11 ms·

Telegram Desktop reaches version 1.0

157 points by chrisan 10y ago

spinningarrow 10y ago
It's still nowhere near as smooth as the native macOS app :( EDIT: smiley
ajoy 10y ago
https://medium.freecodecamp.com/why-i-asked-my-friends-to-stop-using-whatsapp-and-telegram-e93346b3c1f0#.zaf0dg8zj https://medium.freecodecamp.com/why-i-asked-my-friends-to-st... To those who think privacy does not matter : http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters
edem 10y ago
Can I connect it to Skype/Facebook/IRC?
- akjainaj 10y ago
  Of course, you can also connect it to your favourite sub tube, or to your sewage line, or you can even connect it to a scalextric lane (Yes, it's sarcastic, but people asking to connect everything to everything always sound really neckbeardish/trollish to me)
- jhasse 10y ago
  No
- lucb1e 10y ago
  IRC: kind of, you can have a bot that joins a Telegram group and the IRC channel and forwards messages. It's getting more and more common. Other than bots, the client is really a Telegram client, not something like Pidgin. Personally I don't mind, since everyone's on Telegram. I actually prefer to have a client that's excellent with one network rather than a client that does quite well with many networks. Having used Pidgin and other multi-network clients in the past, they are always second rate compared to the official client. And with bots (irc to telegram bot; gmail to telegram bot; etc.) all I need is the Telegram client. As for Skype, how do you want to connect it? Microsoft doesn't allow it, and neither would Whatsapp. Telegram on the other hand has no problem if you make a custom client...
  - nicolapcweek94 10y ago
    Well, Skype has recently introduced a bot API ([1]), integrable with the azure bot framework thingy ([2]) that also works with Telegram/Slack/FB Messenger/MS Teams, so I guess (though I haven't looked into it, let alone tried) you could probably make a gateway between all of those [1]: https://www.skype.com/en/developer/ https://www.skype.com/en/developer/ [2]: https://dev.botframework.com/ https://dev.botframework.com/
  - edem 10y ago
    > Personally I don't mind, since everyone's on Telegram. I don't know a single person who is on Telegram. My friends have not even heard of it despite the fact that they all talk online and a good percentage of them are developers. Why would I start using it if no one I know uses it?
    - lucb1e 10y ago
      Because that's how it gets started. Bad example: I knew nobody on Google+ but I made some new friends. The network died again, or at least I stopped using it after a year and a half or something, so it's a bad example in that it didn't work out in the end, but yeah that's how things get started. Why do you think the first million people got Whatsapp? If you don't try something new and convince at least one other person to use it, how would things ever change?
      - edem 10y ago
        Why would I want to use telegram in the first place?
        lucb1e 10y ago
        1. It's not Facebook's 2. The clients are open source (for me that's a moral reason) 3. Secret chats are verifiably encrypted 4. You can make your own client if you want, causing: 4.1. Someone used a custom client (tgcli) to create a backup feature, which I extended to make html exports like MSN had (quite a future-proof and readable format). This prevents lock-in. 4.2. You are much less restricted in your choice of operating system, given you or someone else takes the effort of porting or writing a client. 5. The existing desktop client is native and doesn't require your phone to be turned on and have data active. 6. The clients have lots of features like custom themes, sending large files, setting up a username which can be linked to publicly, creating broadcast channels, pinned chats, etc. I'm not sure how much of this whatsapp implemented by now. It's true that Telegram also copied other products a lot, but they added lots of features that competitors didn't have, but nowadays they do (it made the market more innovative again). I'm also not saying everyone should move to Telegram. Some monopolies are better than others (some are owned by Facebook & other things I just mentioned) but all monopolies are bad. Additionally Whatsapp has some advantages like calling and knowing what the profit model is. The latter is actually my greatest worry about Telegram, but everything considered, Telegram is the best thing currently available in my opinion.
zamalek 10y ago
Now if only everyone that I know used Telegram.
- lucb1e 10y ago
  Everyone I want to talk to uses Telegram, and those who didn't (a few years ago) I convinced. "You want me to install Skype/Whatsapp/something, but why should I rather than you?" It helped that most people saw the advantages that Telegram had, especially back then (before whatsapp cloned everything). Not to say that Telegram didn't clone whatsapp to a large degree, but the introduction of telegram definitely made the market innovative again.
  - zamalek 10y ago
    The problem is that I already have Whatsapp installed, having been an early-adopter. I can't get my family onto Telegram (high signal) and I can't get my friends onto Discord (high noise). Whatsapp is dreadful for both.
- mostafah 10y ago
  Well, almost everyone here in Iran uses Telegram. They estimate tens of millions of users, which is practically everyone with a smartphone. It’s channels are extremely popular too. They’re a major main source of content and news for a lot of users.
