Skip to content

Add ability to join public calls without an account #261

Open
Open
Add ability to join public calls without an account#261
Labels
enhancementNew feature or requestfeature: authentication 🔑help wantedExtra attention is needed

Description

@enoch85
enoch85
opened on Jul 30, 2018

To get a wider spread of Talk, and enhance the usability it would be nice to somehow generate automatic guest accounts that users could use with Talk.

So for example, if I choose a contact from the telephones contacts (full contact book) a link would be generated that automatically creates a guest user that are valid for let's say 1 hour.

That way anyone with Nextcloud and Talk installed could use Talk for private chats or video calls - not depending if they have Talk or not.

Maybe my idea isn't so thought through, but I would really like to make it easier for anyone using Talk without the need for a Nextcloud Server. I know that we have public conversations, but it would be nice to invite anyone using a guest account so that the external user could get the full benefit of using Talk on their Phone as well.

Maybe send something automatically generated per SMS like:

Hey! [Full Name] wants to talk to you on Nextcloud Talk. Download the app from Play here: [Link]
Your temporary credentials are:

Username:
Password: 

The credentials are valid for 1 hour.

The server address is: [Address of the senders server based on what's used for Talk in their config]

My proposal would need some work on the server side as well I guess.

Activity

  1. enoch85
    added
    enhancementNew feature or request
    on Jul 30, 2018

  2. enoch85 commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @enoch85
    enoch85
    on Jul 30, 2018
    MemberAuthor

    Or even better, when you access a public link from a smartphone, detect that it's a smartphone and ask the user to download Talk. Then when Talk is installed, use the public link as a login somehow.

    Not so thought through, but yeah I hope it's possible somehow.

  3. enoch85 commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @enoch85
    enoch85
    on Jul 30, 2018
    MemberAuthor

    The point being: I don't want to manually create users on my server to be able to use Talk for Android with external contacts that doesn't use Nextcloud.

  4. mario commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @mario
    mario
    on Jul 30, 2018
    Contributor

    How about I make it possible to join a public conversation without an account from the app?

  5. enoch85 commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @enoch85
    enoch85
    on Jul 30, 2018
    MemberAuthor

    You nailed it, as usual! :)

  6. enoch85 commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @enoch85
    enoch85
    on Jul 30, 2018
    MemberAuthor

    ...if you mean that it would be possible to use the app without an account, just a public link?

  7. enoch85 commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @enoch85
    enoch85
    on Jul 30, 2018
    MemberAuthor

    So basically two options when you start the app for the first time:

    1. Login
    2. Use public link
  8. mario
    changed the title [-]Generate guest accounts automatically[/-] [+]Add ability to join public calls without an account[/+] on Jul 30, 2018

  9. mario commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @mario
    mario
    on Jul 30, 2018
    Contributor

    Yup, that's it.

  10. enoch85 commented on Jul 30, 2018

    @enoch85
    enoch85
    on Jul 30, 2018
    MemberAuthor

    Super!

  11. escoand commented on Sep 21, 2018

    @escoand
    escoand
    on Sep 21, 2018

    Any progress so far? Using public links is already working (when logged in) so is it a bigger problem?

  12. mario commented on Jan 7, 2019

    @mario
    mario
    on Jan 7, 2019
    Contributor

    No progress I'm afraid @escoand - just busy with other things! Feel free to contribute though, we'd all appreciate it! :)

  13. jancborchardt
    added
    help wantedExtra attention is needed
    on Mar 13, 2019

  14. Art4 commented on Apr 18, 2019

    @Art4
    Art4
    on Apr 18, 2019

    This feature would make it possible to use Nextcloud Talk as a privacy friendly news room for school classes or events. One could create a conversation with link and tell the parents/participants to install the Nextcloud Talk app. They could join the conversation without the need for an account. That could be a serious alternative instead of using WhatsApp for this purposes.

  15. 4ug3r commented on May 9, 2019

    @4ug3r
    4ug3r
    on May 9, 2019

    I would welcome this feature

  16. 41 remaining items

  17. enoch85 commented on Dec 22, 2022

    @enoch85
    enoch85
    on Dec 22, 2022
    MemberAuthor

    @JRGonz Basically, the request is about letting guests, without an account, to join via link to a shared conversation.

