nchat

Linux	Mac

nchat is a multi-protocol terminal-based messaging client for Linux and macOS with support for Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal.

Features

• Customizable color schemes and key bindings
• Jump to unread chat
• Message history cache with support for text export
• Message read receipt
• Receive / send markdown formatted messages
• Reply / delete / edit / forward / send messages
• List dialogs for selecting chats, contacts, emojis, files
• Show user status (online, away, typing)
• Toggle to view textized emojis vs. graphical
• View / save media files (documents, photos, videos)
• Send and display reactions

Optional Features

Signal support is disabled by default and requires enabling a feature flag.

Usage

Usage:

nchat [OPTION]

Command-line Options:

-d, --confdir <DIR>    use a different directory than ~/.config/nchat
-e, --verbose          enable verbose logging
-ee, --extra-verbose   enable extra verbose logging
-h, --help             display this help and exit
-k, --keydump          key code dump mode
-m, --devmode          developer mode
-r, --remove           remove chat protocol account
-s, --setup            set up chat protocol account
-v, --version          output version information and exit
-x, --export <DIR>     export message cache to specified dir

Interactive Commands:

PageDn      history next page
PageUp      history previous page
Tab         next chat
Sh-Tab      previous chat
Ctrl-f      jump to unread chat
Ctrl-g      toggle show help bar
Ctrl-l      toggle show contact list
Ctrl-n      goto chat
Ctrl-p      toggle show top bar
Ctrl-q      quit
Ctrl-s      insert emoji
Ctrl-t      send file
Ctrl-x      send message
Ctrl-y      toggle show emojis
KeyUp       select message
Alt-d       delete/leave current chat
Alt-e       external editor compose
Alt-i       auto-compose reply
Alt-n       search contacts
Alt-t       external telephone call
Alt-/       find in chat
Alt-?       find next in chat
Alt-$       external spell check
Alt-,       decrease contact list width
Alt-.       increase contact list width

Interactive Commands for Selected Message:

Ctrl-d      delete selected message
Ctrl-r      download attached file
Ctrl-v      open/view attached file
Ctrl-w      open link
Ctrl-x      send reply to selected message
Ctrl-z      edit selected message
Alt-c       copy selected message to clipboard
Alt-q       jump to quoted/replied message
Alt-r       forward selected message
Alt-s       add/remove reaction on selected message
Alt-w       external message viewer

Interactive Commands for Text Input:

Ctrl-a      move cursor to start of line
Ctrl-c      clear input buffer
Ctrl-e      move cursor to end of line
Ctrl-k      delete from cursor to end of line
Ctrl-u      delete from cursor to start of line
Alt-Left    move cursor backward one word
Alt-Right   move cursor forward one word
Alt-Backsp  delete previous word
Alt-Delete  delete next word
Alt-Tab     insert tab (four spaces)
Alt-c       copy input buffer to clipboard (if no message selected)
Alt-v       paste into input buffer from clipboard
Alt-x       cut input buffer to clipboard

Supported Platforms

nchat is developed and tested on Linux and macOS. Current version has been tested on:

• macOS Sequoia 15.5
• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Install using Package Manager

macOS

Build / Install Stable Release using Brew

brew tap d99kris/nchat
brew install nchat

Optionally one can disable protocols using --without-whatsapp and --without-telegram, for example:

brew install nchat --without-telegram

Arch Linux

Build / Install Latest Git

yay -S nchat-git

Build / Install Stable Release

yay -S nchat

Build from Source

nchat consists of a large code-base (mainly the Telegram library tdlib), so be prepared for a relatively long first build time.

Get Source

git clone https://github.com/d99kris/nchat && cd nchat

Using make.sh script

If using macOS, Alpine, Arch, Fedora, Gentoo, Raspbian, Ubuntu or Void, one can use the make.sh script provided.

