I'd also recommend Telegram.
Whether or not secret (end-to-end encrypted) chats are implemented is up to the client's author.
Not having secret chats in Telegram Desktop was a decision of the author - https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/5
They work in cutegram (qt based client. OS X, Linux, Windows, OpenBSD, Arch AUR, etc) - http://aseman.co/en/products/cutegram/
They work in the pidgin plugin (which works on all of the platforms supported by Pidgin) - https://github.com/majn/telegram-purple#readme
They also work in telegram CLI (which many bots are based on) - https://github.com/vysheng/tg
In Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and native clients?telegramdesktop
tdesktop
C++2015–2026
telegramdesktop / tdesktop
tdesktop
Telegram Desktop messaging app
51Distinct people
62Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
33.5KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Telegram Desktop messaging app
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I love Desktop Telegram for many reasons but mostly because it's Open Source: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop
hu3 used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- drklo/telegram · linked in 4 of the same discussions
- overtake/telegramswift · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- zhukov/webogram · linked in 3 of the same 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, 11:00:58 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 year62 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2015-12-01 17:37:31 UTC to 2026-05-28 10:11:15 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 0 | 11 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 0 | 11 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 16 | 1 | 15 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Telegram Desktop – Official Messenger
This is the complete source code and the build instructions for the official Telegram messenger desktop client, based on the Telegram API and the MTProto secure protocol.
The source code is published under GPLv3 with OpenSSL exception, the license is available here.
Supported systems
The latest version is available for
Windows 7 and above (64 bit) (portable)
Windows 7 and above (32 bit) (portable)
macOS 10.13 and above
Linux static build for 64 bit
Snap
Flatpak
Old system versions
Version 4.9.9 was the last that supports older systems
macOS 10.12
Linux with glibc < 2.28 static build
Version 2.4.4 was the last that supports older systems
OS X 10.10 and 10.11
Linux static build for 32 bit
Version 1.8.15 was the last that supports older systems
Windows XP and Vista (portable)
OS X 10.8 and 10.9
OS X 10.6 and 10.7
Third-party
Qt 6 (LGPL) and Qt 5.15 (LGPL) slightly patched
OpenSSL 3.2.1 (Apache License 2.0)
WebRTC (New BSD License)
zlib (zlib License)
LZMA SDK 9.20 (public domain)
liblzma (public domain)
Google Breakpad (License)
Google Crashpad (Apache License 2.0)
GYP (BSD License)
Ninja (Apache License 2.0)
OpenAL Soft (LGPL)
Opus codec (BSD License)
FFmpeg (LGPL)
Guideline Support Library (MIT License)
Range-v3 (Boost License)
Open Sans font (Apache License 2.0)
Vazirmatn font (SIL Open Font License 1.1)
Emoji alpha codes (MIT License)
xxHash (BSD License)
QR Code generator (MIT License)
CMake (New BSD License)
Hunspell (LGPL)
Ada (Apache License 2.0)
zxcvbn-c (MIT License)
FrequencyWords by Hermit Dave (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0)
Build instructions
Windows (32-bit and 64-bit)
macOS
GNU/Linux using Docker
Thanks to
CI infrastructure sponsored by Depot — fast GitHub Actions runners.
Read the full README on GitHub