Following popular request, here is a proper announcement about editing and deletion of messages available in app stores now. It briefly highlights how Delta Chat actually works contrary to how even some experts thinks it works :)
TL;DR Delta Chat is not a classic e-mail client. It uses special messages to co-ordinate encryption, metadata and group interactions and now edit/delete. Delta Chat implements a Peer-to-Peer messaging paradigm without any server state.
delta.chat/en/2025-03-26-edit-…
Delta Chat: Messaging editing, deletion and saving now available!
No need to blush or melt in agony after sending a message anymore! Editing and deleting messages is now available in most app stores :) How is this possible you might wonder? There are three core p...delta.chat
bjoern
in reply to Delta Chat • • •someone will miss the s/messagse/messages/ or *messages :)
thanks a lot to community, forum etc. discussing this feature with pros and cons and various aspects a lot beforehand! this makes it definitely easier to get a grip on the feature, what to do and what not to do
and yeah: we can always iterate!
lps
in reply to Delta Chat • • •Mick
in reply to lps • • •lps
in reply to Mick • • •@madsee34583 I agree, it would be great to have another solution which removes that extra step ... are there any technical solutions to that? It does have a very different feel joining a "room" vs calling someone directly. I have the same issue with #nextcloud talk, for this reason.
Would there be anyway to integrate xmpp for this, and possibly a community server and have it as a default built into the application?
Delta Chat
in reply to lps • • •Mick
in reply to Delta Chat • • •@lps what might be a low hanging fruit to start with is to add a ringtone whenever somebody sends a jitsi meet link.
Most non-tech people expect an instant messenger to have voice and video calls functionality also. That is one of the reasons people don't want to get off WhatsApp.
Delta Chat
in reply to Mick • • •Diane
in reply to Delta Chat • • •Do you have a specification written up for these "special" messages?
Microsoft has a proprietary "recall message" feature, but honestly people would probably like some of these delta chat features in regular email clients too.
An email standard for emoji reactions would likely be popular too.
Delta Chat
in reply to Diane • • •there are a lot of standards we use, including for reactions. github.com/chatmail/core/blob/…
Other more internal messages like multi-device synchronization for add/rename contact, setting own avatar, are defined github.com/chatmail/core/blob/… or in the core library directly.
core/spec.md at main · chatmail/core
GitHubAlejandro Baez
in reply to Delta Chat • • •iuvi
in reply to Delta Chat • • •ℂ𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖
in reply to Delta Chat • • •Delta Chat
in reply to ℂ𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖 • • •Prezmop
in reply to Delta Chat • • •The blog post is a bit misleading. To quote:
Not sure about Threema or Whatsapp, but I'll focus on Signal. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, what you called "Peer-to-Peer messaging paradigm" is broadly how Signal works too. Edit and Delete are also just special messages interpreted by the client software. So no, it doesn't have server side message state either. I find the usage of the term "peer-to-peer" in this context strange.
Now, the claim that there is no server side metadata is outright false. I get that you're encrypting some of it, but the email server has to know where to deliver the message (just not what you're talking about). This is metadata.
Delta Chat
in reply to Prezmop • • •granted, more nuance is warranted likely. Thing is that Signal does store at least encrypted group membership data -- This explicit even if encrypted usage of server storage is what Delta doesn't do. It arranges group membership state in a P2P manner, see here for the modeling behind it github.com/chatmail/models/tre…
Message relays indeed see metadata about who sends or receives encrypted messages, starting with IP addresses.
models/group-membership at main · chatmail/models
GitHub