Telegram Desktop 7

Overview

Telegram Desktop is a full client rather than a phone mirror. It holds the entire message history locally and in the cloud, sends and receives files with no practical size limit, and works with the phone switched off. For anyone who moves large files between machines it has quietly become a transfer tool as much as a messenger, since a two gigabyte archive sent to a saved messages chat is available on every other device a few seconds later.

The build posted here is the standard client with the interface options that are normally hidden behind a debug flag exposed in a settings panel: chat folder behaviour, message text size beyond the usual range, custom notification sounds per chat, and the animation controls that make it usable on an old machine. Nothing about the protocol or the encryption is altered. There is a portable variant in the archive alongside the installer.

Messaging and history

History lives in the cloud, which means a new machine signs in and has every conversation immediately rather than starting empty. Search runs across the whole history including inside file names and captions, with filters for media type, sender and date range, and it is fast enough to be used as the primary way of finding an old file rather than scrolling.

Chats can be organised into folders with rules, so unread work conversations, muted groups and channels can be separated without leaving any of them. Messages can be edited after sending, scheduled for later, pinned, replied to individually inside a group, and forwarded with or without attribution. Drafts sync across devices mid sentence.

Files, media and groups

File sending has no practical size limit and no compression unless you ask for it, which is the reason it displaces other transfer methods. Images can be sent as compressed media or as original files, and the client remembers the choice per chat. Downloads run in a manager with a queue, a speed display and resumable transfers.

Groups scale to very large memberships with proper administration: permission sets per member, slow mode, message deletion history, and bots that handle moderation. Channels are one way broadcast with a comment thread attached. Both are searchable and both keep their full history for anyone who joins later, which is what makes them useful as archives.

Privacy, sessions and the local database

Secret chats are device to device rather than cloud stored, do not sync, and support self destructing messages with a timer. Everything else is cloud stored with server side encryption. The distinction matters and the client makes it visible rather than burying it.

The active session list shows every device signed in with its location and last activity, and any of them can be terminated from here. A local passcode can be set that locks the client itself and encrypts the local database, separate from the account password. In the portable variant the whole data folder sits next to the executable, which is what makes it usable from a stick without leaving anything on the machine.

What you get

• Full cloud message history available on any signed in device
• File sending with no practical size limit and optional uncompressed media
• Search across the entire history including file names and captions
• Chat folders with rules for separating work, muted and channel conversations
• Message editing, scheduling, pinning and per message replies in groups
• Download manager with a queue, speed display and resumable transfers
• Secret chats with device to device handling and self destruct timers
• Session list with per device termination and a local passcode with database encryption
• Portable variant included alongside the installer

Inside the archive

• Telegram Desktop 7 installer
• Portable variant with the data folder held alongside the executable
• Extended settings panel exposing the hidden interface options
• Language packs for the interface list shown above
• Notes describing the portable setup

System requirements

Installing it

1. Unpack the archive and choose either the installer or the portable folder.
2. For the portable variant, put the folder where you want the data to live. It writes nothing outside itself.
3. Run the client and sign in with your existing number.
4. Open settings and set the cache size limit, since the default will grow without bound on a busy account.
5. If the machine is old, turn animations down in the extended settings panel.

Mirrors

Release history

Questions about this release

Comments

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