Tindroid: Tinode Messaging Client for Android

Android instant messenger using Tinode backend. Beta-quality software. Debug APKs are available in releases.

Installing and running

This is NOT a standalone app, this is just a frontend, a client. It requires a backend. See installation instructions.

Getting support

• Read client-side and server-side API documentation.
• For support, general questions, discussions post to https://groups.google.com/d/forum/tinode.
• For bugs and feature requests open an issue.
• Use https://tinode.co/contact for commercial inquiries.

Helping out

• If you appreciate our work, please help spread the word! Sharing on Reddit, HN, and other communities helps more than you think.
• Consider buying paid support: https://tinode.co/support.html
• If you are a software developer, send us your pull requests with bug fixes and new features.
• If you use the app and discover bugs or missing features, let us know by filing bug reports and feature requests. Vote for existing feature requests you find most valuable.
• If you speak a language other than English, translate the apps into your language. You may also review and improve existing translations.
• If you are a UI/UX expert, help us polish the app UI.
• Use it: install it for your colleagues or friends at work or at home. Please contact us if you want to participate in closed testing.

What works:

• One-on-one conversations and group chats.
• Channels with unlimited number of read-only subscribers.
• Video and audio calling.
• Attachments, inline images and videos, voice messages.
• Unread message counters.
• Push notifications and in-app presence notifications.
• Message status notifications: message delivery to server; received and read notifications; typing notifications.
• Markdown-style formatting of text, e.g. *styled* → styled. Implemented as spannable.
• Editing sent messages, replying and forwarding messages.
• Trusted account badges: verified account, staff, etc.
• Form messages suitable for chatbots.
• File attachments, inline images and videos, voice messages.
• Muting/un-muting conversations and other granular permission management.
• Integration with Android's stock Contacts.
• Invite contacts to the app by SMS or email.
• Transport Level Security - https/wss.
• Offline mode.

Not done yet:

• End-to-end encryption.
• Recording of video messages.
• No support for switching between multiple backends.
• No support for multiple accounts.
• Mentions, hashtags.
• Previews not generated for audio, links or docs.

Direct Dependencies

SDK:

• Jackson for JSON serialization.
• Java-WebSocket for websocket support.

SDK contains no Android-specific dependencies.

Application

• Google-Services for push notifications. See below.
• Crashlytics for crash reporting.
• Picasso for image downloading and caching.
• Android Image Picker for picking images or videos.
• OSS Licenses Plugin for legal compliance with OSS licenses.
• Standard Android dependencies.

Other

Demo avatars and some other graphics are from https://www.pexels.com/ under CC0 license.

Background patterns from http://subtlepatterns.com/, commercial and non-commercial use allowed with attribution.

The contacts.vcf contains a list of contacts which can be used for testing. Push it to your emulator using command

adb push contacts.vcf /sdcard/contacts.vcf

Push notifications

If you want to use the app with your own server and want push notification to work you have to set them up:

• Register at https://firebase.google.com/, set up the project if you have not done so already.
• Download your own config file google-services.json and place it to the app/ folder of your copy of Tindroid project. The config file contains keys specific to your Firebase/FCM registration.
• Copy Google-provided server key to tinode.conf, see details here.
• Recompile the app. If you add google-services.json incorrectly the app will compile but will later crash with non-obvious exceptions.

Translations

The app is currently available in the following languages:

• English
• Chinese (simplified)
• Chinese (traditional)
• French
• German
• Hindi
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Spanish
• Ukrainian

More translations are welcome. See instructions.

Screenshots