Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Development discussions for FossaMail
KNTRO

Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by KNTRO » 2016-12-08, 05:24

Hello,

Currently the Chat feature of FossaMail supports: Facebook Chat, IRC, XMPP, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, Google Talk, Odnoklassniki & Twitter. Since Telegram offers an API for create Telegram clients, could this be implemented in FossaMail? That would be a killer feature, in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.

BR.

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Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-12-08, 09:11

FossaMail's chat capabilities are built on libpurple. Since that doesn't support telegram, it'd have to be a brand new implementation.
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half-moon

Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by half-moon » 2016-12-08, 15:05

Telegram is kind of useless with out having a phone; In fact, you need a phone to sign up.

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Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-12-08, 15:55

half-moon wrote:Telegram is kind of useless with out having a phone; In fact, you need a phone to sign up.
Correction, you need a smartphone with a mobile subscription.
I have a regular mobile and a VoIP line, and it won't accept either, even though they are valid phone numbers it claims they are "invalid".
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
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KNTRO

Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by KNTRO » 2016-12-08, 17:30

Moonchild wrote:FossaMail's chat capabilities are built on libpurple. Since that doesn't support telegram, it'd have to be a brand new implementation.
I'm using this plugin since a couple of weeks on Pidgin. Works fine for basic text interchange. It also works with images and audio files —you can't click to play though, need an external audio player for the latter.
Moonchild wrote:
half-moon wrote:Telegram is kind of useless with out having a phone; In fact, you need a phone to sign up.
Correction, you need a smartphone with a mobile subscription.
I have a regular mobile and a VoIP line, and it won't accept either, even though they are valid phone numbers it claims they are "invalid".
Correction (Encore :mrgreen:), you need at least a low end mobile phone —a non smartphone— and a valid number, whatever it means. I'm using Telegram with a… landline. :wave: No kiddin'. Just chose to call me instead of send me a SMS. Then enter the code in the Telegram's sign up webpage and… voilà! Now I use Telegram Web, the Telegram program for Windows, the Telegram app for iOS and the Telegram-Purple plugin for pidgin. It's even working with IFTTT now‼ Problem, WhatsApp? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Oh, and I know someone who hasn't a monthly mobile subscription but a prepaid plan and can use Telegram like a charm. Oh, and she has a Windows Phone. :clap:

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Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-12-08, 19:39

Well, I don't know what arbitrary lists they use then to determine what is a valid number, because they most definitely did no accept my Swedish numbers (mobile or otherwise).
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"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
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KNTRO

Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by KNTRO » 2016-12-08, 19:42

Moonchild wrote:I have a regular mobile and a VoIP line, and it won't accept either, even though they are valid phone numbers it claims they are "invalid".
Moonchild wrote:Well, I don't know what arbitrary lists they use then to determine what is a valid number, because they most definitely did no accept my Swedish numbers (mobile or otherwise).
Try this:
Send an email to login [at] stel [dot] com with:

Subject: your mobile or VoIP number, with international prefix and ", no code" at the end
Example of subject for landline:
+46 13 xx xxxx, no code
Example of subject for mobile line:
+46 7x xxx xxxx, no code
Message body:
This is an automated reply. If you see it first time please answer all the following questions:

1. Check your phone number in the subject line. Is it correct? . . . . . . .
2. Which company did you get your SIM card from? . . . . . . .
3. What country are you in right now? . . . . . . .
4. Are you able to receive usual text messages (SMS)? Please test it with your friends now. . . . . . . .

To activate your Telegram account you need to be able to receive SMS. We can't send codes via email.

We will reply to your email during the next 24 hours.

All the best,
The Telegram team
Replace dots by your answers.

They're likely to don't reply you after all. Just wait around 2 weeks and try to sign up again.

If that doesn't work either, contact Telegram support.

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Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-12-08, 21:12

um... No. Just, No.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

KNTRO

Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by KNTRO » 2016-12-08, 21:36

Does that mean that you're not going to add support for Telegram in FossaMail?

dark_moon

Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by dark_moon » 2016-12-08, 21:40

Moonchild wrote:
half-moon wrote:Telegram is kind of useless with out having a phone; In fact, you need a phone to sign up.
Correction, you need a smartphone with a mobile subscription.
I have a regular mobile and a VoIP line, and it won't accept either, even though they are valid phone numbers it claims they are "invalid".
Nope. A friend register a Telegram account with a old, non-smartphone.
You only get a SMS with the authentification code. Every phone can get that.

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Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-12-09, 00:32

KNTRO wrote:Does that mean that you're not going to add support for Telegram in FossaMail?
It means that I'm not exactly convinced of their motives. I don't see why they need these details unless they are profiling and want to sell the gathered numbers/data to companies.
That doesn't exactly motivate me to "add it to FossaMail" when it's not part of chat core's library and needs to be done from scratch... ;)
Maybe this can be more easily done as an extension -- mail extensions can use the html/web core back-end to do pretty much anything.
dark_moon wrote:A friend register a Telegram account with a old, non-smartphone.
Lucky for him/her! I couldn't even even start the registration process because my phone numbers were stated to be "invalid".
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

dark_moon

Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by dark_moon » 2016-12-09, 08:18

Strange. How did you write your number? With the +dialing code or without?

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Re: Suggestion: add support for Telegram

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-12-09, 11:52

dark_moon wrote:Strange. How did you write your number? With the +dialing code or without?
I tried every permutation and writing convention after their suggested format didn't work.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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