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The UI of that Delta chat app looks completely like Telegram fork (client is opensource). Function wise as well. What is the backend for it? It's hard for me
by szszrk 1y ago
The UI of that Delta chat app looks completely like Telegram fork (client is opensource). Function wise as well.
What is the backend for it? It's hard for me to find on their website. If it's also Telegram, than what's the point?
I would also like to point out that Telegram has very smooth chats sync across devices because those are NOT end2end encrypted by default.
- raybb 1y agoDelta chat uses email. So you can chat with anyone that has an email address. If they happen to use the app too it'll feel more like a chat for them as well.
- iib 1y agoAre there any problems with the fact that email wasn't created to be instant messaging? Are the messages sometimes delayed?
- kseistrup 1y agoNot in my experience. It feels like chatting on Signal or any other instant messenger, except there are no typing indicators, especially if you use DeltaChat's chatmail server (the default if you just say “let me in”).
- gardenerik 1y agoI have not noticed that problem, the messages are delayed by a few seconds, but not noticeably. Only using chatmail / own postfix though, YMMV.
- tcfhgj 1y agoWell, for a starter you will be limited to what email servers provide, which doesn't include video conferences, which most instant messaging solutions include these days
- balanc 1y agoI think any competent email provider will throttle or block you the first time you send a burst of messages.
- kseistrup 1y agoI haven't run into that problem, but yes, it's possible. One problem I did run into was “allowed number of outgoing emails”. If you use groups in DeltaChat, even a small grouop of say 10 members will incur a lot of outgoing messages. The provider I originally used has a limit of 200 emails per day, so that was a showstopper. If you use DeltaChat's chatmail server (which will happen per default if you don't provide an email account of your own), this will not be a problem.
- sam_lowry_ 1y agoThis is why they provide a choice to use their own servers
- balanc 1y agoThen why implement email as a backend if email cannot actually be used as a backend?
- sam_lowry_ 1y agoThat's the tricky part of having email as backbone technology. It's an old and varied ecosystem. I host my own email server and I am pretty sure chats will be instant with it as well as with their servers. However, some email providers implement various throttling mechanisms. If you are OK waiting for message to arrive or be dropped silently, you may continue to use Google and Microsoft email.
- gausswho 1y agoWait, is that true over regular email too? Say I have a back and forth one liner emails every few minutes? It's competent for the provider to throttle or block these?
- kseistrup 1y agoThe backend is: EMAIL! :) It uses SMTP/IMAP to propagate and store individual messages. This means that DeltaChat it will work with your usual email account (it will create an IMAP folder named DeltaChat), but if you install the app and say “Yeah, just let me in!”, it will create a random username for you on one of its own chatmail servers. It may sound like a bad thing to use email, but it works very, very well. Most people won't even notice. See e.g.: https://delta.chat/en/chatmail https://delta.chat/en/chatmail https://providers.delta.chat/ https://providers.delta.chat/
- raybb 1y agoLast time I tried delta chat they didn't have chatmail so this is new to me. Kinda surprised to find this on privacy policy of the default chatmail instance: > unconditionally removes messages after 20 days Didn't see any warning about this in the GUI or the chatmail page. Does this mean after 20 days the messages on my app will disappear? or just they'll only be available on my local app after that point? In any case, that's a pretty big red flag that it's not clear.
- pepa65 1y agoSo if you don't use the app for more than 20 days, you'll start to lose your oldest messages (that you haven't downloaded to your device yet).
- gardenerik 1y agoIt is deleted from the server only, it stays on your devices, and is also synced to new device when you add one.
- tcfhgj 1y agoMatrix has smooth chat sync across devices despite E2EE, so both don't exclude each other
- kseistrup 1y agoIt does, and I did try it for a couple of years — I even ran my own server. None of my close friends cared to try it, and I preferred XMPP myself, so I took down the server and delete the app.
- tcfhgj 1y agoIt doesn't. I don't know how you can deny it at all, it's core Matrix functionality. Even WhatsApp has sync by now (even if it's artificially limited and works differently).
- gardenerik 1y agoThe UI was actually taken from Signal in the early days[0]. [0] https://support.delta.chat/t/list-of-all-known-client-projects/3059 https://support.delta.chat/t/list-of-all-known-client-projec...