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Telegram Web Apps for Bots

core.telegram.org

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Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#51

Post by justsomehnguy »

plonq wrote: post #43
justsomehnguy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are privacy settings, you know? Did you set every option to 'Nobody' or 'My contacts only'?

I’m not the other person, but there’s no privacy setting for normal messages, in the iOS version at least. So it’s impossible to block messages from randoms.

Yes, because most people actually want to be reached by people who are yet not in the contacts.

The only way to do so is to have a username or phone number of recipient. Usernames are searchable if they are "Public Usernames". Phone number could be hidden from anyone.

I don't see how someone can contact somebody on the messenger yet without an ability to.. actually send a message. Sure, there could be an option to block everyone not in the contact list and use some other medium to relay the contact request[0] but most of the time this is useless for messenger.

But of course I have my POV skewed, because I prefer to use services defensively from the start so I had almost no unsolicited messages on Telegram, WhatsApp and Instagram.

[0] Hey, if you interested in $TOPIC contact me on Telegram, @username! But first send a couple of avian carriers with your phone number and username so I could add you to contacts first!

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#52

Post by ohgodplsno »

stavros wrote: post #42
dotancohen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why your account is attacked by spam so often. Conversely, I've never had any account get so little spam as my Telegram account. My email gets literally dozens of spam mails per day. Telegram, I'd say less than once per month. Exactly yesterday I thought that I got a spam message, it turns out that the sender is a SpaceX fan and a real interesting human, not the crypto-pushing bot that I had suspected at fir…

> Conversely, I've never had any account get so little spam as my Telegram account. I don't get that much spam in Telegram either, but this must be an exaggeration. My WhatsApp and Signal accounts get completely zero spam.

My five year old Telegram account has received exactly zero spam messages in my entire time there. Being a country that actually punishes companies for selling your phone number and personal information without your consent makes everything more pleasant.

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#53

Post by stavros »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #52
stavros wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Conversely, I've never had any account get so little spam as my Telegram account. I don't get that much spam in Telegram either, but this must be an exaggeration. My WhatsApp and Signal accounts get completely zero spam.

My five year old Telegram account has received exactly zero spam messages in my entire time there. Being a country that actually punishes companies for selling your phone number and personal information without your consent makes everything more pleasant.

I mostly get them from people finding me from my group chats, really. I don't think Telegram shows my number to people (or has it), so I don't tend to get spam that way.

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#54

Post by giovannibonetti »

Version467 wrote: post #30
lysecret wrote: post #24

The first thing you realise when you start playing with LLMs and want to build a product around it is that you might not need a UI anymore but a text interface might be at the same time easier to build and much more intuitive. In this case the messengers have a big opportunity to become the next big platform. Telegram seems to be the one with the best apis. This shift might even make it possible to create a new messe…

This was my immediate thought when they released chatgpt plugins. They had this little demo where it generated a recipe, pulled the calories from wolfram alpha and then generated a one click to order link for doordash. It's no stretch of the imagination that this will replace many, if not most app ui's. For the time being there's still some programs that are much better off with a dedicated interface, but the future…

> Messenger apps like telegram do have an opportunity here, but I think the most likely way for this to play out is that apple and google will eventually make their assistants the front and center way of interacting with your phone

Wasn't the Allo app supposed to do that?

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#55

Post by AdrenalinMd »

0xy wrote: post #15
Moldoteck wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And by default chats are not e2e encrypted. And even if you want e2e, it's not syncing between devices. Also groups are not e2e. Signal is cooler for encryption, heck, even fb messenger or Whatsapp. Featurewise yes, telegram is miles ahead

WhatsApp backs up your encryption key to Google Drive by default, meaning it's far from end-to-end encryption. It's more like end-to-Google-to-end. If you choose to decline this default, your conversation partners probably haven't. Signal had a catastrophic bug that would send random images in your camera roll to random contacts. If you want your private photos sent to your family members, use Signal I guess.

>WhatsApp backs up your encryption key to Google Drive by default, meaning it's far from end-to-end encryption.

This is a lie[1]. If you don't enable backups yourself, you loose your messages. You can enable E2E encryption for your backups.

WhatsApp is vastly superior to Telegram in terms of E2E encryption. Telegram can read users messages on their servers and they are not even trying to tell their users to enable E2E.

[1] https://www.tomsguide.com/news/whatsapp-encrypted-backups

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#56

Post by bottom999mottob »

Version467 wrote: post #30
lysecret wrote: post #24

The first thing you realise when you start playing with LLMs and want to build a product around it is that you might not need a UI anymore but a text interface might be at the same time easier to build and much more intuitive. In this case the messengers have a big opportunity to become the next big platform. Telegram seems to be the one with the best apis. This shift might even make it possible to create a new messe…

This was my immediate thought when they released chatgpt plugins. They had this little demo where it generated a recipe, pulled the calories from wolfram alpha and then generated a one click to order link for doordash. It's no stretch of the imagination that this will replace many, if not most app ui's. For the time being there's still some programs that are much better off with a dedicated interface, but the future…

101% chance Apple puts Siri's brother Shrini in iMessage as a default option. I'm calling it now

Now Google... put em in Gmail and Calendar webapps as a sidebar integration and a big-ass button on mobile

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#57

Post by ajsnigrutin »

xeonax wrote: post #49

I have been using Telegram as my game server administrator. It gives me realtime updates about important activities from my players, As well as I can change settings directly from my mobile. Or start a new event.

I use telegram for monitoring many services.... one botfather command, you get an api key and one curl command to send a message. Service restarted, server rebooted, low ram, low disk space, temperature too high, etc., everything comes to telegram.

"Back in the time" I would've used email for that, but if you don't run your own server, getting a free email address that doesn't either need a phone number verification, doesn't get banned for random reasons or doesn't stop working suddenly, because it decided it needed 2 factor authenticaion is practically impossible.

(btw, if anyone knows a service, that gives you a free email address (well, more than one) with smtp access, no phone number or any other verification and doesn't ban accounts after a few automated messages, please tell.. I don't care about getting marked as spam, I can whitelist it on my side)

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#58

Post by mattrighetti »

Bots are super useful on Telegram. It’s probably the only thing that I miss on other platforms. I have a pretty successful one that interacts with libgen and I couldn’t live without it! The chat layout also becomes a super useful feature in a lot of cases, especially when you want to keep track of history data like past searches.

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#59

Post by xkfiebfifbek »

lysecret wrote: post #24

The first thing you realise when you start playing with LLMs and want to build a product around it is that you might not need a UI anymore but a text interface might be at the same time easier to build and much more intuitive. In this case the messengers have a big opportunity to become the next big platform. Telegram seems to be the one with the best apis. This shift might even make it possible to create a new messe…

sound logic. google circles should have taken on Facebook too.

but no matter how good the api is if you must install something worse to talk to your friends.

IM applications are the new socialnetworks, and as such will be decided by network effect, everything else will be a consequence.

so, the best solution is the one that can be shoehorned into the whatever api quality the top IM application offers, which is not telegram

Re: Telegram Web Apps for Bots

#60

Post by AdrenalinMd »

Be cautious when using Telegram for important matters.

I recently examined a situation where confidential messages from high-ranking Moldovan officials were leaked through Telegram. Unlike WhatsApp and Signal, which offer end-to-end encryption by default, protecting your messages even in case of a SIM swap, Telegram does not offer the same level of security. A SIM swap or a breach in their system can lead to message leaks.

Despite advertising themselves as a "secure messaging" platform, Telegram lacks default end-to-end encryption, making it less secure than its competitors.

Read this excellent thread from Moxie https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1474067549574688768

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