Deltachat-android: Handle contacts with multiple mail addresses

Created on 5 Feb 2017  路  4Comments  路  Source: deltachat/deltachat-android

Most of my contacts have multiple mail addresses but they are just recognized by Delta Chat if I/they send with/to the exact address the chat was started with

An other issue is Delta Chat always responses with the configured address, but I have multiple address. One for private one for business. I could ask which one to use for response.

Most helpful comment

We already though about this issue, but we came to the conclusion that chat:email should be 1:1 for the following reasons:

  • 1:n are often old email addresses or work/private/whatever addresses:
  • for old addresses: No problem, the old addresses will go down in the list sooner or later
  • for work/private/whatever addresses: Often it is a good idea to keep them separated - using 1:1, you can easily decide where to reach a person
  • people using multiple e-mail-addresses may use forwarding - or may not. So it would be unclear, if outgoing mails go to one address or to all
  • Using such a contact in groups would be even more complicated
  • KISS ;-)

All 4 comments

We already though about this issue, but we came to the conclusion that chat:email should be 1:1 for the following reasons:

  • 1:n are often old email addresses or work/private/whatever addresses:
  • for old addresses: No problem, the old addresses will go down in the list sooner or later
  • for work/private/whatever addresses: Often it is a good idea to keep them separated - using 1:1, you can easily decide where to reach a person
  • people using multiple e-mail-addresses may use forwarding - or may not. So it would be unclear, if outgoing mails go to one address or to all
  • Using such a contact in groups would be even more complicated
  • KISS ;-)

OK, I understand this but:
A friend started a chat with me, I responded but had configured an other address.
So he could not see my response in the chat but has to use a mail client just to recognize the new messages.
What is your propose for this problem?

If your friend contacts you and you answer using Delta Chat, the answer will always go to the same email address. You can't configure another address.

I do not see a problem in this example.

But it may be an good example why not to use 1:n: In this case it may happen, you answer to an address that is read by the sender in the situation: Imagine you have a chat with the email-addresses [email protected] and [email protected]: You may have configured the chat to send to [email protected] - if then there comes a mail from [email protected], your answer will not be recognized by the sender.

There may be situations, where 1:n is useful, of course. But I think there are at least the same number of situations, where 1:1 is more useful and 1:n is confusing. Regarding this, I see no reason to add extra compatibility to the user interface, to the structure and to the code.

However, I'll keep the issue open for discussion.

I would say the reason for my issue is #53. This can be closed...

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