# UX regression when onboarding new users

**URL:** <https://forum.delta.chat/t/ux-regression-when-onboarding-new-users/4098>\
**Category:** Feature Proposal\
**Tags:** android\
**Created:** [September 3, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/ux-regression-when-onboarding-new-users/4098 "2025-09-03T13:51:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![seifferth](https://forum.delta.chat/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@seifferth](https://forum.delta.chat/u/seifferth)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2025, 9:53am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/ux-regression-when-onboarding-new-users/4098/4 "2025-09-06T09:53:29Z")

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> Autocrypt should automatically upgrade to encryption if you and your corresponding FRIEND both ask it to

I agree that this _should_ work. Unfortunately, this is currently broken in two ways:

1. I have no way of getting Delta Chat to add “prefer-encrypt=mutual” to my autocrypt header. Except maybe for manually editing the database as you suggest – but I don’t think that would be consistent with the general UX concept Delta Chat is aiming for. This particular issue has been reopened as ["Prefer encrypt" setting was removed without resetting it to the default value · Issue #3911 · deltachat/deltachat-android · GitHub](https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-android/issues/3911) and I hope this will be solved as soon as a new version containing [Remove e2ee\_enabled preference by link2xt · Pull Request #7172 · chatmail/core · GitHub](https://github.com/chatmail/core/pull/7172) becomes available.

2. Even if the prefer-encrypt property is set correctly, autocrypt will not kick in in conversations between Delta Chat users. As link2xt explained: “Autocrypt support is not removed. […] What is missing is the upgrade path for two Delta Chat clients” (see [Support for non-chatmail email - #2 by link2xt](https://support.delta.chat/t/support-for-non-chatmail-email/4091/2)).

> Seifferth, detailed descriptions of what happened are useful, and the point-form helps. But it is difficult to respond to very long posts.

For the key issues I want to address, please refer to the “tl;dr” section. Everything else is just additional context in case that section alone should be too concise. To paraphrase these two key points:

1. Autocrypt does not work properly any more.
2. Performing SecureJoin duplicates existing 1:1 conversations. I would very much prefer it if SecureJoin would upgrade them instead.

I suppose these issues could be solved by introducing an upgrade path from non-e2ee-enabled conversations to e2ee-enabled conversations. This upgrade path is something link2xt mentioned in [Support for non-chatmail email - #2 by link2xt](https://support.delta.chat/t/support-for-non-chatmail-email/4091/2) (already cited above). I have posted some thoughts on what this upgrade path could look like here: [Prompt to switch to encrypted chat when it is available - #6 by seifferth](https://support.delta.chat/t/prompt-to-switch-to-encrypted-chat-when-it-is-available/4010/6). I do realize that that post is not particularly short either.

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