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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

Yes this is a Telegram client and yes it will break the Lemmy's downvote world record but I still find this one very nice and "actively" maintained. There are not many good Telegram FOSS forks without Google integrations and similar stuff out there.

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[-] Engywuck@lemm.ee 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Looks interesting. I don't fully understand how unified push works, though. I'm I right in reading that the author have set up an UP server themselves?

Yes this is a Telegram client and yes it will break the Lemmy’s downvote world record

Because most people live in a echo chamber. Just ignore them.

[-] Shamot@jlai.lu 4 points 4 months ago

Thank you for your comment. Since I deactivated Google Play services, I don't get notifications on many apps. I didn't know there were alternatives. Unfortunately, the app server must be compatible, but if I can have it at least for Telegram with this fork, it would be a good start. I'll take time to compare the different alternatives and see if other push servers are compatible with more apps.

For what I understand, there are self hosted push servers, like NextPush that works on Nextcloud, and some that provide you a server, liked ntfy. For the latter, you have to check the privacy policy to see if it's better than the default Google firebase server.

[-] dingdongitsabear@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 months ago

do any of these forks support E2EE? I don't mean the OG "private chat" thingy that Telegram supports.

I mean like an add-on, the way pidgin had an OTR plugin that enabled private comms over Google's unencrypted XMPP servers.

as a consequence, that would also encrypt everything in the cloud and prevent your chat history being ingested for LLM training and whatnot.

[-] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 months ago

That would require the other user to use the same app as you right? Could be interesting.

[-] wurstgulasch3000@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

At that point why not use a different app that supports E2EE natively?

[-] dingdongitsabear@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

because Telegram's UI/UX is second to none; possibly iMessage or whatever it's called is close, albeit with way limited functionality. Signal and friends look like a PoC from 2015 in comparison. also the apps, on mobile and on desktop, have a low memory footprint with no bloated electron crap, the cross-device sync is phenomenal and there's the virtually unlimited cloud storage. if an addon could piggyback off of that, that would be spectacular.

however, OP's insight as to this being against ToS is obviously a deal breaker. seeing as how they're adamant about leaving all your shit unencrypted in the cloud I'm looking for other havens, begrudgingly; I've been a user from the early days.

[-] semperverus@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The options are basically:

Matrix if you want a Discord-like experience

XMPP if you want a whatsapp/google talk like experience (both of those are based on XMPP)

Signal if you want hyper-secure chat and don't mind some mild inconveniences in things like registration or desktop apps.

All three support or can support E2EE.

[-] dingdongitsabear@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

well yeah, just a simple private/public key solution for encrypting chat and cloud. transfer your private key to a forked desktop app and access your encrypted chat history from there as well.

just basic stuff, not something for people running from nation-state actors, but to prevent LLM ingestion and mass surveilance. but OP says that's against Telegram's ToS, so no dice here.

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago

E2EE is prohibited by Telegram's TOS (you can't make any feature that requires users to use your client to access it).

[-] nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br 3 points 4 months ago

Whoa, they not only won't implement it, but will work on not letting anyone else do it. They're more shady than I thought.

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

They're not shady. They just don't want to lose the market share and I think if they made Telegram really secure, there'd be even more illegal stuff on it and the government wouldn't like it.

[-] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

"They're not shady." Begins to describe the shady shit they do

[-] timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

How is it "shady" to not want to lose market share and keep illegal stuff off of it?

You could argue it's "shitty" (perhaps, but it is their servers after all) but I don't find it shady.

[-] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

How is it "shady" to not want to lose market share and keep illegal stuff off of it?

Market share shouldn't be a concern with encrypted chat. If it is then I don't trust it.

If you're making an encrypted chat, you're going to have illegal things on it. If only the chat owners have the keys then that shouldn't be the server owners concern.

[-] semperverus@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I would strongly recommend libaxolotl/OMEMO over OTR, far stronger algorithm.

[-] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 months ago

I used this client recently and found it decent. Though for some reason, Google Play Protect always(wrongly I assume) picks it out despite downloading from F Droid.

[-] American_Jesus@lemm.ee 6 points 4 months ago
[-] ashaman2007@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

What are you using for the Unified Push setup? I tried using ntfy and could never get notifications to come through on GrapheneOS

[-] kosmoz@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

I use ntfy and have no problems. It's very reliable. No idea about graphene though

[-] Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 months ago

Have you tried changing server? The default server is overworked.

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

I use LineageOS without any gapps and notifications often work.

[-] featured@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 4 months ago

I use ntfy on graphene and it works just fine. I had to fully disable battery optimizations but that was it

[-] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 months ago

What's the difference between this and Materialgram?

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago
  1. Materialgram is for desktop and this one is for Android.
  2. Mercurygram is based on the Telegram FOSS project that removes proprietary bits from the client, making it more privacy-respecting.
  3. Mercurygram adds some new features that stock Telegram doesn't have (though idk anything about them because I'm not a power user).
[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 4 months ago

Does it have tools to easily remove deleted accounts from groups? Or selecting several contacts from your contact list and deleting them? Because those are big features missing from telegram

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 0 points 4 months ago

I think you want a CLI client for that.

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago

For the group thing, I would expect at least a way to search/filter those accounts while looking at the group's participants, even if I do have to manually remove them. Having to endlessly scroll a list with no apparent order is not fun.

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml -1 points 4 months ago

I'm not familiar with any clients that have the feature. Make that feature and a merge request yourself I guess.

this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
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