion on "minimum target SDK" (Re: This week in F-Droid¹)

The target SDK is often framed as a draconian requirement that poses unnecessary restrictions upon app developers. However they often improve security. For example target SDK 24 disallows sharing file URIs. If the developer of a chat app could rely on all apps that share files (Galleries, File Managers) to target >23 it would be easier to prevent security issues like the one just fixed in Element.

¹: https://floss.social/@fdroidorg/112018994644109583

daniel, 3 months ago to random

A bunch of XMPP developers and I (@dino, @Monal, #Conversations_im) will have a booth at the Chemnitzer Linux Tage (March 16th & 17th 2024).

Come talk to us about #XMPP and collect some merch.

https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2024/en/programm/beitrag/262

@clt_news

daniel, 3 months ago to random

One of the arguments Meta/WhatsApp have made in favor of opening up their client to server API instead of true server-to-server federation is the ability to fight spam.
While this argument may or may not have been made in bad faith (I’m sure c2s also gives them more opportunities to track users, sell ads and stay in control) it is true that federated protocols have a massive spam problem. We see this right now in XMPP, ActivityPub¹ and (obviously) E-Mail!

¹: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/111953045633249137

daniel, 3 months ago to fdroid

To celebrate Conversations being back on the Play Store and to deny Google their 15% cut I made the app free for the next ~48 hours. 😜

If you are new here: Check out #XMPP. It's federated, provider and vendor independent instant messaging. It’s great!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations

Or get it from #fdroid - That version even has address book integration and public channel discovery! 😂

daniel, 3 months ago to random

In related news the update for Quicksy.im went through a few hours ago as well. (The Conversations fork that does actually upload your contact list didn’t get removed but Google rejected all updates I tried to push over the last month or so.)

Thanks to @grote for the hint to place more links to the privacy policy in all sorts of places around the app. (The links were there before; but apparently not enough of them)

daniel, 3 months ago to random

I hastily threw together a version of #Conversations_im that has no address book integration and doesn’t ask for Contacts permission.
This seems to have made it through Google Play review just now meaning the app is no available on Google Play again.

No indication from Google that they were in the wrong and hallucinated the whole "uploads contact list" thing. Instead I had to walk the path of least resistance and remove the useful and entirely harmless feature of address book integration.

daniel, 3 months ago to random

Let’s not forget that #Conversations_im was a paid app in Google Play. I made Google tens of thousands of Dollars in revenue over the years. You would think that this somehow entitled me to speak to a human for half an hour but you'd be wrong.

daniel, 3 months ago to random

Appealing the removal didn’t yield any result. Google just repeated the same statement "the app was removed because it uploads the contact list" without even acknowledging any of the arguments I made in the appeal.

I understand that most of my audience here on Mastodon is more ideology aligned with F-Droid but the app sales on Google Play store have contributed significantly to me working (almost) full time on #Conversations_im.

Without the revenue from Google Play I can’t afford this.

daniel, 3 months ago to random

Google has just removed #Conversations_im from the Play Store because they think we are uploading the user’s contact list. We don’t.

daniel, 3 months ago to random

Here is some important context you need to understand Quicksy:

· It’s not successful at all. The user count has stagnated at just under 1,500 for years.

· It’s very expensive to run. While Quicksy doesn’t have that many users it has a good amount of registrations. Sending SMS is really expensive. There are months in which I’m paying ~100 Euro for server cost + SMS. I receive a few donations that reference Quicksy alongside Conversations but nothing close to 100 Euro / month.