UbuntuHandbook

Telegrand is a Modern GTK4 Telegram Client for GNOME in Development

Last updated: November 12, 2021

For Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux with GNOME desktop, a modern GTK4 Telegram app “Telegrand” is under development.

Telegrand is the free open-source client written in Rust programming language. By using libadwaita library, it has an adaptive user interface to fit all screen sized.

Telegrand – The GTK4 Telegram GNOME App (Image by Marcus Behrendt in thisweek.gnome.org)

Though Telegram has official app for Linux, this new app is worth expecting for GNOME users. As an in-development project, it isn’t considered stable software yet. So far, it supports log in via phone number or using QR code.

Sadly, my Telegram account got banned after trying the app via Flatpak, though I do not use the service (Telegram is blocked in my Country and no friend around uses this messenger).

Telegrand includes the Telegram’s test credentials by default, which are very limited, but usable (especially for development). However, it’s known that Telegram sometimes decides to ban accounts that use such credentials (especially newer accounts).

Try Telegrand in Your Linux:

Arch Linux user may try out the app using the AUR package with provided API credentials via meson options.

For other Linux, the latest flatpak build with the test API credentials is available to download:

Telegrand Flatpak (for testing purpose)

Then, extract the package and open the folder that contains the flatpak in terminal. Finally, run command to install it:

flatpak install telegrand.flatpak

You must have flatpak daemon installed via sudo apt install flatpak command first.

NOTE: As mentioned, the flatpak package includes the test credentials. Telegram may ban accounts that use such credentials (especially newer accounts).

And to remove the Flatpak, use command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.github.melix99.telegrand.Devel

How to Install WeChat Desktop App in Ubuntu 16.04 & Higher

Last updated: July 17, 2017

WeChat is one of the most popular Chinese social media (instant messaging and payment services) mobile application developed by Tencent.

For desktop computers, there’s an open-source project, electronic-wechat, allows you to run WeChat on Linux, Mac OS.

The application features:

Modern UI and all features from Web WeChat.
Block message recall.
Stickers showing support.
Share subscribed passages on Weibo, Qzone, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, and email.
Mention users in a group chat.
Drag and drop to send photos.
Behaves like a native app, based on dozens of optimization.
Removes URL link redirects and takes you directly to blocked websites.
Press Esc to hide application windows.

The app is available via Snappy store for all Linux distributions. For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and higher, do following steps to install it:

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher. When it opens, run command to install snapd daemon and snapd-xdg-open if you don’t already have them installed:

sudo apt install snapd snapd-xdg-open

Type in your password (no visual feedback while typing due to security reason) and hit Enter.

2. Then install the wechat app via command:

sudo snap install electronic-wechat

install wechat snap

Once installed, launch the desktop app from your app launcher and enjoy!

Uninstall:

To remove the app, run following command in a terminal window:

sudo snap remove electronic-wechat

In Howtos instant messaging client, wechat

Telegram Desktop 1.0 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: January 15, 2017

The Telegram Desktop App finally reached the 1.0 release! Here’s how to install it via PPA or Snap in Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17/18 and derivatives.

The popular instant messaging app, Telegram 1.0 for desktop, was released a few days ago with a fabulous new design. It features:

Consistent material design
Smooth animations
Support for custom themes
Auto sync messages from phone with computer using Telegram’s encrypted cloud.
Ability to start typing on phone, then continue on computer.

Install Telegram Desktop App via Snap in Ubuntu:

1. First time installing an app using SNAP package? You may need to install snapd via command (for one time):

sudo apt install snapd

2. The snap build of Telegram Desktop so far misses system tray icon for Ubuntu Unity.

To install the Telegram snap package in Ubuntu 16.04 and higher, simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo snap install telegram-sergiusens

Type in password (no visual feedback) and hit Enter. It will automatically download the snap package and install it in your system.

Uninstall Telegram (Snap):

To uninstall it, simply run the snap command with remove option:

sudo snap remove telegram-sergiusens

Install Telegram Desktop via PPA in Ubuntu:

For all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, and derivatives, e.g., Linux Mint and Elementary OS, Telegram is also available as .deb package in an unofficial PPA.

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/telegram

Type in password (no visual feedback) and hit Enter.

2. Then search for and install the app via Synaptic Package Manager:

or just run the commands below one by one:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install telegram

Uninstall:

To uninstall it, simply run apt command with remove option:

sudo apt remove telegram && sudo apt autoremove

And the PPA can be removed by launching Software & Updates and navigating the Other Software tab.

In Howtos, News instant messaging client, telegram client

Instantbird, the instant messaging client now is at version 1.5 which has updated to Mozilla 25 and brings various improvements. This simple tutorial is going to show you how to install Instantbird in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, and Ubuntu 12.04.

What’s New in Instantbird 1.5

Creating a new conversation tab has been made easier.

Clicking the ‘+’ button in a conversation window shows a list of conversations that can be started with a single click.
The list is sorted with a frecency algorithm, taking into account how often and how recently you’ve talked to each contact.
This list also automatically includes the channels advertised by the IRC servers you are connected to.

New tooltips that better fit the style of Instantbird

Improved Multi-user chats user interface:

Participants now have context menus that allow you to open private conversations or add them as buddies.
Highlighted nicks in chat rooms now have tooltips and context menus.

Auto-joined chat rooms that have been put on hold will stay on hold after a restart.

A list of alternate nicks for IRC can be configured, in case your preferred nick is taken when you connect.

about: pages (e.g. about:config) can now easily be opened with the /about command (e.g. /about config).

Retina display support on Mac OS X.

Google Talk and Hangouts Android users are now shown as mobile.

Google Hangouts users will no longer appear as always typing.

Better support for displaying RTL languages in conversations.

The vKontakte protocol was removed as the vKontakte service dropped support for connecting with an XMPP client.

New for developers: New API to add tab panels with arbitrary content to conversation windows: in-code documentation.

Updated to Mozilla 25.

Various minor bugs and a few crashers fixed.

Install Instantbird in Ubuntu

Ubuntu Unity users can ALWAYS do below steps to install instantbird. If you’ve already installed a previous version, remove it.

1. Download instantbird for Linux from official website

2. Extract the downloaded package. You’ll see a result folder instantbird

3. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to copy the folder to /opt/:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/instantbird/ /opt/instantbird/

4. Now create a launcher for instantbird by:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/instantbird.desktop

Copy and paste below into the file and save it.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Instantbird
Version=1.5
Encoding=UTF-8
Comment=
Exec=/opt/instantbird/instantbird
Icon=/opt/instantbird/icons/mozicon128.png
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Network;InstantMessaging;

5. Now you’re able to launch instantbird from Unity Dash. For 64 bit system, you may install run below command in Ubuntu 13.10 and higher (install ia32-libs in Ubuntu 13.04 and earlier,):

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libpangox-1.0-0:i386 libpangoxft-1.0-0:i386 libidn11:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 liblibxt-dev:i386 libasound-dev:i386