Setting up Delta Chat

I have been following the Delta Chat project from the sideline for a while now. The idea is cool and rather simple: Build an end-to-end encrypted chat app on top of existing, proven technologies: E-mail protocols and PGP encryption.

It works with a regular e-mail account, which I find extremely cool. But they also developed a specialised "chatmail relay", which acts as a mailserver fine tuned for the purpose.

While I'm already a daily user of and proponent of Signal, I think Delta Chat is interesting as a decentralised alternative.

Today I tried setting up a relay, following their instructions. As I already have a mailserver running on my home IP address, I decided to spin up the cheapest VPS option from Hetzner and run it from there. Unfortunately, I hit a few bumps along the way. But I managed to get it running.

And I must say that my initial impression is good! It seems like a solid – although slightly less polished – alternative to Signal. I also tried using a regular e-mail account for it, and even then messages are just flowing across servers, almost instantly.

Now my only problem is the classic with new technology: Where are the other cool kids using this? Say hi!