# Telegram Desktop 13 Hacker News commenters recommended Telegram Desktop and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended as a fast, light, feature-rich native client that beats web wrappers; the main caveat is security criticism over a file-theft vulnerability that took months to fix. ## Why people recommend it - Native client, not web wrapper (4 comments): "I do not use the inferior web client of telegram wrapped in electron but the real qt one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422284)) "actually feels smooth and feature rich rather than the webclient wrapper abominations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471505)) "really well-made Qt piece of software, snappy, feature-rich and multi-platform" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47662872)) - Fast and light (3 comments): "it's way ahead of what Whatsapp offers. Not to mention it's fast and relatively light." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45916451)) "I have never had a performance problem with telegram desktop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45912045)) "the native Windows app is incredibly good and fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45912668)) - Feature-rich, ahead of WhatsApp (3 comments): "it's way ahead of what Whatsapp offers. Not to mention it's fast and relatively light." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45916451)) "actually feels smooth and feature rich rather than the webclient wrapper abominations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471505)) "really well-made Qt piece of software, snappy, feature-rich and multi-platform" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47662872)) - Runs on many platforms (2 comments): "really well-made Qt piece of software, snappy, feature-rich and multi-platform" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47662872)) "Telegram desktop app works flawlessly on Mobian, PureOS, postmarketOS though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46756173)) ## What people warn about - Security flaws and weak sandboxing (4 comments): "Telegram is the worst offender I've seen. If you start digging through their apps, you see a ton of security practices that are anything but secure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033294)) "It could easily sandbox itself in the non-store distribution as well, yet the developers apparently choose not to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50030928)) "tricking Telegram into uploading your messages database to the attacker, leaking all your private conversations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50029929)) - Unsupported hidden features (3 comments): "that feature was officially unsupported on desktop and there was even some community effort to make a pull request with paid contributions totally ignored" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031744)) "an internal url scheme added to Telegram to... help them publish their releases on their channel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50029124)) "What was abused in the Telegram hack is a hidden feature that shouldn't have existed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50037404)) - Developers' choices feel suspicious (3 comments): "It could easily sandbox itself in the non-store distribution as well, yet the developers apparently choose not to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50030928)) "I'd never let the little oligarch's code touch my desktop OS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50030434)) "too many convenient mistakes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50035830)) - Slow vulnerability fix (2 comments): "It looks very bad that Telegram took almost 3 months to fix this vulnerability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031216)) "it's not like Telegram can blame the OS for this vulnerability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50029886)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Discord](https://hackerapproved.com/p/discord.md): 400 recommend - [Telegram](https://hackerapproved.com/p/telegram.md): 229 recommend - [WeChat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wechat.md): 14 recommend - [WhatsApp for Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/whatsapp-for-windows.md): 10 recommend - [LINE messaging app](https://hackerapproved.com/p/line.md): 8 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Telegram Desktop", https://hackerapproved.com/p/telegram-desktop/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).