10 Jan
2020
10 Jan
'20
8:16 p.m.
Here are some key points from Delta Chat in december 2019 --
this is the compilation we sent to the "OpenTechFund active projects"
(https://www.opentech.fund/results/supported-projects/ )
and our project managers there:
- A major new Delta/Android 1.0 Google Play Store release with lots of
nice features, and a brand new 100% safe rust-core, see
https://delta.chat/en/2019-12-18-google-play-store-release
The new Android play store version also features a new video
in the app store description:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=chat.delta
- In terms of improved onboarding and provider-support the current releases are
probably the best so far. We are up to do some final bits on better onboarding
and provider-specific settings, along with an in-app FAQ facility early 2020.
The Delta Chat FAQ https://delta.chat/en/help has been refined and more
questions are addressed now. After these changes are in we are to remove
the Beta-tag from the Android appstore, finally!
- Our move-to-Rust is already complete now! Overall 800 PRs have been
merged since the port from C started around May/June 2019. See
https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-core-rust/
Originally our OTF proposal projected 12 months but we accellerated it (~5-6 months)
because it majorly simplified release packaging on all platforms, and generally
avoids development overheads from "half-porting". The last big chunk of
work was replacing the mail mime-parser with a full-rust version. The
new rust cores involves not only a radical modernisation of MIME-parsing
but also of SMTP and IMAP stacks, which are published and maintained here:
https://github.com/async-email
TLS, SMTP and IMAP are btw offered in "async-rust" manner which was released
as stable a few weeks ago. The new async-email rust work is starting already to
get contributions from the wider Rust community.
We also setup a new 6-CPU/64GB RAM build server to speed up PR merging
and testing. Rust-compilation is resource-intensive but all users
get an efficient non-interpreted resource-saving core lib this way :)
- New Desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac) and Apple iOS Testflight releases,
all using the new Rust-core. The only missing bit is now a new f-droid
release which unfortunately requires considerable custom work with long
feedback loops. If someone here can help us doing the last mile and
get an f-droid release out, that'd be marvellous! See
https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-android/issues/1177
- We got into fruitful conversations with people reporting about or involved in
protests in several Asian and Eastern European cities, about using Delta Chat
during internet shutdowns. As of today, Delta Chat can often be used even
if a country-internet shutdown is happening. Local e-mail providers typically
remain available and that is all that Delta Chat needs to establish e2e-encrypted
communication in Whatsapp/Telegram UX style.
- During the 36c3 congress we organized the !decentral assembly which
also involved people from DAT, Activity Pub and other projects. We did
several onboarding sessions and there was one recorded talk about Delta Chat:
https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-oio-154-delta-chat-e-mail-based-messaging-the-r…
During 36c3, there were almost a dozen DC contributors
and an incredible multitude of conversations and new contacts,
much to be followed up upon in 2020.
- We merged a number of PRs that reduce network data usage,
a concern in several lower-resourced regions. We have identified
a number of further improvements and started measuring IMAP operations
which produce the bulk of traffic.
- The new Rust-core uses an improved version of rPGP, the full-rust
OpenPGP implementation. The OTF-financed first independent security review found
several non-urgent flaws that have, however, now been fully addressed.
DC's full-rust e2e-encryption engine can now be considered a pretty good base.
A second security review is starting soon which more focuses on Delta Chat core
itself (this review timing was another reason we accelerated our Rust-work).
cheers,
holger