TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client • Hacker News Board

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#71

Post by hjek » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:19 PM UTC

marknadal wrote: post #61

kemonocode wrote: post #38

Unless they release the server code, no, you can't build your own "Telegram" yet. The original article's title was misleading, thankfully the HN submission title was amended to correct it. Still useful of course for anyone creating third-party clients, but an entirely different matter.

Aye aye! Both Telegram and Signal scare me. We're building an MIT/ZLIB/Apache2 Open Source End-to-End Encrypted alternative that is a fully P2P decentralized app (dApp), see: https://hackernoon.com/so-you-want-to-build-a-p2p-twitter-wi... ! Currently it supports signed/verified messages, haven't added cyphered/private messages yet to the API, but it is available in the SEA (Security, Encryption, Authorization) utilit…

Tox is also worth checking out. Decentralized, supports video calls, and you're automagically given an ID without having to provide any personal data. https://tox.chat

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#72

Post by JensRex » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:22 PM UTC

jhasse wrote: post #53

andrepd wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is Signal and at least that is secure.

Signal is missing too many convenient features though, e.g. editing messages.

And a desktop app that isn't Electron trash.

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#73

Post by bqe » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:52 PM UTC

marknadal wrote: post #61

kemonocode wrote: post #38

Unless they release the server code, no, you can't build your own "Telegram" yet. The original article's title was misleading, thankfully the HN submission title was amended to correct it. Still useful of course for anyone creating third-party clients, but an entirely different matter.

Aye aye! Both Telegram and Signal scare me. We're building an MIT/ZLIB/Apache2 Open Source End-to-End Encrypted alternative that is a fully P2P decentralized app (dApp), see: https://hackernoon.com/so-you-want-to-build-a-p2p-twitter-wi... ! Currently it supports signed/verified messages, haven't added cyphered/private messages yet to the API, but it is available in the SEA (Security, Encryption, Authorization) utilit…

Why does Signal scare you? All of their code is open source[1] and has had multiple public audits[2].

[1]: https://github.com/signalapp

[2]: https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1013.pdf

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#74

Post by paule89 » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

marknadal wrote: post #61

kemonocode wrote: post #38

Unless they release the server code, no, you can't build your own "Telegram" yet. The original article's title was misleading, thankfully the HN submission title was amended to correct it. Still useful of course for anyone creating third-party clients, but an entirely different matter.

Aye aye! Both Telegram and Signal scare me. We're building an MIT/ZLIB/Apache2 Open Source End-to-End Encrypted alternative that is a fully P2P decentralized app (dApp), see: https://hackernoon.com/so-you-want-to-build-a-p2p-twitter-wi... ! Currently it supports signed/verified messages, haven't added cyphered/private messages yet to the API, but it is available in the SEA (Security, Encryption, Authorization) utilit…

In my opinion your top priority should be to make every message e2e encrypted between sender and recipient. Else your idea is just as useless as telegram

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#75

Post by jamesb93 » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

aneutron wrote: post #17

rplnt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually positively surprised to see the Telegram application is qt based. Not sure which one is it of the two you mention, it's just called "Telegram", and is same on both Windows and OSX. Explains why it doesn't take a minute to start and doesn't need a gigabyte of memory.

Also, I was very surprised to see that it was really QT based in the sense that there was no glue to an attached Chromium or something, just pure QT in C++. The effort that went into that thing is amazing. It's fast on my 5 years old Pentium.

Which one should I be using? MacOS specific one feels polished whereas the Telegram for Desktop one doesn't have this strange issue where media sometimes never sends.

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#76

Post by jamesb93 » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 8:45 PM UTC

morganvachon wrote: post #27

andrepd wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is Signal and at least that is secure.

And once again, if I need that kind of security I'll seek it out. Telegram is more secure than email and SMS, and more convenient for my use case.

Signal is not feature rich and harder to get people to use. It also lacks the desktop/laptop integration.

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#77

Post by jamesb93 » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 8:47 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #25

Anon1096 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well for me, I prefer the way telegram has decided to handle end to end encryption. Let's face it - me and my friends have no use for it, and never will. Our threat model just doesn't really care about actors like the NSA hacking us. If they wanted there's tons of other ways to get our information any (like Google or Facebook accounts). But not being encrypted gives us features not possible otherwise, like url prefet…

Speak for yourself. I care about privacy, and I couldn't give a shit about something so minor as link prefetching. I suspect I'm far from alone.

And you're very welcome to use something that fits your threat model.

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#78

Post by codedokode » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 8:56 PM UTC

kemonocode wrote: post #38

Unless they release the server code, no, you can't build your own "Telegram" yet. The original article's title was misleading, thankfully the HN submission title was amended to correct it. Still useful of course for anyone creating third-party clients, but an entirely different matter.

The client-server protocol is published. What stops you from writing your own server implementation?

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#79

Post by drdaeman » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 9:09 PM UTC

igloofoo wrote: post #62

There may be political motive to this. Why is Telegram X issued by "Telegram Messenger LLP" while the original Telegram is issued by "Telegram LLC"? Telegram LLC, which issues the original Telegram app on the App Store has been undergoing litigation with regards to its ownership. It is based out of Russia and a company called UCP with Krelim ties who 'bought' VKontakte has been suing Durov for full Telegram ownership…

> Challegram, an open source Telegram client

Is this true? I can't find the source anywhere. Not even a dated one, if they had re-licensed it.

Re: TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

#80

Post by codedokode » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 9:10 PM UTC

bqe wrote: post #73

marknadal wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aye aye! Both Telegram and Signal scare me. We're building an MIT/ZLIB/Apache2 Open Source End-to-End Encrypted alternative that is a fully P2P decentralized app (dApp), see: https://hackernoon.com/so-you-want-to-build-a-p2p-twitter-wi... ! Currently it supports signed/verified messages, haven't added cyphered/private messages yet to the API, but it is available in the SEA (Security, Encryption, Authorization) utilit…

Why does Signal scare you? All of their code is open source[1] and has had multiple public audits[2]. [1]: https://github.com/signalapp [2]: https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1013.pdf

It requires you to provide a phone number (read disclose your identity) to use it. And its homepage has the word "privacy" repeated several times. It looks like a poor joke.