Dependencies

./make.sh deps

Build / Install

./make.sh build && ./make.sh install

Manually

Dependencies

macOS

brew install gperf cmake openssl ncurses ccache readline help2man sqlite libmagic go

Arch

sudo pacman -S ccache cmake file go gperf help2man ncurses openssl readline sqlite zlib base-devel

Debian-based (Ubuntu, Raspbian, etc)

sudo apt install ccache cmake build-essential gperf help2man libreadline-dev libssl-dev libncurses-dev libncursesw5-dev ncurses-doc zlib1g-dev libsqlite3-dev libmagic-dev golang

Fedora

sudo dnf install git cmake clang golang ccache file-devel file-libs gperf readline-devel openssl-devel ncurses-devel sqlite-devel zlib-devel

Gentoo

sudo emerge -n dev-util/cmake dev-util/ccache dev-util/gperf sys-apps/help2man sys-libs/readline dev-libs/openssl sys-libs/ncurses sys-libs/zlib dev-db/sqlite sys-apps/file dev-lang/go

Void

sudo xbps-install base-devel go ccache cmake gperf help2man libmagick-devel readline-devel sqlite-devel file-devel openssl-devel

Extra Dependencies

For Wayland-based systems install wl-clipboard to enable clipboard functionality.

To support pasting and sending images directly from clipboard libpng-dev is needed.

Build

mkdir -p build && cd build && cmake .. && make -s

Install

sudo make install

Advanced Build Options

By default nchat requires ~3.5GB RAM to build using G++ and ~1.5GB RAM with clang++, but it is possible to reduce the memory needed, see Building on Low Memory Systems.

All nchat features are enabled by default, but it's possible to control inclusion of some features using cmake flags, see Feature Flags.

Getting Started

In order to configure / setup an account one needs to run nchat in setup mode:

nchat --setup

The setup mode prompts for phone number, which shall be entered with country code. Example:

$ nchat --setup
Protocols:
0. Dummy
1. Telegram
2. WhatsAppMd
3. Signal
4. Exit setup
Select protocol (3): 1
Enter phone number (ex. +6511111111): +6511111111
Enter authentication code: xxxxx
Succesfully set up profile Telegram_+6511111111

If unsure of what phone number to enter, open the Telegram app on the phone and press the menu button and use the number displayed there (omitting spaces, so for the below screenshot the number to enter is +6511111111).

Once the setup process is completed, the main UI of nchat will be loaded.

In order to set up multiple protocols/profiles, exit nchat and perform the setup step again.

Troubleshooting

Refer to Debugging for details.

Telegram Group

A Telegram group https://t.me/nchatusers is available for users to discuss nchat usage and related topics.

Security

User data is stored locally in ~/.config/nchat. Default file permissions only allow user access, but anyone who can gain access to a user's private files can also access the user's personal nchat data. To protect against the most simple attack vectors it may be suitable to use disk encryption and to ensure ~/.config/nchat is not backed up unencrypted.

Configuration

The following configuration files (listed with current default values) can be used to configure nchat.

~/.config/nchat/app.conf

This configuration file holds general application settings. Default content:

assert_abort=0
attachment_prefetch=1
attachment_send_type=1
cache_enabled=1
cache_read_only=0
clipboard_copy_command=
clipboard_has_image_command=
clipboard_paste_command=
clipboard_paste_image_command=
coredump_enabled=0
downloads_dir=
emoji_list_all=0
link_send_preview=1
logdump_enabled=0
mentions_quoted=1
message_delete=1
proxy_host=
proxy_pass=
proxy_port=
proxy_user=
timestamp_iso=0
use_pairing_code=0
use_qr_terminal=0
version_used=

assert_abort

Specifies whether to abort execution (crash) if assertions fail. Primarily intended for debugging.

attachment_send_type

Specifies whether to detect file type (audio, video, image, document) and send attachments as those types, instead of sending all attachments as document type (which typically leaves original file content intact).

attachment_prefetch

Specifies level of attachment prefetching:

0 = no prefetch (download upon open/save)
1 = selected (download upon message selection) <- default
2 = all (download when message is received)

cache_enabled

Specifies whether to enable cache functionality.

cache_read_only

Specifies whether to access cache read-only. Primarily intended for debugging.

clipboard_*_command

Specifies custom clipboard commands to be used instead of system clipboard. Refer to Clipboard for details.

coredump_enabled

Specifies whether to enable core dumps on application crash.

downloads_dir

Specifies a custom downloads directory path to save attachments to. If not specified, the default dir is ~/Downloads if exists, otherwise ~.

