A Delta Chat client for GNOME — chat over email, decentralized and encrypted.

Lightweight Vala + GTK4 + libadwaita desktop client that talks to deltachat-rpc-server over JSON-RPC. Follows GNOME HIG, works on desktop and mobile form factors.

• Rich compose bar — multi-line text, file attachments via picker or drag-and-drop, paste images or files straight from the clipboard.
• Reply, edit, delete, forward — full message actions via right-click; delete-for-self or delete-for-everyone on your own messages.
• Emoji reactions — quick-pick 👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 😢 👎 shown as badges on the message.
• Pinned messages — pin any message in a chat; a pinned-messages bar at the top of the conversation lets you jump back to them.
• Reply previews — quoted sender and text preview (capped at 3 lines) above the compose entry and inside bubbles.
• Inline image previews with a full-screen viewer (click to open, right-click to save, Escape to close).
• Optional Markdown rendering — bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, fenced code blocks, headings, and auto-linkified URLs.
• In-chat search (Ctrl+F, Command+F on macOS) with real-time filtering and highlight.
• Save attachments to disk from the message context menu.

• Adaptive split-view sidebar + conversation, collapsing to a single pane on narrow windows with a back button.
• Chat list with avatars, unread dots and badges, last-message preview, smart timestamps (time / weekday / date), pinned indicator and muted styling.
• Pin, mute, delete chats from the sidebar context menu; view chat info (members, avatar, type) in a dedicated dialog.
• Contact requests surfaced with their own badge.
• Sidebar search to filter chats by name.
• Quick switcher fuzzy chat search, Enter to open the top match.
• New 1:1 chat via contact picker, and new group with name, avatar and member selection.

• Private Parla account store by default; Delta Chat Desktop compatibility mode reuses Desktop accounts.
• Auto-discovery of standalone deltachat-rpc-server from the Parla bundle, distro packages, $PATH, ~/.local/bin, and ~/.cargo/bin.
• Multi-account switching from the settings dialog.
• My Profile dialog to edit display name, status and avatar.
• End-to-end encryption via Autocrypt, handled by the Delta Chat core.

• Double-click action on a message: Reply / React ❤️ / React 👍 / Open profile / None.
• Toggle Markdown rendering.
• Toggle Shift+Enter vs Enter to send.
• Toggle desktop notifications for incoming messages when the window is unfocused.
• Choose the JSON-RPC server source: Parla/system, custom binary, or Delta Chat Desktop compatibility mode.

# Install dependencies (Ubuntu)
sudo apt install valac meson libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev libjson-glib-dev

# Install the RPC backend for source builds
pip install deltachat-rpc-server
# Or: cargo install --git https://github.com/chatmail/core/ deltachat-rpc-server

# Build & run
make ; make run

brew install meson ninja vala pkgconf gtk4 libadwaita json-glib librsvg glib-networking adwaita-icon-theme create-dmg

# Install the RPC backend for source builds and Finder-launched app bundles.
pip install deltachat-rpc-server
# Or: cargo install --git https://github.com/chatmail/core/ deltachat-rpc-server

make            # builds builddir-macos/parla natively
make run        # runs the native binary
make macos-app  # creates dist/macos/Parla.app
make macos-dmg  # creates dist/macos/Parla-<version>-<arch>.dmg

See docs/rpc-server.md for how Parla finds the JSON-RPC server and how to package it for Flatpak or distro packages.

Early-stage project — contributions welcome! Open areas: Flatpak packaging, theming, richer notifications, accessibility polish, and more message types.

GPLv3 — see LICENSE.

Built on Delta Chat, GNOME and libadwaita.