#DeltaChat evolved according to needs of people under repression and continues to do so. The more ignorant and exchangeable we make #chatmail relays, the less their operators have to worry. Having metadata-less, fast and cheap instant messaging relays, that can also operate when 99% of the Internet vanishes in a region, is a key goal. Some way to go still but, already now, is there any other real-world solution that provides better service in internet-repressed regions in 2025?

We used to look closely at #whatsapp Usability/UX. Not anymore. Meta is enshittifying WA to become a social media app, charging companies for access to followers, showing ads, and pushing AI slop down the throat of billions of people. #deltachat remains all about pleasing private messaging UX. Resilient, secure and decentralized. Its trivial to get started as a family, group or little org. Its trivial to migrate between android, iphone, desktop, Ubuntu touch. #Privacy and #RightToExit

We'd like to remind everyone that a self-hosted #chatmail relay is best shared in some wider than family circles. In crisis situations everbody does better when helping others. A typical 1gb RAM chatmail relay VPS for 5-10 eur per month supports 50k+ daily users. chatmail VPSes are stateless. You can wipe all disk state, reinstall and chatting will resume. Conversely, #deltachat does not keep or depend on any server state .Operators under pressure do not need to feel bad to hand over data.

Overheard last night from two users in #Cuba user1: "the people are currently in need not only to save data plan but also to have more security in their conversations" user2: "also stability. Right now the whole of Guantanamo is in blackout with problems in several radio-bases/cell-towers due to the lack of power/electricity and here I am talking like nothing / without breaking a sweat" user2: "while WhatsApp doesn't even manage to connect" #DeltaChat is for when centralization hits the fan

Some people in #Iran successfully use delta with national email providers when outside Internet is cut. #deltachat designs are #OfflineFirst using delay tolerant protocols. Messages are queued when a path is blocked. email servers are made for this and run at planetary scale. Messages crossing the border may arrive three days later but they arrive. Peoples can stay in private touch across time and space, to the extent possible in current breakdown times. Which is what delta is about.

We don't see, or plan, a place for AI in our software stacks. A few notes. Some attempts to use AI tooling provided nothing of value in the chatmail-core-UI stacks that produce the #deltachat store releases on all platforms. Some in the community AI-generated a base #webxdc app and fixed bugs afterwards.That kind of worked and was borderline useful. AI is pretty boring. We have more interesting work to do: evolve private resilient messaging by improving UX, networking, encryption, etc

We are basically doing what #signal and in particular moxie refuses to do or declares impossible: federation. Both #email and #activitypub ecosystems are all about federation. However, #deltachat is vertically centralized in that all UIs use the same #rust core which implements all networking, encryption, chat/group/message logic in a single centralized place. The now 40+ #chatmail mail relay network is driven from centralized code. At each level replication and federation is built in.

Everyone returns to email in the end. We are there already. #whatsapp wants you to add your email to secure your account ... despite all the nay sayers and numerous well funded attempts and claims to kill #email not even WA can do it. #deltachat #chatmail and #webxdc are about deep collab between people, projects and operators to evolve email from within. It is not just about SMTP and IMAP and MIME and OpenPGP which are all exchangeable and can be improved ... Which we set out to do. Cheers.