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.
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!
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.
Why is native better than browser application? Browser application is by definition better sandboxed and can do much less damage to the system.
Normal application can do mayhem. And Telegram needs root access for installation... do I want to give it root access? When I can just open another tab?
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.
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.
1. They don't claim to do end to end crypto unless you use the secret chats
2. The secret chats still aren't broken. Since 2013, I'd think at least one "crypto expert" (which all said a custom protocol was a bad idea) would have taken the effort to prove it by now.
3. Whatsapp claims to have better encryption, and they probably do, but it's 1) a lot less convenient and 2) unverifiable.
4. Telegram is open source. You can layer your own encryption on top of it if you care, and the clients' implementation is fully verifiable.
PSA: Whatsapp is dangerous snake oil--hidden source code and owned by a company with a terrible track record in terms of privacy.
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).
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.
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?
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) and channels. In Russia - telegram channels is now a new type of media, very popular with independent journalists, bloggers etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[+] [-] Philipp__|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Hamcha|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baldfat|9 years ago|reply
Awesome Electron Apps
+ VS Code (Which was light years ahead of Atom but that gap has narrowed)
+ RStudio
+ Discord
[+] [-] lqdc13|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekiara|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Karrot_Kream|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akjainaj|9 years ago|reply
This is the GitHub repo. 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.
[+] [-] runn1ng|9 years ago|reply
Why is native better than browser application? Browser application is by definition better sandboxed and can do much less damage to the system.
Normal application can do mayhem. And Telegram needs root access for installation... do I want to give it root access? When I can just open another tab?
[+] [-] Karrot_Kream|9 years ago|reply
Telegram hits a few sweet spots with me:
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|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notheguyouthink|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pawelwentpawel|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blauditore|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sneak|9 years ago|reply
Don't use it, don't let friends use it.
https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/81899003583181619...
https://twitter.com/kaepora/status/819181464369577984
https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/81919238137120358...
[+] [-] hn159753|9 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol
Edit: add link http://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-crypta...
[+] [-] lucb1e|9 years ago|reply
1. They don't claim to do end to end crypto unless you use the secret chats
2. The secret chats still aren't broken. Since 2013, I'd think at least one "crypto expert" (which all said a custom protocol was a bad idea) would have taken the effort to prove it by now.
3. Whatsapp claims to have better encryption, and they probably do, but it's 1) a lot less convenient and 2) unverifiable.
4. Telegram is open source. You can layer your own encryption on top of it if you care, and the clients' implementation is fully verifiable.
PSA: Whatsapp is dangerous snake oil--hidden source code and owned by a company with a terrible track record in terms of privacy.
[+] [-] raphaelh|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dolores12|9 years ago|reply
I switched from skype to telegram because of its much smaller memory footprint. 400mb+ for skype, 63mb(current) for telegram.
[+] [-] cygned|9 years ago|reply
- 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
[+] [-] nv-vn|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] konart|9 years ago|reply
Any number of any skins, actually. Themes.
[+] [-] newscracker|9 years ago|reply
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
[2]: https://whispersystems.org
[+] [-] wowtip|9 years ago|reply
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|9 years ago|reply
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) and channels. In Russia - telegram channels is now a new type of media, very popular with independent journalists, bloggers etc.
[+] [-] KitDuncan|9 years ago|reply
No signup and no email required.
[+] [-] zamalek|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lucb1e|9 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] mostafah|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r721|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nv-vn|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yarauuta|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kennu|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rnhmjoj|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] berns|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sergimansilla|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] sergimansilla|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajoy|9 years ago|reply
To those who think privacy does not matter : http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters
[+] [-] electic|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robinhood|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] konart|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lightedman|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lightedman|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wslh|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leoreeves|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtgx|9 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] clishem|9 years ago|reply
Not there yet privacy-wise as others point out, but at least you get an open API and the ability to use your own clients.
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] vially|9 years ago|reply
[1] - https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/277
[+] [-] edem|9 years ago|reply