Like fully-fledged GUI clients, Telegram-cli lets you send, receive and read messages to/from your contacts, channels and groups. Nope, I’m just here to highlight an alternative way to use something that you may already use. Nor am I going to say that it is the most secure, or that using it through a Terminal app makes any sense when various mobile and desktop GUI apps are freely available. Telegram lets you send regular text messages, photos, videos and other files to other Telegram users, as well as initiate so-called ‘secret chats’ which are encrypted.įor the avoidance of doubt please note that I am not writing this post to persuade anyone that Telegram is ‘the best’ messaging service around. These factors have helped to make the service incredibly popular with open-source, privacy and Linux enthusiasts in particular. The service has a robust open API and puts a lot of emphasis on privacy, and offers a slate of mobile, web and desktop clients. Telegram is a sort of open, secure messaging service that runs in the cloud. I rely on a ropey 4G tether (complete with 750MB data cap) which means data-nimble tools help me stay connected, even when the connection isn’t great. It’s something I’m keen to write about because the Wi-Fi in the coffee shop I regularly visit is a bit… Well, it’s a big like coffee shop Wi-Fi! All weekend I’ve been itching to write about telegram-cli, a command-line interface to the Telegram messaging service.

Telegram for ubuntu