I use it for y'know, messaging
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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Remember, it's a cloud messenger, not a secure messenger. It's cool to have all chats on every device, but by default, they are unencrypted. I message there, too, but only nonsense.
I'm not saying Telegram is perfect by a long shot, and they've made some questionable decisions around crypto and paid-for services, but it grinds my gears when people suggest that it's "unencrypted".
E2E encryption means that yours and the other person's device are the only ones that have the keys for decryption and are typically the only places where chats are stored.* The conversation is secured end-to-end.
Telegram has the master copies of your chats on their servers to enable certain extra functionality that you can't get with E2E messengers, but it does not mean that the data is stored or transmitted unencrypted. The data at rest is encrypted and it's encrypted when it travels to and from your device.
Sure, there's the argument that governments could compel Telegram to hand over the keys to your chats, but considering that the platform is outright banned in more than one country with questionable regimes, it's reasonable to conclude that they don't give in to such demands. Honestly, if your government wanted copies of your chats so badly it'd be far easier for them to go through you and your device directly, and then no amount of E2E encryption is going to help you.
All that said, Telegram does actually have E2E encryption in the form of Secret Chats which, while having no method of backup, allows you to have two very different conversations with the same person and provides a level of plausible deniability that E2E only platforms cannot.
*Until you or the other party chooses to export a plain-text backup and store it on Google Drive where it's far easier for governments to subpoena. I'm looking at you, WhatsApp.
It's fast, supports sending large uncompressed files, has fun stickers and great UI
It's a great messenger really, just not E2E encrypted. I'd happily use Signal too but most people don't care about the E2E encryption advantage and prefer Tele
It's good for instant messaging
How do you use it for bots?
Search for botfather.
It creates an API token and in combination with my own telegramID I get notifications from services like uptime-kuma or watchtower.
I'm ignorant to all of this, what's the purpose of bots? How are they used?
Relay notifications or/and messages, and other useful functions, like automated control of your home server and other electronics like vacuum robot and such from places with bad connection, also automated fetch of information you need, like timesheet or news you follow or state of your home and this is just fraction of use cases the only limiter is your imagination
And this is best done through telegram?
It's very effective for sysadmins if you want to get real time notifications about server stats. The possibility are endless because you could push everything with curl from commandline or cron. For example why not get informations about SSH login attempts or CPU usage or unattended upgrade logs?
I started using it for the Android development community. Then for messaging.
Now only for bots 😔
I love the functionality of TG. It has it all. Add bots in the mix an you have a powerful chat. Would like it to be a bit more trustworthy and E2EE by default.
Me: Used Telegram for drugs, but it turned into the most deplorable fascist shithole you ever did see.
I only use it for drugs