Telegram - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum

ilovezano

i have a question about telegram.
i see you can download the telegram apk from https://telegram.org/android

do you download the telegram apk directly from telegram.org or do you use github
i found this repo: https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram
should i install this? is it official?
Is there a way to verify Telegram Foss? https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS

DeletedUser87

ilovezano neither, I use Mercurygram, a fork of the official Telegram client with all the naughty stuff removed.
Your repo is for the Telegram-non-FOSS client which relies on Google libraries to work.
Point 2: verify Telegram FOSS in what way?

ilovezano

Thanks a lot for the information, gonna check out mercurygram!

Point 2: to verify download with signer certificate hash SHA-256, when i download an apk with obtainium before installation, i verify it with AppVerifier, first compares with internal database which gives me status: success if found in internal database, then with the apksigner.jar i get the signer certificate hash SHA-256 and copy it to the clipboard. If the hash provided by me is the same as , Verification Status: success.

Thats why i ask, telegram-foss dont provide hash on github.
I checked mercurygram they dont provide hash either.

AppVerifier takes the app's package name and signing certificates hash(es) and compares them to the ones you provided or the ones in the internal database to verify that your apps are genuine.

Is it possible to create new telegram account in mercurygram?
i saw its not possible to create new account on telegram-foss version.

DeletedUser87

ilovezano I think if the dev doesn't provide a hash, you're out of luck since calculating it would require to compile and build the app yourself, at which point you don't need to verify it anymore. If you're after extreme levels of security, building it in Android Studio/CLI would be the next best thing.
As far as I know, creating new accounts is only possible in the official Telegram client. It surely isn't supported by Telegram FOSS and Mercurygram (they both state that on first launch). So I assume that other forks will suffer the same fate.

ilovezano

DeletedUser87

Thank you very much for your help and time. You helped me alot.