Philipp__ 10y ago
Native all the way! Opening github page of app and seeing that pink line instead of yellow (line that represents languages used in project) made me smile! I am really surprised they did native app, plus it looks really nice, I tought "sigh, another electron app", but to my surprise I was wrong! Good job for guys at Telegram, respect.
- Hamcha 10y ago
  Even the previous layout (which I personally preferred, but tastes…) still looked like a webapp more than native.. in a good way, never had any glitches and I really wonder how much it must have took them to make all the animations work so nicely. I loved toggling between chats and settings to see if it broke.. but never did!
- Karrot_Kream 10y ago
  I really wish they would port the amazing thin Mac UI to other platforms. It's everything I want in a minimal, yet modern and clean looking IM UX.
  - Philipp__ 10y ago
    You mean Cocoa? It won't happen.
- akjainaj 10y ago
  It's Qt by the way, and it's good on the three platforms. This is the GitHub repo. https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop Development has always looked a bit fishy to me, though. The main developer is anonymous (using the name/pic of a TV character), maybe it's even several people using the same profile.
  - bushin 10y ago
    That's probably Nikolai Durov.
  - ivm 10y ago
yarauuta 10y ago
I use Telegram with my geek friends. Works.
- lucb1e 10y ago
  My friends are geeks and my family got Telegram as well now. Works!
  - thekid314 10y ago
    Journalists used to use telegram to communicate with Jihadis in Syria/Iraq/Egypt but not anymore because it was highly suspected Russia had access to the conversations. Works?
    - kirkdouglas 10y ago
      Got any proof?
- nickik 10y ago
  Im not sure what 'geeks' you are talking about (The terminology is always confusing. But my friends (and me) refuse Telegram because of the terrible security and privacy.
sneak 10y ago
PSA: Telegram is dangerous snake oil—bad crypto. Don't use it, don't let friends use it. https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/818990035831816192 https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/81899003583181619... https://twitter.com/kaepora/status/819181464369577984 https://twitter.com/kaepora/status/819181464369577984 https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/819192381371203584 https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/81919238137120358...
- hn159753 10y ago
  I was just about to post something similar. I'm actually surprised to see a positive post of Telegram on HN. For the love of crypto, please stick to Signal protocol-based messaging applications. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol Edit: add link http://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-cryptanalysis-contest http://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-crypta...
  - Freak_NL 10y ago
    Are there any Signal-based messaging applications that work on the desktop without having to tether an Android or IOS smartphone to it, and without having to use a phone number as identifier?
    - lucb1e 10y ago
      This. People say Telegram is bad even though it's no worse than any other popular product, or has a different set of advantages/disadvantages both security- and privacy-wise.
      - tptacek 10y ago
        From a security and privacy perspective, Telegram is substantially worse than its competitors, so this is a little rhetorical sleight of hand you've just pulled here. If you want to argue that Telegram and Signal are comparable because Telegram has better UX and Signal better security and some people prefer UX to security, that's fine (I could not disagree more strongly, but at least it's a coherent argument). But don't pretend the thread isn't about security to make people believe that there's controversy about whether Signal is more secure. There is no controversy: Signal won the Levchin prize this year for the Signal Protocol and sets the standard for secure chat, and Telegram... well, let's just suffice it to say that it does not meet that standard.
pawelwentpawel 10y ago
A brilliant native desktop app is one of the reasons why I prefer telegram over other apps of this kind. It's smooth, light and easy to use.
- blauditore 10y ago
  Also, unlike WhatsApp web, it's not a proxy for the phone app, thus doesn't drain its battery and still works if your phone is broken or lost.
  - pawelwentpawel 10y ago
    Yeah. And just to add to both of the above, stickers in telegram are visually brilliant. I wonder how many illustrators do they have working with them.
    - reitanqild 10y ago
      > ...how many ... Basically anyone who wants. I have a sticker set with friends of mine : )
    - suprfnk 10y ago
      Next to that, you can create your own sticker packs.
  - disiplus 10y ago
    i like the whatsapp web because i dont have to install something now just so i could send a message to somebody, and because its a proxy for the phone app i dont have to worry that i got the message on the desktop but its not synced to mobile ( im looking at you skype )
    - notheguyouthink 10y ago
      It's awful for me. I constantly have to unlock my phone because web refuses to send anything or even refuses to load, as it says my phone is not connected to the internet/etc. Really terrible and frustrating UX for me. I loathe that web interface.
