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Short video from Softpedia displaying Telegram Desktop:



Not sure how I feel about a desktop messenger that requires a phone number to work, but I see this behavior more and more these days (now even my bank is sending me SMS codes to validate on-line payments). It is open source, though, so... until they're hacked, we should be good.

Ditto...

A similar (not official, beta stage), open source, cross platform (Linux, Windows, OS X) client but for Whatsapp: Whatsie.
"Not affiliated with WhatsApp or Facebook"

Portable download here: https://github.com/Aluxian/Whatsie/rele ... rtable.zip

There is another open-source, not portable Telegram client called Cutegram:

Cutegram web-site
Cutegram at GitHub
all Cutegram downloads
Cutegram at Softpedia

A screen-shot:

PA has a number of IM tools but it put out the first of the growing "secure messaging" class tools a Telegram client.

Like other Telegram clients, this requires a phone number. There's still no alternative login method if you don't have a phone.

Note that existing tools offered by PA like Pidgin and Miranda IM/NG have crypto plugins that may actually be more secure as it's components are more mature. Ekiga also has built-in encryption but I haven't seen an evaluation of that tool and it doesn't appear to be in active development.

@webfork

Like other Telegram clients, this requires a phone number. There's still no alternative login method if you don't have a phone.

You mean Telegram clients or mobile messaging programs? Telegram does require a phone number but unlike all other mobile messaging programs it does not require to be installed on a mobile phone first so the user can use Telegram on desktop only without installing it on an Android or iOS device which, for me, gives Telegram a huge advantage over similar products.

Note that existing tools offered by PA like Pidgin and Miranda IM/NG have crypto plugins that may actually be more secure as it's components are more mature. Ekiga also has built-in encryption but I haven't seen an evaluation of that tool and it doesn't appear to be in active development.

Both Miranda IM and Pidgin are barely in development and I doubt that they may be more secure than Telegram and its well-documented MTProto secure protocol. In a previous post I have already mentioned that no one managed to break Telegram's encryption. What I dislike about Telegram is its change log- it is regularly purged and not all changes are documented- I always feel uncomfortable to update to a version without knowing what is new in it. I also think that Telegram developers are spending lots of efforts on useless stuff like stickers and emojis.

smaragdus wrote:

Like other Telegram clients, this requires a phone number. There's still no alternative login method if you don't have a phone.

You mean Telegram clients or mobile messaging programs?

I was under the impression this was a restriction for both.

smaragdus wrote:Both Miranda IM and Pidgin are barely in development and I doubt that they may be more secure than Telegram and its well-documented MTProto secure protocol. In a previous post I have already mentioned that no one managed to break Telegram's encryption.

I'm basing this suggestion on the EFF secure scorecard seems to give much higher status to Pidgin versus Telegram, which is missing a few important features/policies. This is an admittedly out-of-date analysis (there's a notice about it right at the top) so maybe the next version will demote Pidgin.

hi
@ portable app they have Telegram Desktop Portable
i will test it , we could add to database
thanks

@giulia

giulia wrote:hi
@ portable app they have Telegram Desktop Portable
i will test it , we could add to database
thanks

Telegram is portable by design, look at download pages for the portable version.

..

Latest version of Telegram- 1.1.0 (released on 2017.05.14) supports audio calls:

Telegram Calls are now available on desktops: secure, crystal-clear, constantly improved by artificial intelligence.

But the new extremely ugly material design with the hamburger menu discouraged me to upgrade, so I would rather dump Telegram than use such an ugliness on my desktop. Compare my old 0.9.56 version:



with the latest 1.1.0 version:



For me the new GUI is absolutely unbearable, even the title bar looks terrible.

And more- the developers close and lock issue pages where users have requested switching to the old design:

Back to the old design
Option to switch back from that new "material design".
(Windows) Titlebar color is too hard to distinguish

Since developers act arrogantly by closing issues pages and by responding rudely to users I decided that it would be a waste of time to express my opinion at these issue pages.

Telegram was once in my submission list but I removed it- I cannot tolerate GUI ugliness and developer arrogance.

Edit
I left a comment at GitHub and I think this is my final involvement with Telegram project.

Edit
Telegram - full change log:
https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdes ... ngelog.txt

I caught two articles from the same source about Telegram Desktop, one noting ways in which it's competing with Skype (which is great to see) and another on recent features added.

Based on the posts above I decided to play with Telegram.

smaragdus wrote:There is another open-source, not portable Telegram client called Cutegram

So far not thrilled versus other tools I tried, I dug into Cutegram a bit. It looks like the main goal of this project was to "make a better, native, more linux compatible and easy to use telegram client for linux desktop and users" although there are clients for every OS. Softpedia meanwhile suggests that it's a better, more customizable user interface.

Update here ... so it does look like the program is natively portable and it's fairly easy to update by just swapping out the EXE file.

Unfortunately the program STILL relies on a phone number but I was able to determine that you could use one phone number across multiple devices. So essentially you can send files back and forth between your computer and your phone. I assumed that but with a lot of these security-enabled devices, I have to wonder.

Russia’s Encryption War: 1.8m Google & Amazon IPs Blocked to Silence Telegram

Russia Blocks 50 VPNs & Anonymizers in Telegram Crackdown, Viber Next

I am a Telegram user -- mostly to get family pictures -- and I have watched this debacle expectantly.

OTOH, just knowing that the Russian state wants to silence Telegram works out as very good advertising for it.

Midas wrote: ↑Mon May 14, 2018 3:08 am OTOH, just knowing that the Russian state wants to silence Telegram works out as very good advertising for it.

It's an ongoing problem with these types of tools. If groups come out against them, they risk encouraging use of a program they can't touch. All you need is to run the program through a long list of VPN providers to re-enable it. It's difficult for any state actor to block *all* of them.

I do wonder if AdvTor would re-enable Telegram.