emoji_list_all

Specifies whether the emoji dialog should list all emojis, it is otherwise restricted to listing emojis that renders properly in common terminals.

link_send_preview

Specifies whether to enable preview for links in messages sent (Telegram only).

logdump_enabled

Specifies whether to dump warning and error log messages to stdout upon exit.

mentions_quoted

Specifies whether to use bracket quoting for display-name mentions with spaces.

message_delete

Specifies handling of message deletion by other users (WhatsApp only):

1 = erase message <- default
2 = replace message with [Deleted] text
3 = prefix message with [Deleted] text

proxy_

SOCKS5 proxy server details. To enable proxy usage the parameters host and port are required, while user and pass are optional (depending on the SOCKS server). Note: In order to use a proxy while setting up nchat the first time, it is recommended to first run nchat without arguments (nchat) for its config dir to be created, and then edit proxy settings in ~/.config/nchat/app.conf as needed, before running nchat -s to setup an account.

timestamp_iso

Specifies whether to use ISO-style timestamps (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM) in the UI and at export of chat history. By default nchat uses a dynamic "human-friendly" format:

• HH:MM for timestamps on same date as today, e.g. 19:00
• DAY HH:MM for timestamps in the last week, e.g. Mon 19:00
• DD MMM HH:MM for timestamps in the current year, e.g. 14 Nov 19:00
• DD MMM YYYY HH:MM for timestamps in non-current year, e.g. 14 Nov 2022 19:00
• DD MMM YYYY HH:MM for timestamps during export, e.g. 14 Nov 2022 19:00

use_pairing_code

Stores the environment variable flag USE_PAIRING_CODE if set during setup. It specifies whether to use pairing code instead of QR code (WhatsApp only).

use_qr_terminal

Stores the environment variable flag USE_QR_TERMINAL if set during setup. It specifies whether to display QR code in the terminal, disabling detection of GUI capability for displaying images (WhatsApp/Signal only).

version_used

For internal use only. Stores version used for last successful execution. May be used for debugging startup crash / hang regressions.

~/.config/nchat/ui.conf

This configuration file holds general user interface settings. Default content:

attachment_indicator=📎
attachment_open_command=
away_status_indication=0
auto_compose_command=
auto_compose_enabled=0
auto_compose_history_count=25
auto_select_chat_timeout_sec=1
call_command=
chat_picker_sorted_alphabetically=0
confirm_deletion=1
confirm_send_pasted_image=1
desktop_notify_active_current=0
desktop_notify_active_noncurrent=1
desktop_notify_command=
desktop_notify_connectivity=1
desktop_notify_enabled=0
desktop_notify_inactive=1
downloadable_indicator=+
emoji_enabled=1
entry_height=4
failed_indicator=✗
file_picker_command=
file_picker_persist_dir=1
help_enabled=1
home_fetch_all=0
linefeed_on_enter=1
link_open_command=
list_enabled=1
list_width=14
listdialog_show_filter=1
mark_read_any_chat=0
mark_read_on_view=1
mark_read_when_inactive=0
message_edit_command=
message_open_command=
muted_indicate_unread=1
muted_notify_unread=0
muted_position_by_timestamp=1
notify_every_unread=1
online_status_share=1
online_status_dynamic=1
phone_number_indicator=
proxy_indicator=🔒
read_indicator=✓
reactions_enabled=1
spell_check_command=
status_broadcast=1
syncing_indicator=⇄
tab_size=4
terminal_bell_active=0
terminal_bell_inactive=1
terminal_title=
top_enabled=1
top_show_version=0
transfer_send_caption=1
typing_status_share=1
undo_clear_input=1
unread_indicator=*

attachment_indicator

Specifies text to prefix attachment filenames in message view.

attachment_open_command

Specifies a custom command to use for opening/viewing attachments. The command shall include %1 which will be replaced by the filename to open. If not specified, the following default commands are used:

Linux: xdg-open >/dev/null 2>&1 '%1' &

macOS: open '%1' &

Note: Omit the trailing & for commands taking over the terminal, for example w3m -o confirm_qq=false '%1' and see '%1'.

