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Are you using chat over traditional email as provided by #DeltaChat / #DeltaLab / #ArcaneChat?
I like it uses traditional email infrastructure, is federated, supports end to end encryption, rich content including audio / voice messages. I have even recognized @adbenitez has implemented screen reader accessibility specific features into the android app.
However I have quickly tried electron based app on linux with orca screen reader, exchanged a few messages back and fort between two of my personal accounts using the DeltaChat app and thunderbird and I haven't found the user experience verry appealing. I can't understand how to effectivelly navigate in the list of conversations and list of messages.
Therefore I would be interested to hear a few comments from people knowing this platform better. How accessible is it on different platforms?
On the desktop is the electron based app a prefered choice?
Also some other questions. For the best experience, do I need a new email address or can I use my existing self-hosted one I have already configured in thunderbird?
Ffeel free to point me to a FAQ, some up to date introductory documentation if you think my questions don't make much sense please.
@pvagner and for Desktop there is also @deltatouch, and I think I've heard of some CLI version. But the Electron version is the "main" one, yes.
@WofWca Looking more it looks to me you are working on some amazing accessibility related improvements. While I was testing a few weeks ago I had issues navigating the lists. hmm, perhaps I need to figure out how to build with this PR and see for my-self if it might be related. github.com/deltachat/deltachat…
Edit: oh, there are more PRs resolving keyboard navigation and accessibility related issues. It's really right about perfect time I have discovered this thing.
Thanks and keep up the great work please
@pvagner for a specific MR you can download a preview build that is linked it the bottom of the MR page.
Thanks! But we're still far from done.
Both lists, list of conversations and list of messages are now keyboard navigable.
The hint for the screen reader users is that not all of the screen readers may switch into focus mode automatically so once you do this manually you can enjoy the user experience the way it has been designed.
Also there are nice keyboard shortcuts e.g. ctrl+n for jumping into the input box, ctrl+k for search and more.
Now I do really need to explore more i.e. what about the encryption. Can I use my existing GPG key or add a subkey or is that handled transparently on the background? I need to figure out if I should create new email for chatting or use my primary email.
Still from the accessibility point of view we are really getting something usefull I think.
Read the #deltachat help at delta.chat/en/help it's all perfectly explained there in easy to follow language. It's even translated to various different languages already.
The number one answer for me is that there are #deltachat specific so called #chatmail servers suitable for anonymous instant messaging over email.
So eventhough I like to self host my emails, I think I'll go with existing #chatmail server at least initially.
@pvagner There is one import difference you need to know:
* Chatmail account: you can reach all delta chat users
* Regular email account: you can reach delta chat users + classic email users
So if you use chatmail, you can not reach people who are not using delta chat.
another point:
If you do NOT use chatmail, you will not have push notifications if you are an iOS user.
@ulfi @pvagner It is possible for #chatmail users to communicate with classic email users who have published their public key.
You just have to do manual chatmail registration, save your login details and private key securely, and use it with something that supports #pgp like #Thunderbird or #Mailvelope.