Telegram is a cloud based, cross platform messaging application. It provides a direct competition to WhatsApp and lets you access your chats from multiple devices.
With recent WhatsApp controversies, Telegram saw an overwhelming increase in download and even became one of the most downloaded apps.
Read : Customize Ubuntu
If you want to use Telegram in Ubuntu/Linux, you can easily set it up.
Before we begin, let me add it here that Telegram DO NOT provide end to end encryption for regular chats by default. If you want to have E2E encryption by default, consider installing Signal in Ubuntu and migrate to it.
Lets see how you can install telegram in Ubuntu Linux.
Using executables
You can use Telegram without installing it in Ubuntu. Head to the below link and download the Telegram archive.
It will download a tar archive. Extract it using file manager and navigate to the extracted folder.
There will be 2 files, one executable and one for updating it. You can double click the Telegram executable to start the application.
Click on Start Messaging and register using your mobile number. You can even quickly log in using QR code.
This do not installs Telegram but is just an executable. You can create a shortcut in dash panel or on desktop and use it as long as the binaries are not removed.
Install Telegram in Ubuntu using Snap
If you rather want to install telegram in Ubuntu, you can use it’s Snap version. Fire up a terminal and search for the telegram app.
snap find telegram
We can see telegram-desktop version 2.5.8 is available in snap store. You can install it using below command.
snap install telegram-desktop
To launch it, search it in the Applications, or use below terminal command.
telegram-desktop
That’s it.
Wrapping Up
Although this tutorial is aimed to Ubuntu user, there is no reason it won’t work on any other Debian/Ubuntu based distributions. Feel free to install it and enjoy using Telegram in Ubuntu / Linux.