leoreeves 10y ago
I use WhatsApp currently and so does everyone I know, is it worth switching and trying to convince other people to use it?
- mtgx 10y ago
  Not until Telegram also adopts end-to-end encryption by default, as WhatsApp has done. I'm not sure they even have a real reason for not doing it yet. At this point there are at least a couple other open source protocols that work like Signal but have nothing to do with Signal and Open Whisper Systems, that they could adopt. So even if they hate OWS for criticizing them in the past, that's not a reason not to adopt the alternatives at this point. I'd probably be content if they even take one of those and fork it and customize it for their own purposes, as long as their "math Ph.Ds" don't completely break the crypto again.
  - nicolapcweek94 10y ago
    Of course they have a real reason: message sync. Telegram works on your PC, in your browser, on your phone, on your tablet, in your raspberry pi tty... all with the same messages synced everywhere, which you wouldn't be able to get with end2end crypto. Sure, Whatsapp kinda does it with the web/desktop clients, but it's a horrible hack requiring your phone to be on and connected all the time...
    - mderazon 10y ago
      How is it related? AFAIK Signal has sync between desktop and mobile doesn't have to be constantly on to use the desktop client
      - nicolapcweek94 10y ago
        Signal does have sync, but it works exactly the same way as Whatsapp's does, requiring your phone to be on and connected Telegram's secret chats are also client-specific and not synced, and I have no idea how it would even be possible to have e2e chats synced on multiple devices without having a "main" device that's doing the actual crypto or sharing the secret key
rnhmjoj 10y ago
How can it be at 1.0 and still have not implemented secret chats?
- sergimansilla 10y ago
  Um, secret chats have been there for a long time.
  - rnhmjoj 10y ago
    It doesn't seem so: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/871 https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/871
    - sambe 10y ago
      To clarify: secret chats have been present on Telegram as a platform for a long time. The desktop client doesn't seem to support them though. This often leads to people saying things like "Telegram doesn't have end-to-end encryption". Really, what they mean is that it's not the default and isn't on all platforms. Most people can use it if they want to though because it's available on all major mobile OSes.
      - stiGGG 10y ago
        The desktop version has no encryption? Seriously, why should i use something like this in 2017?
      - notheguyouthink 10y ago
        What is this "Desktop Client", i don't get it -_- I use the Telegram app on my OSX Laptop, and i use Secret chats. They seem identical to my Android secret chats. What am i missing?
        rnhmjoj 10y ago
        Telegram desktop [1] aka "tdesktop" is the official telegram desktop client, it's based on Qt and it's cross platform (Windows, GNU/Linux, OS X). What you have been using must be "Telegram for OS X" [2], a different application entirely, which supports only OS X obviously. IIRC tdesktop didn't support OS X initially. [1]: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop [2]: https://github.com/overtake/telegram https://github.com/overtake/telegram
konart 10y ago
Telegram is one of the best solutions thanks to its bots and channels.
Karrot_Kream 10y ago
I love Telegram for the usability more than anything else, and don't really care for the encryption (which I find more of a curiosity). Telegram hits a few sweet spots with me: - Movement between devices is seamless (I can go from my webview in BSD to my Mac OS Native to my iOS native app and not miss a beat). - Telegram is very reliable in situations with poor connectivity. This is pure anecdote on my side, but in the most crowded venues I've been to: Messenger, Line, and WhatsApp have performed worse than Telegram. - Telegram's API is ridiculously open, even if it's backend source isn't. For most practical purposes, Telegram gives you full access, and is completely okay with you creating a 3rd party client I've managed to win over a lot of my close friends and family onto Telegram, and while they initially objected over the lack of social proof, the features ended up luring them over, and many of them are not technically literate.
- hvidgaard 10y ago
  As much as Signal from a idealistic point of view is better, Telegram works so well between my desktop and phone that it's a no brainer.
- notheguyouthink 10y ago
  The API is so easy and fun to work with. It's a huge boon for me, i can't imagine switching to anything without a good "bot" API.
r721 10y ago
It's so stupid that I can't read public channels without providing a valid phone number. I don't need any secrecy, just want to read damn blog posts!
- nv-vn 10y ago
  Hm, this gets me thinking... it wouldn't take much work to get a public channel viewer website working.
  - r721 10y ago
    Yeah, there exist a couple (I googled) - but they tend to lag or show only mod-approved channels.
wowtip 10y ago
Some of my friends are moving from Skype to Discord, but it seems to be a plethora of new IM clients popping up all the time. From what I can see Telegram doesn't have VoIP, which could be a deal breaker for some. Are there other advantages with Telegram compared to Discord that makes up for the lack of voice?
- konart 10y ago
  Telegram never planned implementing VoIP, as far as I remember, only voice messages. The main reasons it's so popular (with some users, 100+ mil of them) - bots (telegram has open api, and bt platform https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution) and channels. In Russia - telegram channels is now a new type of media, very popular with independent journalists, bloggers etc.
  - nv-vn 10y ago
    I wonder how difficult it would be to add voice chats using a custom client. I've thought about doing some experiments extending the feature list (e.g. calls, different encryption layers, etc.) by forking an existing client and using some hacks to send custom data, but I don't have the time to try it at the moment.
    - konart 10y ago
      Well, 3rd party client can use Telegram protocol for texting etc, and Jingle for VoIP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol)
  - kstenerud 10y ago
    Seems odd that such a new IM app wouldn't leave room for voip. Everyone's looking for a decent replacement for Skype, and Hangouts ain't it.
- KitDuncan 10y ago
  https://riot.im https://riot.im it's open source, encrypted, supports VoIP and video calling. And it has a room system just like discord. No signup and no email required.
cygned 10y ago
Things I noticed so far: - Dark Skin (still waiting for Slack doing it) - It's faster than the MAS version - It's not possible to collapse the chat list anymore - The desktop app is responsive, though, collapsing the whole sidebar into a hamburger menu - Replying to messages is buried in a context menu, in the MAS version one could simply double click a message - They created a giant group for themes. Once 4chan joins there, things will go very bad
- konart 10y ago
  >Dark Skin (still waiting for Slack doing it) Any number of any skins, actually. Themes.
  - cygned 10y ago
    Indeed. Sorry for being unclear.
    - Cederfjard 10y ago
      https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/205166337-Customize-your-Slack-theme https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/205166337-Customize... Or am I misunderstanding you?
      - izacus 10y ago
        That just colors the sidebar.
      - justingood 10y ago
        This is useful, but only applies to the sidebar theme. Slack doesn't currently support styling the main window.
- nv-vn 10y ago
  Eh, there's a big community of 4chan groups already (at least for specific boards, like a variety of /g/ groups for technology discussion). I wouldn't say they're any worse than the alternatives (the Let's Talk Programming group is about the same in posting quality as the /g/ groups, if not slightly lower).
wslh 10y ago
I really like Telegram but the desktop version doesn't have security channels, which I think, nowadays, are escencial.
electic 10y ago
I still find this native client is the best: https://macos.telegram.org/ https://macos.telegram.org/. It is wicked fast vs. QT version.
- robinhood 10y ago
  I agree. I've installed Telegram Desktop, played with it, and revert to the native macOS client a few hours later. I don't care about animations at all or even the themes. I also didn't like the fact that the icon keeps jumping when receiving new messages. The macOS version works better for my personal preference.
electic 10y ago
I still find this native client is the best: https://macos.telegram.org/ https://macos.telegram.org/. It is wicked fast vs. QT version.
newscracker 10y ago
Congratulations to the team! The native desktop apps have been top notch in user experience, speed and stability. Among messaging apps, Telegram has been my favorite for some years. Its development speed and feature introductions, at least in my knowledge, are unparalleled. I've always liked the multi-device sync feature in Telegram and can't imagine using an app without that. My main concerns have been the home grown crypto and that normal chats are not end-to-end encrypted (only secret chats are). So I've been trying Wire [1] for a while, which provides both multi-device sync, multi-OS apps and end-to-end encrypted chats by default (there is no non-E2E chat). But it needs some more time to become much better (it's comparatively quite slow to startup and sync messages). Unfortunately, for all the fame that Signal [2] has on crypto and end-to-end encryption, it's the slowest in feature development among these apps. [1]: https://wire.com https://wire.com [2]: https://whispersystems.org https://whispersystems.org
kennu 10y ago
There appear to be two Telegram apps on Mac App Store: Telegram Desktop 0.10.20 and Telegram 2.30. I guess neither is the same as this one?
vially 10y ago
Congrats for the release but they really need to fix the mobile notifications when using the desktop client [1] [1] - https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/277 https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/277
lightedman 10y ago
Did they actually include a functional contact list this time? That's why I ditched it like a hot potato each time they had an update and I tried it.
- lightedman 10y ago
  NOPE. Still the same useless contact list. Even AOL Instant Messenger, 20+ years old, manages to get this right.

157 points by chrisan 10y ago

It's still nowhere near as smooth as the native macOS app :( EDIT: smiley

ajoy 10y ago

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/why-i-asked-my-friends-to-stop-using-whatsapp-and-telegram-e93346b3c1f0#.zaf0dg8zj https://medium.freecodecamp.com/why-i-asked-my-friends-to-st... To those who think privacy does not matter : http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters

edem 10y ago

Can I connect it to Skype/Facebook/IRC?

akjainaj 10y ago
Of course, you can also connect it to your favourite sub tube, or to your sewage line, or you can even connect it to a scalextric lane (Yes, it's sarcastic, but people asking to connect everything to everything always sound really neckbeardish/trollish to me)
jhasse 10y ago
No
lucb1e 10y ago
IRC: kind of, you can have a bot that joins a Telegram group and the IRC channel and forwards messages. It's getting more and more common. Other than bots, the client is really a Telegram client, not something like Pidgin. Personally I don't mind, since everyone's on Telegram. I actually prefer to have a client that's excellent with one network rather than a client that does quite well with many networks. Having used Pidgin and other multi-network clients in the past, they are always second rate compared to the official client. And with bots (irc to telegram bot; gmail to telegram bot; etc.) all I need is the Telegram client. As for Skype, how do you want to connect it? Microsoft doesn't allow it, and neither would Whatsapp. Telegram on the other hand has no problem if you make a custom client...
- nicolapcweek94 10y ago
  Well, Skype has recently introduced a bot API ([1]), integrable with the azure bot framework thingy ([2]) that also works with Telegram/Slack/FB Messenger/MS Teams, so I guess (though I haven't looked into it, let alone tried) you could probably make a gateway between all of those [1]: https://www.skype.com/en/developer/ https://www.skype.com/en/developer/ [2]: https://dev.botframework.com/ https://dev.botframework.com/
- edem 10y ago
  > Personally I don't mind, since everyone's on Telegram. I don't know a single person who is on Telegram. My friends have not even heard of it despite the fact that they all talk online and a good percentage of them are developers. Why would I start using it if no one I know uses it?
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    Because that's how it gets started. Bad example: I knew nobody on Google+ but I made some new friends. The network died again, or at least I stopped using it after a year and a half or something, so it's a bad example in that it didn't work out in the end, but yeah that's how things get started. Why do you think the first million people got Whatsapp? If you don't try something new and convince at least one other person to use it, how would things ever change?
    - edem 10y ago
      Why would I want to use telegram in the first place?
      - lucb1e 10y ago
        1. It's not Facebook's 2. The clients are open source (for me that's a moral reason) 3. Secret chats are verifiably encrypted 4. You can make your own client if you want, causing: 4.1. Someone used a custom client (tgcli) to create a backup feature, which I extended to make html exports like MSN had (quite a future-proof and readable format). This prevents lock-in. 4.2. You are much less restricted in your choice of operating system, given you or someone else takes the effort of porting or writing a client. 5. The existing desktop client is native and doesn't require your phone to be turned on and have data active. 6. The clients have lots of features like custom themes, sending large files, setting up a username which can be linked to publicly, creating broadcast channels, pinned chats, etc. I'm not sure how much of this whatsapp implemented by now. It's true that Telegram also copied other products a lot, but they added lots of features that competitors didn't have, but nowadays they do (it made the market more innovative again). I'm also not saying everyone should move to Telegram. Some monopolies are better than others (some are owned by Facebook & other things I just mentioned) but all monopolies are bad. Additionally Whatsapp has some advantages like calling and knowing what the profit model is. The latter is actually my greatest worry about Telegram, but everything considered, Telegram is the best thing currently available in my opinion.

zamalek 10y ago

Now if only everyone that I know used Telegram.

lucb1e 10y ago
Everyone I want to talk to uses Telegram, and those who didn't (a few years ago) I convinced. "You want me to install Skype/Whatsapp/something, but why should I rather than you?" It helped that most people saw the advantages that Telegram had, especially back then (before whatsapp cloned everything). Not to say that Telegram didn't clone whatsapp to a large degree, but the introduction of telegram definitely made the market innovative again.
- zamalek 10y ago
  The problem is that I already have Whatsapp installed, having been an early-adopter. I can't get my family onto Telegram (high signal) and I can't get my friends onto Discord (high noise). Whatsapp is dreadful for both.
mostafah 10y ago
Well, almost everyone here in Iran uses Telegram. They estimate tens of millions of users, which is practically everyone with a smartphone. It’s channels are extremely popular too. They’re a major main source of content and news for a lot of users.

Philipp__ 10y ago

Native all the way! Opening github page of app and seeing that pink line instead of yellow (line that represents languages used in project) made me smile! I am really surprised they did native app, plus it looks really nice, I tought "sigh, another electron app", but to my surprise I was wrong! Good job for guys at Telegram, respect.

Hamcha 10y ago
Even the previous layout (which I personally preferred, but tastes…) still looked like a webapp more than native.. in a good way, never had any glitches and I really wonder how much it must have took them to make all the animations work so nicely. I loved toggling between chats and settings to see if it broke.. but never did!
Karrot_Kream 10y ago
I really wish they would port the amazing thin Mac UI to other platforms. It's everything I want in a minimal, yet modern and clean looking IM UX.
- Philipp__ 10y ago
  You mean Cocoa? It won't happen.
akjainaj 10y ago
It's Qt by the way, and it's good on the three platforms. This is the GitHub repo. https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop Development has always looked a bit fishy to me, though. The main developer is anonymous (using the name/pic of a TV character), maybe it's even several people using the same profile.
- bushin 10y ago
  That's probably Nikolai Durov.
- ivm 10y ago

yarauuta 10y ago

I use Telegram with my geek friends. Works.

lucb1e 10y ago
My friends are geeks and my family got Telegram as well now. Works!
- thekid314 10y ago
  Journalists used to use telegram to communicate with Jihadis in Syria/Iraq/Egypt but not anymore because it was highly suspected Russia had access to the conversations. Works?
  - kirkdouglas 10y ago
    Got any proof?
nickik 10y ago
Im not sure what 'geeks' you are talking about (The terminology is always confusing. But my friends (and me) refuse Telegram because of the terrible security and privacy.

sneak 10y ago

PSA: Telegram is dangerous snake oil—bad crypto. Don't use it, don't let friends use it. https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/818990035831816192 https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/81899003583181619... https://twitter.com/kaepora/status/819181464369577984 https://twitter.com/kaepora/status/819181464369577984 https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/819192381371203584 https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/81919238137120358...

hn159753 10y ago
I was just about to post something similar. I'm actually surprised to see a positive post of Telegram on HN. For the love of crypto, please stick to Signal protocol-based messaging applications. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol Edit: add link http://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-cryptanalysis-contest http://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-crypta...
- Freak_NL 10y ago
  Are there any Signal-based messaging applications that work on the desktop without having to tether an Android or IOS smartphone to it, and without having to use a phone number as identifier?
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    This. People say Telegram is bad even though it's no worse than any other popular product, or has a different set of advantages/disadvantages both security- and privacy-wise.
    - tptacek 10y ago
      From a security and privacy perspective, Telegram is substantially worse than its competitors, so this is a little rhetorical sleight of hand you've just pulled here. If you want to argue that Telegram and Signal are comparable because Telegram has better UX and Signal better security and some people prefer UX to security, that's fine (I could not disagree more strongly, but at least it's a coherent argument). But don't pretend the thread isn't about security to make people believe that there's controversy about whether Signal is more secure. There is no controversy: Signal won the Levchin prize this year for the Signal Protocol and sets the standard for secure chat, and Telegram... well, let's just suffice it to say that it does not meet that standard.

pawelwentpawel 10y ago

A brilliant native desktop app is one of the reasons why I prefer telegram over other apps of this kind. It's smooth, light and easy to use.

blauditore 10y ago
Also, unlike WhatsApp web, it's not a proxy for the phone app, thus doesn't drain its battery and still works if your phone is broken or lost.
- pawelwentpawel 10y ago
  Yeah. And just to add to both of the above, stickers in telegram are visually brilliant. I wonder how many illustrators do they have working with them.
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    > ...how many ... Basically anyone who wants. I have a sticker set with friends of mine : )
  - suprfnk 10y ago
    Next to that, you can create your own sticker packs.
- disiplus 10y ago
  i like the whatsapp web because i dont have to install something now just so i could send a message to somebody, and because its a proxy for the phone app i dont have to worry that i got the message on the desktop but its not synced to mobile ( im looking at you skype )
  - notheguyouthink 10y ago
    It's awful for me. I constantly have to unlock my phone because web refuses to send anything or even refuses to load, as it says my phone is not connected to the internet/etc. Really terrible and frustrating UX for me. I loathe that web interface.

leoreeves 10y ago

I use WhatsApp currently and so does everyone I know, is it worth switching and trying to convince other people to use it?

mtgx 10y ago
Not until Telegram also adopts end-to-end encryption by default, as WhatsApp has done. I'm not sure they even have a real reason for not doing it yet. At this point there are at least a couple other open source protocols that work like Signal but have nothing to do with Signal and Open Whisper Systems, that they could adopt. So even if they hate OWS for criticizing them in the past, that's not a reason not to adopt the alternatives at this point. I'd probably be content if they even take one of those and fork it and customize it for their own purposes, as long as their "math Ph.Ds" don't completely break the crypto again.
- nicolapcweek94 10y ago
  Of course they have a real reason: message sync. Telegram works on your PC, in your browser, on your phone, on your tablet, in your raspberry pi tty... all with the same messages synced everywhere, which you wouldn't be able to get with end2end crypto. Sure, Whatsapp kinda does it with the web/desktop clients, but it's a horrible hack requiring your phone to be on and connected all the time...
  - mderazon 10y ago
    How is it related? AFAIK Signal has sync between desktop and mobile doesn't have to be constantly on to use the desktop client
    - nicolapcweek94 10y ago
      Signal does have sync, but it works exactly the same way as Whatsapp's does, requiring your phone to be on and connected Telegram's secret chats are also client-specific and not synced, and I have no idea how it would even be possible to have e2e chats synced on multiple devices without having a "main" device that's doing the actual crypto or sharing the secret key

rnhmjoj 10y ago

How can it be at 1.0 and still have not implemented secret chats?

sergimansilla 10y ago
Um, secret chats have been there for a long time.
- rnhmjoj 10y ago
  It doesn't seem so: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/871 https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/871
  - sambe 10y ago
    To clarify: secret chats have been present on Telegram as a platform for a long time. The desktop client doesn't seem to support them though. This often leads to people saying things like "Telegram doesn't have end-to-end encryption". Really, what they mean is that it's not the default and isn't on all platforms. Most people can use it if they want to though because it's available on all major mobile OSes.
    - stiGGG 10y ago
      The desktop version has no encryption? Seriously, why should i use something like this in 2017?
    - notheguyouthink 10y ago
      What is this "Desktop Client", i don't get it -_- I use the Telegram app on my OSX Laptop, and i use Secret chats. They seem identical to my Android secret chats. What am i missing?
      - rnhmjoj 10y ago
        Telegram desktop [1] aka "tdesktop" is the official telegram desktop client, it's based on Qt and it's cross platform (Windows, GNU/Linux, OS X). What you have been using must be "Telegram for OS X" [2], a different application entirely, which supports only OS X obviously. IIRC tdesktop didn't support OS X initially. [1]: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop [2]: https://github.com/overtake/telegram https://github.com/overtake/telegram

konart 10y ago

Telegram is one of the best solutions thanks to its bots and channels.

Karrot_Kream 10y ago

I love Telegram for the usability more than anything else, and don't really care for the encryption (which I find more of a curiosity). Telegram hits a few sweet spots with me: - Movement between devices is seamless (I can go from my webview in BSD to my Mac OS Native to my iOS native app and not miss a beat). - Telegram is very reliable in situations with poor connectivity. This is pure anecdote on my side, but in the most crowded venues I've been to: Messenger, Line, and WhatsApp have performed worse than Telegram. - Telegram's API is ridiculously open, even if it's backend source isn't. For most practical purposes, Telegram gives you full access, and is completely okay with you creating a 3rd party client I've managed to win over a lot of my close friends and family onto Telegram, and while they initially objected over the lack of social proof, the features ended up luring them over, and many of them are not technically literate.

hvidgaard 10y ago
As much as Signal from a idealistic point of view is better, Telegram works so well between my desktop and phone that it's a no brainer.
notheguyouthink 10y ago
The API is so easy and fun to work with. It's a huge boon for me, i can't imagine switching to anything without a good "bot" API.

r721 10y ago

It's so stupid that I can't read public channels without providing a valid phone number. I don't need any secrecy, just want to read damn blog posts!

nv-vn 10y ago
Hm, this gets me thinking... it wouldn't take much work to get a public channel viewer website working.
- r721 10y ago
  Yeah, there exist a couple (I googled) - but they tend to lag or show only mod-approved channels.