away_status_indication

Specifies whether to indicate away status in the top bar while sharing away status with other users. I.e. the status will read Away instead of Online when the terminal is inactive (assuming online_status_share=1 and online_status_dynamic=1).

auto_compose_command

Specifies a custom command to use to auto-compose message reply. The command shall include %1 which will be replaced by the path of a temporary text file with message history. If not specified, the following default command is used:

(prefix)/libexec/nchat/compose -c '%1'

Refer to Auto-Compose for details.

auto_compose_enabled

Specifies whether to enable using auto-compose. The reason for not enabling it by default is that the compose tool may use third-party services (if API key is set up in the shell environment) that can incur costs.

auto_compose_history_count

Specifies the maximum number of chat messages up to latest (or current selected) to pass to the auto-compose tool.

auto_select_chat_timeout_sec

Specifies a timeout after receiving previous history sync message (with timestamp before the application went online) for automatically setting current chat. If disabled (value 0) current chat will only be set upon any user input, or receiving a message with timestamp after application went online (connected to server).

call_command

Specifies a custom command to use for starting a call using an external tool. The command shall include %1 which will be replaced by the phone number of the contact. If not specified, the following default commands are used:

Linux: xdg-open >/dev/null 2>&1 'tel://%1' &

macOS: open 'tel://%1' &

chat_picker_sorted_alphabetically

Specifies whether the chat selection dialog (used when forwarding message) should be sorted alphabetically. If not, its order follows the main chat list order.

confirm_deletion

Specifies whether to prompt the user for confirmation when deleting a message or a chat.

confirm_send_pasted_image

Specifies whether to prompt the user for confirmation when pasting an image to a chat.

desktop_notify_active_current

Specifies whether new message in current chat shall trigger desktop notification when nchat terminal window is active.

desktop_notify_active_noncurrent

Specifies whether new message in non-current chat shall trigger desktop notification when nchat terminal window is active.

desktop_notify_command

Specifies a custom command to use for desktop notifications. The command may include %1 (will be replaced by sender name or group name - sender name) and %2 (will be replaced by message text) enclosed in single quotes (to prevent shell injection). Default command used, if not specified:

Linux: notify-send 'nchat' '%1: %2'

macOS: osascript -e 'display notification "%1: %2" with title "nchat"'

desktop_notify_connectivity

Specifies whether change of connectivity status (going offline or back online) shall trigger desktop notification.

desktop_notify_enabled

Specifies whether desktop notifications are permitted. Simply enabling this parameter will not display notifications, unless other desktop_notify_* parameters are enabled.

desktop_notify_inactive

Specifies whether new message shall trigger desktop notification when nchat terminal window is inactive.

downloadable_indicator

Specifies text to suffix attachment filenames in message view for attachments not yet downloaded. This is only shown for attachment_prefetch < 2.

emoji_enabled

Specifies whether to display emojis. Controlled by Ctrl-y in run-time.

entry_height

Specifies height of text entry area.

failed_indicator

Specifies text to suffix attachment filenames in message view for failed downloads.

file_picker_command

Specifies a command to use for file selection, in place of the internal file selection dialog used when sending files. The command shall include %1 (a temporary file path) which the command should write its result to. Examples:

nnn: nnn -p '%1'

ranger: ranger --choosefiles='%1'

file_picker_persist_dir

Specifies whether the file selection dialog shall persist the directory of last selected file.

help_enabled

Specifies whether to display help bar. Controlled by Ctrl-g in run-time.

home_fetch_all

Specifies whether home button shall repeatedly fetch all chat history.

linefeed_on_enter

Specifies if enter key press should be read as linefeed (LF \12). Otherwise read as carriage return (CR \15). This setting is only relevant if key.conf uses numerical key value for enter (LF \12, CR \15). The key name KEY_RETURN always maps to the one in use.

link_open_command

Specifies a custom command to use for opening/viewing links. The command shall include %1 which will be replaced by the url to open. If not specified, the following default commands are used:

Linux: xdg-open >/dev/null 2>&1 '%1' &

macOS: open '%1' &

Note: Omit the trailing & for commands taking over the terminal, for example w3m -o confirm_qq=false '%1' and see '%1'.

list_enabled

Specifies whether to display chat list. Controlled by Ctrl-l in run-time.

list_width

Specifies width of chat list.

listdialog_show_filter

Specifies whether list dialogs should display the search filter input by user.

mark_read_any_chat

Specifies whether nchat may mark messages as read before current chat has been set (either through user activity or time elapsed since last old sync message was received).

mark_read_on_view

Specifies whether nchat should send message read receipts upon viewing. If false nchat will only mark the messages read upon next_page (page down), end (end) or upon sending a message/file in the chat.

mark_read_when_inactive

Controls whether nchat marks messages in the current chat as read while the terminal is inactive.

message_edit_command

Specifies a custom command to use for external editor compose. If not specified, nchat will use EDITOR environment variable if set, or otherwise use nano.

message_open_command

Specifies a custom command to use for opening/viewing message text part. If not specified, nchat will use PAGER environment variable if set, or otherwise use less.

muted_indicate_unread

Specifies whether chat list should indicate unread status * for muted chats. This also determines whether the such chats are included in jump to unread.

muted_notify_unread

Specifies whether to notify (terminal bell) new unread messages in muted chats.

muted_position_by_timestamp

Specifies whether chat list position of muted chats should reflect the time of their last received/sent message. Otherwise muted chats are listed last.

notify_every_unread

Specifies whether to notify upon receiving more messages in an unread chat.

online_status_share

Share online status with other users. Note: Disabling this stops updates on other users online/typing status for WhatsApp.

online_status_dynamic

Dynamically update online status based on terminal active state. Note: Enabling this stops updates on other users online/typing status for WhatsApp when the terminal is not active.

phone_number_indicator

Specifies status bar text to indicate phone number of the current chat is available. This field may contain %1 which will be replaced with the actual phone number of the contact. Other examples: 🎧

proxy_indicator

Specifies top bar text to indicate proxy is enabled.

read_indicator

Specifies text to indicate a message has been read by the receiver.

reactions_enabled

Specifies whether to display reactions.

spell_check_command

Specifies a custom command to use for spell checking composed messages. If not specified, nchat checks if aspell or ispell is available on the system (in that order), and uses the first found.

status_broadcast

Specifies (WhatsApp) Status Updates chat level of visibility:

0 = hidden
1 = visible and muted  <- default
2 = visible

syncing_indicator

Specifies text to suffix attachment filenames in message view for downloads in progress.

tab_size

Specifies number of spaces to insert when user inputs a tab character.

terminal_bell_active

Specifies whether new message shall trigger terminal bell when nchat terminal window is active.

terminal_bell_inactive

Specifies whether new message shall trigger terminal bell when nchat terminal window is inactive.

terminal_title

Specifies custom terminal title, ex: terminal_title=nchat - telegram.

top_enabled

Specifies whether to display top bar. Controlled by Ctrl-p in run-time.

top_show_version

Specifies whether to display nchat version in top bar.

transfer_send_caption

Specifies if entered text should be sent as caption when transferring a file.

typing_status_share

Specifies whether to share typing status with other user(s) in the conversation.

undo_clear_input

Specifies whether undoing clearing of input buffer (by pressing ctrl-c again) is enabled.

unread_indicator

Specifies the character to suffix chats with unread messages in the chat list.

~/.config/nchat/key.conf

This configuration file holds user interface key bindings. Default content:

