4 ms·

Can I connect it to Skype/Facebook/IRC?

by edem 10y ago

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.

Can I connect it to Skype/Facebook/IRC?

by edem 10y ago

Can I connect it to Skype/Facebook/IRC?

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

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.