    1. You have a Nextcloud server with Talk installed and working
    2. You want to talk to person B via Talk
    3. Person B doesn't have Nextcloud, nor Talk.
    4. You share a link with person B to a channel you created in your Talk
    5. Person B can join, with or without password (depending on if you set the channel to be password protected or not).

    I hope that clears it up. :)

  18. sirweazel commented on Feb 1, 2023

    @sirweazel
    sirweazel
    on Feb 1, 2023

    I also wanted to express interest in this feature. 3ish years ago, i tried talk with some friends and family around a holiday. I couldn't make everyone an account on the fly and get them logged in. The web only did not work well on small apple and android devices at the time (i haven't tried it recently, but I will soon). We ended up switching to zoom that day. Someone without an account, but with a link (password protected or not) could click on to get into a talk chat or call without having a nextcloud account but launched via the installed app. Maybe try and replicate the end user experience of some of the other conferencing options out there (as it goes for users without accounts). I know this is the android version request, but it would be good if it occurred for apple also.

  19. mahibi
    added this to 💬 Talk teamon Feb 2, 2023
  20. github-project-automation
    moved this to 🧭 Planning evaluation (don't pick) in 💬 Talk teamon Feb 2, 2023

  21. mahibi commented on Feb 2, 2023

    @mahibi
    mahibi
    on Feb 2, 2023
    Collaborator

    moved to planning evaluation so this request might get more attention..

  22. sudwhiwdh commented on Feb 2, 2023

    @sudwhiwdh
    sudwhiwdh
    on Feb 2, 2023

    moved to planning evaluation so this request might get more attention.

    @mahibi Are there any security-critical aspects to consider when introducing such an enhancement?

  23. mahibi commented on Feb 2, 2023

    @mahibi
    mahibi
    on Feb 2, 2023
    Collaborator

    @mahibi Are there any security-critical aspects to consider when introducing such an enhancement?

    No critical aspects that i'm spontaneausly aware of, but we will discuss in more detail when the feature is planned.

  24. sudwhiwdh commented on Feb 2, 2023

    @sudwhiwdh
    sudwhiwdh
    on Feb 2, 2023

    Thank you very much for addressing this issue!

    Do you have an impulse right now in which development cycle you want to look at this?

  25. mahibi commented on Feb 2, 2023

    @mahibi
    mahibi
    on Feb 2, 2023
    Collaborator

    i can not estimate when the development will be started but being on Planning evaluation it's more likely to be picked up..

  26. TheMiNuS commented on Jul 24, 2024

    @TheMiNuS
    TheMiNuS
    on Jul 24, 2024

    I'm also intrested by this feature for guests to stay connected and get notifications without the need to have an account for a temporary collaboration.

  27. ncandelier commented on Oct 23, 2024

    @ncandelier
    ncandelier
    on Oct 23, 2024

    Hello, is this function still on roadmap ?

  28. mahibi commented on Nov 6, 2024

    @mahibi
    mahibi
    on Nov 6, 2024
    Collaborator

    Hello, is this function still on roadmap ?

    it's still on the roadmap but afaik not planned for the near future

  29. sol8712 commented on Dec 7, 2024

    @sol8712
    sol8712
    on Dec 7, 2024

    Just want to add this here: the US government is recommending to use messaging apps instead of sms services for the forseeable future, these sms networks are very old and have been completly comprised.

    Everyone should be encouraging family and friends to switch to secure messaging apps, having this feature would make the transition many times smoother.

    Most(all) people who dont want to have to make an account just to be able to keep in touch with one or 2 talk users. Especially to ease the transition of those trapped imessage users to talk. Making an account puts a relatively big hurdle on somthing that, in the eyes of the average phone user, has none.
    This would directly bring in more average users to the overall Nextcloud ecosystem especially in a time when moving to a non sms based ecosystem is becoming a security requirement.

    Thanks for all he work you put into this awesome project!

  30. sirweazel commented on Dec 26, 2025

    @sirweazel
    sirweazel
    on Dec 26, 2025

    Is there a roadmap for this feature or is it still being considered?

  31. mahibi commented on Jan 6, 2026

    @mahibi
    mahibi
    on Jan 6, 2026
    Collaborator

    Is there a roadmap for this feature or is it still being considered?

    It's not forgotten. It's on our list and is discussed regulary when we go for it.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    enhancementNew feature or requestfeature: authentication 🔑help wantedExtra attention is needed

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    • 💬 Talk team
      Status
      🧭 Planning evaluation (don't pick)

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions