Its mainly used on cell phones, but it does have desktop clients, too.
Heres how to install it on Linux.
The Telegram Client, Security, and Privacy
Privacy and security are two different things.
Security is one of the tools you’re able to use to maintain your privacy.
Another tool it’s possible for you to use is making wise choices.
Its no secret that if an online service is free, its because you are the product.
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
The price for using the service is hidden in their terms and conditions.
At its least sinister, the data profiling is used totarget you with advertising.
But thats not always the case.
One famous example is theCambridge Analytica scandal.
Obviously, which platforms you sign up to is vitally important.
Telegramhas end-to-end encryption, implemented using their own protocol.
This isnt open source (unlike Signals encryption protocol) so it hasnt been reviewed by anyone but Telegram.
Also, messages arent encrypted by default.
you better use the secret chat feature if you want that level of protection.
Developers can create small in-app services called bots.
Telegram gathers more data than Signal does, but considerably less than WhatsApp does.
you could see what data Telegram gathers and how they use that data in theirPrivacy Policy.
Related:What is Telegram and Why Should You Try It?
But even that option seems to have been removed now.
We did this, and the version installed was Telegram 4.9.
At the time of writing, this was thelatest version available.
That doesnt seem to be the case here.
Now, we can issue the command to drop in the Telegram desktop client.
Press the Super key on your keyboard.
Usually, this is the one between the left-hand Ctrl and Alt keys.
In the GNOME search bar, start to throw in Telegram and youll see the Telegram icon appear.
choose the icon to launch Telegram.
If you right-click it, you could select Add to Favorites to have Telegram added to your dock.
When Telegram launches, you’re able to connect to your existing Telegram account.
hit the blue Start Messaging button to begin.
Theres a free and a non-free repository.
We need to enable them both.
Now we can use dnf to drop in the desktop client.
The version we installed was 4.9, which was bang up to date at the time of our tests.
Installing Telegram as a Snap
Installing Telegram Desktop from the Ubuntu Software store installsa Snap.
The publisher of the Snap is Telegram itself.
Scrolling down through the (rather long) description we find the version number.
That is, as long as you have the flatpak system installed.
To implement the Flatpak version of the Telegraph desktop client, use this command.
As with the Snap version, the Flatpak contained the current latest version of Telegram.
Related:What is a Flatpak in Linux and How Do You Install One?
Change into the directory you downloaded the file to.
If youve kept your browsers defaults, this will usually be your Downloads directory.
Check what the file name is.
The numbers are the version number of the Telegram desktop client.
The file is acompressed archive file, so well need to unpack it.
We can do this with the tar command.
see to it you use the correct filename for your download.
You could usetab completionto ensure the filename is correct in the command.
Well create a new directory called telegram inside the /opt directory, and put the extracted files in there.
Lets try it out.
The Telegram desktop client starts, and its icon appears in the dock.