auto_compose=\33\151
backspace=KEY_BACKSPACE
backspace_alt=KEY_ALT_BACKSPACE
backward_kill_word=\33\177
backward_word=
begin_line=KEY_CTRLA
cancel=KEY_CTRLC
clear=KEY_CTRLC
copy=\33\143
cut=\33\170
decrease_list_width=\33\54
delete=KEY_DC
delete_chat=\33\144
delete_line_after_cursor=KEY_CTRLK
delete_line_before_cursor=KEY_CTRLU
delete_msg=KEY_CTRLD
down=KEY_DOWN
edit_msg=KEY_CTRLZ
end=KEY_END
end_line=KEY_CTRLE
ext_call=\33\164
ext_edit=\33\145
find=\33\57
find_next=\33\77
forward_msg=\33\162
forward_word=
goto_chat=KEY_CTRLN
home=KEY_HOME
increase_list_width=\33\56
jump_quoted=\33\161
kill_word=
left=KEY_LEFT
linebreak=KEY_RETURN
next_chat=KEY_TAB
next_page=KEY_NPAGE
ok=KEY_RETURN
open=KEY_CTRLV
open_link=KEY_CTRLW
open_msg=\33\167
other_commands_help=KEY_CTRLO
paste=\33\166
prev_chat=KEY_BTAB
prev_page=KEY_PPAGE
quit=KEY_CTRLQ
react=\33\163
right=KEY_RIGHT
save=KEY_CTRLR
select_contact=\33\156
select_emoji=KEY_CTRLS
send_msg=KEY_CTRLX
spell=\33\44
tab=\33\11
terminal_focus_in=KEY_FOCUS_IN
terminal_focus_out=KEY_FOCUS_OUT
terminal_resize=KEY_RESIZE
toggle_emoji=KEY_CTRLY
toggle_help=KEY_CTRLG
toggle_list=KEY_CTRLL
toggle_top=KEY_CTRLP
transfer=KEY_CTRLT
unread_chat=KEY_CTRLF
up=KEY_UP

The key bindings may be specified in the following formats:

• Ncurses macro (ex: KEY_CTRLK)
• Hex key code (ex: 0x22e)
• Octal key code sequence (ex: \033\177)
• Plain-text single-char ASCII (ex: r)
• Disable key binding (KEY_NONE)

To determine the key code sequence for a key, one can run nchat in key code dump mode nchat -k which will output the octal code, and ncurses macro name (if present).

~/.config/nchat/color.conf

This configuration file holds user interface color settings. Default content:

default_color_bg=
default_color_fg=
dialog_attr=
dialog_attr_selected=reverse
dialog_color_bg=
dialog_color_fg=
entry_attr=
entry_color_bg=
entry_color_fg=
help_attr=reverse
help_color_bg=black
help_color_fg=white
history_name_attr=bold
history_name_attr_selected=reverse
history_name_recv_color_bg=
history_name_recv_color_fg=
history_name_recv_group_color_bg=
history_name_recv_group_color_fg=
history_name_sent_color_bg=
history_name_sent_color_fg=gray
history_text_attachment_color_bg=
history_text_attachment_color_fg=gray
history_text_attr=
history_text_attr_selected=reverse
history_text_quoted_color_bg=
history_text_quoted_color_fg=gray
history_text_reaction_color_bg=
history_text_reaction_color_fg=gray
history_text_recv_color_bg=
history_text_recv_color_fg=
history_text_recv_group_color_bg=
history_text_recv_group_color_fg=
history_text_sent_color_bg=
history_text_sent_color_fg=gray
list_attr=
list_attr_selected=reverse
list_color_bg=
list_color_fg=
list_color_unread_bg=
list_color_unread_fg=
listborder_attr=
listborder_color_bg=
listborder_color_fg=
status_attr=reverse
status_color_bg=
status_color_fg=
top_attr=reverse
top_color_bg=
top_color_fg=

Supported text attributes _attr (defaults to normal if not specified):

normal
underline
reverse
bold
italic

Supported text background _bg and foreground _fg colors:

black
red
green
yellow
blue
magenta
cyan
white
gray
bright_black (same as gray)
bright_red
bright_green
bright_yellow
bright_blue
bright_magenta
bright_cyan
bright_white

Custom colors may be specified using hex RGB code, for example 0xff8937.

The history_name_recv_group_color and history_text_recv_group_color parameters also supports the special value usercolor. When set, nchat will determine which color to use for a user, based on a hash of their user id used to pick a color from the list in ~/.config/nchat/usercolor.conf.

Themes

Example color config files are provided in $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes and can be used by copying to ~/.config/nchat/.

Default Theme

cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/default/* ~/.config/nchat/

Basic Color Theme

cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/basic-color/* ~/.config/nchat/

Dracula Theme

cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/dracula/* ~/.config/nchat/

iTerm2-Color-Schemes Themes

iTerm2 Color Schemes can be used to generate themes for nchat. The following themes generated using iTerm2 Color Schemes are available in $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes:

• Catppuccin Mocha: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/catppuccin-mocha/* ~/.config/nchat/
• Espresso: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/espresso/* ~/.config/nchat/
• Gruvbox Dark: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/gruvbox-dark/* ~/.config/nchat/
• Solarized Dark Higher Contrast: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/solarized-dark-higher-contrast/* ~/.config/nchat/
• Tokyo Night: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/tokyo-night/* ~/.config/nchat/
• Tomorrow Night: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/tomorrow-night/* ~/.config/nchat/
• Zenbones Dark: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/zenbones-dark/* ~/.config/nchat/
• Zenburned: cp $(dirname $(which nchat))/../share/nchat/themes/zenburned/* ~/.config/nchat/

To generate additional nchat themes and install for use with nchat, refer to Generating nchat themes from iTerm2 Color Schemes.

General

Deleting a configuration entry line (while nchat is not running) and starting nchat will populate the configuration file with the default entry.

Protocol-Specific Configuration

The following configuration files (listed with current default values) can be used to configure nchat.

~/.config/nchat/profiles/Telegram_+nnnnn/telegram.conf

This configuration file holds protocol-specific settings for Telegram. Default content:

local_key=
markdown_enabled=1
markdown_version=1
profile_display_name=

local_key

For internal use by nchat only.

markdown_enabled

Specifies whether to enable Markdown <-> text conversion for text messages (default enabled).

markdown_version

Specifies which Telegram Markdown version to use (default 1).

profile_display_name

Specifies an optional short/display name in the status bar when using nchat with multiple profiles. The default profile name is Telegram or Telegram_+nnnnn (when more than one Telegram profile is set up) if this setting is not specified.

~/.config/nchat/profiles/WhatsAppMd_+nnnnn/whatsappmd.conf

This configuration file holds protocol-specific settings for WhatsApp. Default content:

profile_display_name=

profile_display_name

Specifies an optional short/display name in the status bar when using nchat with multiple profiles. The default profile name is WhatsAppMd or WhatsAppMd_+nnnnn (when more than one WhatsAppMd profile is set up) if this setting is not specified.

~/.config/nchat/profiles/Signal_+nnnnn/signal.conf

This configuration file holds protocol-specific settings for Signal. Default content:

profile_display_name=

profile_display_name

Specifies an optional short/display name in the status bar when using nchat with multiple profiles. The default profile name is Signal or Signal_+nnnnn (when more than one Signal profile is set up) if this setting is not specified.

FAQ

1. Alt/Opt-keyboard shortcuts are not working?

For Linux please ensure the terminal is configured with meta to send escape. For macOS Terminal ensure that the Terminal profile keyboard setting "Use Option as Meta key" is enabled.

If issues are still encountered, please use nchat -k (keydump mode) to determine the key codes and modify ~/.config/nchat/key.conf accordingly.

2. Send messages with Enter key?

To simply send on Enter key press and skip message compose with linebreaks, one can just set send_msg=KEY_RETURN in ~/.config/nchat/key.conf.

To also be able to compose messages with linebreaks using Alt/Opt-Enter, edit ~/.config/nchat/ui.conf and set linefeed_on_enter=0. And in ~/.config/nchat/key.conf set linebreak=\33\15.

3. Custom colors are not shown when running nchat in tmux?

Please try to run nchat with a TERM supporting custom colors, e.g:

TERM=xterm-256color nchat

4. Sent messages are not visible?

For terminals with eight colors (or more) the default color theme displays sent messages in gray (shaded). Some terminals may wrongly report supporting more colors than two, or the terminal may be set up with gray mapped to black. In this case sent / own messages may appear invisible. To avoid nchat using gray one can edit ~/.config/nchat/color.conf and remove occurances of gray.

5. How to use Telegram and WhatsApp concurrently or switch between them?

The recommended method is to set up nchat with one config directory per protocol/phone number, and run each instance in separate terminal windows/tabs. To simplify such usage one can set up aliases, for example:

alias telegram='nchat -d ~/.config/nchat-telegram'
alias whatsapp='nchat -d ~/.config/nchat-whatsapp'

Then use regular setup for them (separately), for example:

telegram -s
whatsapp -s

The alternative method is to set up multiple protocol accounts in a single nchat config directory. For each protocol/phone nubmer, run setup mode and exit after initial sync:

nchat -s

6. How to set up WhatsApp without scanning a QR code?

By default setting up a WhatsApp account will display a QR code to be scanned using the WhatsApp mobile application on the primary device. As an alternative one can set an environment flag to have nchat display a pairing code, to be entered in WhatsApp on the primary device:

USE_PAIRING_CODE=1 nchat -s

7. No QR code is shown when setting up WhatsApp / Signal?

By default nchat will attempt to detect if the system is capable of viewing images using a GUI image viewer, and if detected (indicated by "has gui" in the log) it displays the QR code using default image viewer. If that for some reason fails, one can use pairing code (see above), or force nchat to display the QR code in the terminal:

USE_QR_TERMINAL=1 nchat -s

8. Build fails with c++: fatal error: Killed signal terminated program cc1plus?

This often means that OOM killer has terminated the compilation due to the system running out of free RAM.

If the system has less than 4 GB RAM, please refer to Building on Low Memory Systems.

If the system has 4 GB RAM or more, the problem can occur if parallelism is set too high, which is likely to be encountered when installing from the Arch Linux AUR package. A workaround for the AUR package is to manually restrict max number of parallel jobs to available RAM in GB divided by 4. For example a system with 8 GB would then need to use max 8 / 4 = 2 jobs:

CMAKE_BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL=2 yay -S nchat

Alternatively one can Build from Source using the make.sh script, which sets parallel job count based on the system capabilities.

9. Terminal transparency is not working?

If on Linux, try removing any custom default background set up, i.e. set default_color_bg= in ~/.config/nchat/color.conf.

Project Scope

Limitations

There are no plans to support the following features:

• Telegram secret chats
• Voice / video calls

Additionally, WhatsApp and Signal are only supported on macOS and glibc-based Linux systems. Thus, it is not supported on musl-based operating systems, such as Alpine Linux. See issue #204 for technical details on this limitation.

Roadmap

There is currently no concrete roadmap for further feature development of nchat. It is not intended to be a full-featured client on par with official Telegram / WhatsApp / Signal clients, but rather a light-weight client providing essential functionality suitable for the terminal. However, feel free to submit feature requests if there's something missing, or help upvote existing feature requests, if it's useful and low effort it will be considered.

Contributions

Please refer to Contributing Guidelines and Design Notes.

Alternatives

Terminal-based Telegram clients:

• tg
• tgt

Terminal-based WhatsApp clients:

• whatscli

Terminal-based Signal clients:

• gurk-rs

Technical Details

Custom API Id / Hash

nchat uses its own Telegram API id and hash by default. To use custom id/hash, obtained from https://my.telegram.org/ one may set environment variables TG_APIID and TG_APIHASH when setting up a new Telegram account. Example (below values must be changed to valid api id/hash):

TG_APIID="123456" TG_APIHASH="aaeaeab342aaa23423" nchat -s

Third-party Libraries

nchat is primarily implemented in C++ with some parts in Go. Its source tree includes the source code of the following third-party libraries:

• apathy - Copyright 2013 Dan Lecocq - MIT License

• cereal - Copyright 2013 Randolph Voorhies, Shane Grant - BSD-3 License

• clip - Copyright 2015 David Capello - MIT License

• mautrix-signal - Copyright 2020 Tulir Asokan - AGPL License

• sqlite_modern_cpp - Copyright 2017 aminroosta - MIT License

• tdlib - Copyright 2014 Aliaksei Levin, Arseny Smirnov - Boost License

• whatsmeow - Copyright 2022 Tulir Asokan - MPL License

The tdlib, whatsmeow and signal libraries are actively developed and need to be updated and integrated into nchat on a regular basis by nchat maintainer(s). To facilitate this there are scripts available to update to latest (or a specific) version of these libraries. Example usages:

./utils/tdlib-update 8517026
./utils/whatsmeow-update 7aedaa1
./utils/signal-update 93da772

Code Formatting

Uncrustify is used to maintain consistent source code formatting, example:

./make.sh src

License

nchat is distributed under the MIT license. See LICENSE file.

Keywords

command line, console-based, linux, macos, chat client, ncurses, telegram, terminal-based.