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Telegram-FOSS-Team
Telegram-FOSS
Java2015–2024
Telegram-FOSS-Team / Telegram-FOSS

Telegram-FOSS

Unofficial, FOSS-friendly fork of the original Telegram client for Android

Mobile & DesktopCommunication & Social
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
18Distinct people
25Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
3.3KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Unofficial, FOSS-friendly fork of the original Telegram client for Android

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year25 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2015-06-24 21:06:43 UTC to 2024-05-09 00:15:17 UTC.

024682015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20152016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments20192020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 8 mentions; 0 submissions, 8 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 0 submissions, 6 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC808
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC606
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

25 sources
thomas34298·May 9, 2024
>Unlike Telegram, Signal doesn’t allow researchers to make sure that their GitHub code is the same code that is used in the Signal app run on users’ iPhones. I remember Telegram not publishing their Android source code for extended periods of time, which caused Telegram-FOSS to be significantly behind: https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/issues/1... I'm not up to date on the current state of affairs, but I hope this has improved since then.
In Telegram founder claims Signal has a US government backdoor
kyrra·Dec 6, 2023
It is driven entirely by battery life. Android used to allow 3rd party apps to receive push notifications, and it caused battery life to be terrible compared to Apple. Forcing a single path was done for that reason. Btw, here's the telegram team complaining about the change: https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/blob/mas... Facebook abused this a bunch. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/01/uninstall...
In Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
cookiengineer·Feb 2, 2021
As always, I would recommend to use an AOSP build without google service integration (like LineageOS builds). I'd also recommend to use AppWarden [1] and the Exodus project [2] to verify for yourself what your Apps do behind the scenes. Regarding an App masquerading as Telegram: Use the Telegram FOSS fork [3] which disables Firebase's trackers. [1] https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AppWarden [2] https://exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ [3] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS
In Investigation Xoth: Smartphone location tracking
circularfoyers·Jan 5, 2021
I wouldn't call it helplessly outdated, at most it's a version behind. But there's a number of reasons for this. For starters Telegram themselves lag behind in releasing the source code for the app[1]. Then the volunteers who make the FOSS version[2] have to update their fork and make sure it works. Then finally it's submitted to F-Droid, where it's compiled by their build servers (of which the build process occasionally breaks and needs to be fixed). I think the assurances that this offers (entirely FOSS, reproducible builds, better privacy and security[3]) outweighs being sometimes days or weeks behind the releases they upload to the Google Play Store. [1] https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram [2] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS [3] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS#changes
In Telegram publishes users' locations online
est31·Jan 5, 2021
I can't find the feature at the described location either, but apparently if you go to contacts there is a "find people nearby" button. If I click it it asks me to share the location, which I have disabled. So I guess I'm safe? It's mentioned in this changelog item: https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/blob/847... It usually takes some time for Telegram to be published on F-Droid, so the newest version on F-Droid is 7.2.1 while the newest one on Android is 7.3.1. It might contain such a menu on the newer version like in that screenshot. Or the button only appears at that place if you have enabled location sharing.
In Telegram publishes users' locations online
cookiengineer·Dec 16, 2020
I tend to disagree with your statements. The codebases provide enough evidence that this is not the case. > - Leanplum seems to be there for A/B testing and doesn't have access to anything sensitive. Leanplum has access to at least geolocation and the device id (See [1]), due to their geofencing A/B testing feature. Combine that with an IP and you can uniquely identify any user. Additionally, Leanplum sends its messages via their own Firebase Provider [2]. > - Firebase is partially unavoidable (GCM) Firebase Push Notifications are necessary since Android 10, and only if your application consistently runs in the background. If you have e.g. a download notification with a high priority displayed, your app is allowed to continue to run without any firebase, at all. Source: The Telegram FOSS fork does this, actually. See [3] for details > - G
Read the rest
oogle Safe Browsing seems to be designed in a way that makes it nearly impossible to violate privacy, even if you wanted to. Okay, now it's time to refine this in context of "Firefox Klar", "Firefox Focus" or say, the Fenix codebase(s). I'm focussing on Fenix here only, because all current Firefox products for mobile rely on it as an engine. (Usually the same metrics are included in Firefox for Desktop, too, but this post would explode this comment; see spywarewatchdog or similar audits for more details on it, which still hasn't been improved over the years by mozilla.) - Mozilla implemented their own ads distribution system that hijacks google ads on pages and replaces the id with the one that was specifically generated for the web browser (after first opening the web browser) [4]. - Mozilla's Safebrowsing uses a generated hash, that is used specifically to identify a single device [5]. - The server for both of those hash URLs is hosted by Alibaba in CHINA, which is certainly a GDPR "violation by the book", as the server is contacted for everyone, not only people that live within China; every time the Browser is online again; even in an interval. (also [5]) - Fenix also adds Tab interactions and sends the data to their telemetry service; including the URL and history of that specific tab [6] > On top of that, FF takes extra measures to protect privacy "just in case". As my links prove: No, they don't. For example, they activate Leanplum's device id specific tracking even if the user is outside the geofences, so they track users even if they already know it's unnecessary. [7] ========= [1] https://github.com/Leanplum/Leanplum-Android-SDK (especially the AndroidSdkCore is relevant here, assuming the discussion of the "most privacy respecting" featureset) [2] https://github.com/Leanplum/Leanplum-Android-SDK/blob/master... [3] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/blob/mas... [4] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/blob/5ad714db864bce7... [5] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/blob/686f7bd7c65cbaa... [6] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/blob/556fea5591acbde... [7] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/blob/41a92a8d8b31644...
In Our Year in Review: How We’ve Made Firefox Faster in 2020
LukeShu·Dec 8, 2020
Because I don't have Google's services on my phone, I have two always-visible notifications that never go away: "Telegram" / "Push service: tap to learn more" (tapping opens https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/blob/mas...) "Signal" / "Background connection enabled" Both are serving the same purpose, for different apps. Even before we get to network connections and servers (the things that might make sense to be proprietary), without Google's ecosystem the local side has a bad UX and requires hacks.
In Expanding Fuchsia's open source model
cookiengineer·Nov 30, 2020
I kinda agree with the sentiment in the articles from an AOSP/lineage/cyanogen perspective. They should definitely embrace the Telegram FOSS fork [1] and OSMAnd~ [2] (which is a superb offline navigation tool btw) and remove all Apps that require the Android 10 firebase hockey-based notifications. [5] and [6] A lot of apps use this for convenience and because it was _required_ since AOSP 10 but there are ways to work around that requirement with a high priority notification. I would additionally recommend to use AppWarden [3] and Blokada [4], because both are amazing additions for an Android device. Firefox for Android, though, is still a nightmare with all the telemetry. The old TOR Browser 9.5 series is based on old Firefox pre-quantum, 10 is based on Firefox post-quantum. The issue with current Firefox and TOR Browser is that Mozilla d
Read the rest
ecided to include the Adjust-, Firebase- and LeanPlum-SDK which introduce now more user tracking than ever before. You'll even sometimes see different A/B UIs based on your browsing behavior (not kidding) and geolocation, and of course this happens more often with Orbot being used as a Proxy. (You can verify this via AppWarden if you don't trust me) [1] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS [2] https://github.com/osmandapp/OsmAnd [3] https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AppWarden/ [4] https://github.com/blokadaorg [5] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/blob/mas... [6] https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/ba...
In E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

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