wowtip 10y ago

Some of my friends are moving from Skype to Discord, but it seems to be a plethora of new IM clients popping up all the time. From what I can see Telegram doesn't have VoIP, which could be a deal breaker for some. Are there other advantages with Telegram compared to Discord that makes up for the lack of voice?

konart 10y ago
Telegram never planned implementing VoIP, as far as I remember, only voice messages. The main reasons it's so popular (with some users, 100+ mil of them) - bots (telegram has open api, and bt platform https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution) and channels. In Russia - telegram channels is now a new type of media, very popular with independent journalists, bloggers etc.
- nv-vn 10y ago
  I wonder how difficult it would be to add voice chats using a custom client. I've thought about doing some experiments extending the feature list (e.g. calls, different encryption layers, etc.) by forking an existing client and using some hacks to send custom data, but I don't have the time to try it at the moment.
  - konart 10y ago
    Well, 3rd party client can use Telegram protocol for texting etc, and Jingle for VoIP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol)
- kstenerud 10y ago
  Seems odd that such a new IM app wouldn't leave room for voip. Everyone's looking for a decent replacement for Skype, and Hangouts ain't it.
KitDuncan 10y ago
https://riot.im https://riot.im it's open source, encrypted, supports VoIP and video calling. And it has a room system just like discord. No signup and no email required.

cygned 10y ago

Things I noticed so far: - Dark Skin (still waiting for Slack doing it) - It's faster than the MAS version - It's not possible to collapse the chat list anymore - The desktop app is responsive, though, collapsing the whole sidebar into a hamburger menu - Replying to messages is buried in a context menu, in the MAS version one could simply double click a message - They created a giant group for themes. Once 4chan joins there, things will go very bad

konart 10y ago
>Dark Skin (still waiting for Slack doing it) Any number of any skins, actually. Themes.
- cygned 10y ago
  Indeed. Sorry for being unclear.
  - Cederfjard 10y ago
    https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/205166337-Customize-your-Slack-theme https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/205166337-Customize... Or am I misunderstanding you?
    - izacus 10y ago
      That just colors the sidebar.
    - justingood 10y ago
      This is useful, but only applies to the sidebar theme. Slack doesn't currently support styling the main window.
nv-vn 10y ago
Eh, there's a big community of 4chan groups already (at least for specific boards, like a variety of /g/ groups for technology discussion). I wouldn't say they're any worse than the alternatives (the Let's Talk Programming group is about the same in posting quality as the /g/ groups, if not slightly lower).

wslh 10y ago

I really like Telegram but the desktop version doesn't have security channels, which I think, nowadays, are escencial.

electic 10y ago

I still find this native client is the best: https://macos.telegram.org/ https://macos.telegram.org/. It is wicked fast vs. QT version.

robinhood 10y ago
I agree. I've installed Telegram Desktop, played with it, and revert to the native macOS client a few hours later. I don't care about animations at all or even the themes. I also didn't like the fact that the icon keeps jumping when receiving new messages. The macOS version works better for my personal preference.

electic 10y ago

I still find this native client is the best: https://macos.telegram.org/ https://macos.telegram.org/. It is wicked fast vs. QT version.

newscracker 10y ago

Congratulations to the team! The native desktop apps have been top notch in user experience, speed and stability. Among messaging apps, Telegram has been my favorite for some years. Its development speed and feature introductions, at least in my knowledge, are unparalleled. I've always liked the multi-device sync feature in Telegram and can't imagine using an app without that. My main concerns have been the home grown crypto and that normal chats are not end-to-end encrypted (only secret chats are). So I've been trying Wire [1] for a while, which provides both multi-device sync, multi-OS apps and end-to-end encrypted chats by default (there is no non-E2E chat). But it needs some more time to become much better (it's comparatively quite slow to startup and sync messages). Unfortunately, for all the fame that Signal [2] has on crypto and end-to-end encryption, it's the slowest in feature development among these apps. [1]: https://wire.com https://wire.com [2]: https://whispersystems.org https://whispersystems.org

kennu 10y ago

There appear to be two Telegram apps on Mac App Store: Telegram Desktop 0.10.20 and Telegram 2.30. I guess neither is the same as this one?

vially 10y ago

Congrats for the release but they really need to fix the mobile notifications when using the desktop client [1] [1] - https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/277 https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/277

lightedman 10y ago

Did they actually include a functional contact list this time? That's why I ditched it like a hot potato each time they had an update and I tried it.

lightedman 10y ago
NOPE. Still the same useless contact list. Even AOL Instant Messenger, 20+ years old, manages to get this right.