So, Telegram has launched horrible ads that look a lot like spam to me. At least in my channels it’s typically some crypto bullshit. So, I wonder if people know about alternatives to the subscription service for blocking them? Sadly, Forkgram won’t offer that option and it doesn’t seem to be allowed. However, I wonder if there are still forks out there which block the ads? Or do people know of alternative options?

  • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al
    52·
    5 个月前

    It won’t take long for clients to pop up. But ultimately people shouldn’t rely on telegram or any billionaire backed software for pretty much anything.

      • D_Air1@lemmy.ml
        4·
        5 个月前

        My only problem with Signal is the inability to manually sync conversations. Even if I have backups from my phone. They can’t be used on the desktop. I have seen some third party tools, but even those state that they might not work.

      • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al
        3·
        5 个月前

        The problem with Signal is that the UX isn’t up to par aesthetically and the problem with SimpleX is that the UX is overly complicated. People want a great chat app first and foremost, privacy is an afterthought.

        • kia@lemmy.caEnglish
          10·
          5 个月前

          What about Signal’s UI isn’t up to par aesthetically?

          • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
            7·
            5 个月前

            Same question. I checked out Signal not a long time ago and it was really good looking. The only thing regular users may not like is the encryption key verification thing but it’s not really a UI issue.

            • sqgl@beehaw.org
              2·
              5 个月前

              Definitely a UI issue because it is not clear what the user is supposed to do according to the UI.

              Should I be sitting physically next to the person to confirm? Read out the gazillion character code to them over a regular phone call?

                • sqgl@beehaw.org
                  2·
                  5 个月前

                  If they are the only two options then it isn’t practical. Wouldn’t six characters be enough? One in 56,800,235,584 chance of guessing and brute force attacks could be avoided with a limit of 3 tries per hour.

                  EDIT: Or I could just content myself with the first 6 characters matching. I suppose there is my solution.

            • kia@lemmy.caEnglish
              4·
              5 个月前

              Set the navigation bar size to compact and this looks much better.

              • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al
                1·
                5 个月前

                Stories are primary content. In Telegram, Snapchat and all modern messengers, they’ve at the top of the message list. Even in Instagram that’s the case, in Signal, they’re pointlessly hidden because some old men who advocate for phones without front facing cameras spoke loud enough.

      • TimberOP
        3·
        5 个月前

        I use telegram mainly for info channels and tickers. To my knowledge that’s not possible in Signal, because you can’t restrict participants to be read-only (right?)

        • john_lemmy@slrpnk.net
          5·
          5 个月前

          I saw people using signal for announcements only by restricting posting messages to group chat admins. Is that similar to what you’re looking for?

          • TimberOP
            2·
            5 个月前

            Ah nice, I didn’t know that was possible

        • moreeni@lemm.ee
          1·
          5 个月前

          You can do that, but Simplex has a limit on the amount of users in a group due to encryption. There is no point in using an e2ee messenger for public announcements

          • TimberOP
            1·
            5 个月前

            True! But then Simplex / Signal are no real alternatives to Telegram, are they?

  • Snot FlickermanEnglish
    29·
    5 个月前

    It’s just a joke. I don’t want you to actually feel bad.

    But you should do some research on Telegram, and the fact that they rolled ads out on its own should be a giant Red Flag waving you down. They’re not a good company, and their homespun encryption is dubious at best.

    • TimberOP
      4·
      5 个月前

      I know! But I don’t really have a choice currently; which app would you suggest for tickers / info channels? Mastodon would be an option, but it’s not quite the same. Abd I’d first have to convince everyone to use it :/

      • Snot FlickermanEnglish
        1·
        5 个月前

        I feel that. That’s why I said it was a joke. If I could get all my people off Discord and on Matrix I would but oh well.

        Matrix/Element would be my preferred as I could self-host, but I don’t have better suggestions that are more like Telegram I am sorry to say.

  • edric@lemm.ee
    5·
    5 个月前

    Huh, I clicked the link and it’s blocked by my DNS content blocker. Have you tried using an adblocker on your phone?

    • TimberOP
      1·
      5 个月前

      Which one? There’s three in my post. And I do use an ad blocking DNS, but this can’t block message-like ads from Telegram. Otherwise it would have to somehow read the encrypted message content…

      • edric@lemm.ee
        1·
        5 个月前

        The first one (ads). I’m not a heavy user, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen ads or sponsored messages even in unencrypted chats. I use Mullvad’s DNS blocker.

  • hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org
    3·
    5 个月前

    i kinda wanna quit nowadays but android customization channels (custom roms, gcam etc) are moving there from xda nowadays so no choice :(

    wish there was some read only tg scraper.

  • IuseArchbtw@feddit.de
    2·
    5 个月前

    While I’m not using telegram (and you should neither, it sucks and it’s bad for privacy), here are two options:

    Change your DNS. If that’s the way they’re distributing their ads, they’ll be gone

    Maybe Telegram FLOSS (F-Droid-Store) can help?

  • Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works
    2·
    5 个月前

    I was under the imoression that Telegram was a better alternative to WhatsApp but even WhatsApp doesn’t have ads. What should I be using, then?

    • RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      5 个月前

      WhatsApp kind of has ads, in the form of advertised channels and still sucks up your data. For simplicity use Signal, for decentralized and number less registration use Simplex, and if you want the maximum privacy use Briar (Briar has huge trade offs for more privacy, so unless you gotta leak some documents or something I wouldn’t use it)

    • Undertaker@feddit.org
      4·
      5 个月前

      Why were you under that impression? No default encryption, no group chat encryption. Data on the servers, meta data, company resides in UAE and many more. Wenn don’t know what’s und er the hood of WhatsApp but what de know about Telegram is nauseatic

      • Rose@lemmy.world
        2·
        5 个月前

        We know WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol for encryption, but it also collects a lot of metadata. Arguably still better than Telegram that collects everything. Its secret chats may be e2ee but nobody uses them even for discussing sensitive matters, and they don’t work on the Desktop.

    • TimberOP
      1·
      5 个月前

      I’ll give it a try, thanks! Sadly it doesn’t seem to be well maintained though :/

    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
      4·
      5 个月前

      Because not everyone can cut off every bad platform. People have family and work on it and Whatsapp. Be more understanding about people’s situations.