Telegram Desktop
Shares rank 24 of 48 messaging apps by recommenders
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.
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.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 54%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Native client, not web wrapper
“I do not use the inferior web client of telegram wrapped in electron but the real qt one.”
Comment from 6 Jun 2026 in “Ten Years of Franz” “actually feels smooth and feature rich rather than the webclient wrapper abominations”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop” “really well-made Qt piece of software, snappy, feature-rich and multi-platform”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold” - Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Meta Replaced the Native WhatsApp for Windows 11 with a Shitty Web App”
Fast and light
“it's way ahead of what Whatsapp offers. Not to mention it's fast and relatively light.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper” “I have never had a performance problem with telegram desktop”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper” “the native Windows app is incredibly good and fast”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper” Feature-rich, ahead of WhatsApp
“it's way ahead of what Whatsapp offers. Not to mention it's fast and relatively light.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper” “actually feels smooth and feature rich rather than the webclient wrapper abominations”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop” “really well-made Qt piece of software, snappy, feature-rich and multi-platform”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold” Runs on many platforms
“really well-made Qt piece of software, snappy, feature-rich and multi-platform”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold” “Telegram desktop app works flawlessly on Mobian, PureOS, postmarketOS though.”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Security flaws and weak sandboxing
“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.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” “It could easily sandbox itself in the non-store distribution as well, yet the developers apparently choose not to.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” “tricking Telegram into uploading your messages database to the attacker, leaking all your private conversations”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” - Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen”
Unsupported hidden features
“that feature was officially unsupported on desktop and there was even some community effort to make a pull request with paid contributions totally ignored”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” “an internal url scheme added to Telegram to... help them publish their releases on their channel”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” “What was abused in the Telegram hack is a hidden feature that shouldn't have existed”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” Developers' choices feel suspicious
“It could easily sandbox itself in the non-store distribution as well, yet the developers apparently choose not to.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” “I'd never let the little oligarch's code touch my desktop OS.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” “too many convenient mistakes”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” Slow vulnerability fix
“It looks very bad that Telegram took almost 3 months to fix this vulnerability.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen” “it's not like Telegram can blame the OS for this vulnerability”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Telegram Desktop vulnerability allowed any user's file to be stolen”
Other messaging apps people recommend
The four most recommended other messaging apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 48 messaging apps, rankedWhat people said
23 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“What was abused in the Telegram hack is a hidden feature that shouldn't have existed”
“too many convenient mistakes”
“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.”
“they regularly re-enable settings inside the app/account that you had specifically disabled”
“that feature was officially unsupported on desktop and there was even some community effort to make a pull request with paid contributions totally ignored”
“It looks very bad that Telegram took almost 3 months to fix this vulnerability.”
“It could easily sandbox itself in the non-store distribution as well, yet the developers apparently choose not to.”
“I'd never let the little oligarch's code touch my desktop OS.”
“strictly speaking it is a bug in Telegram that is now fixed at the app level”
“tricking Telegram into uploading your messages database to the attacker, leaking all your private conversations”
“it's not like Telegram can blame the OS for this vulnerability”
“an internal url scheme added to Telegram to... help them publish their releases on their channel”
“This is the only officially supported method and is safest because it does not require third-party software or bot interaction.”
“I do not use the inferior web client of telegram wrapped in electron but the real qt one.”
“there is an option to export all chats at once, including some very handy controls”
“really well-made Qt piece of software, snappy, feature-rich and multi-platform”
“Telegram desktop app works flawlessly on Mobian, PureOS, postmarketOS though.”
“actually feels smooth and feature rich rather than the webclient wrapper abominations”
“can feel pretty much as good as native or near-native applications (Telegram)”
“they'd get an actually usable chat client practically for free”
“it's way ahead of what Whatsapp offers. Not to mention it's fast and relatively light.”
“the native Windows app is incredibly good and fast”
“I have never had a performance problem with telegram desktop”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.