The sorrysome state of Telegram FOSS (9.5.3): cannot work by itself; unable to receive login codes, not even by SMS.

[Barkuti]

The title says it all: it is impossible to login on Telegram network with FOSS version. It first says “Check your Telegram messages - We've sent the code to the Telegram app for whateverphonenumber on your other device.”:

My first question in this regard is… what other device? I had closed all other Telegram sessions, by the way, although this should not matter at all. And when I tap on get code by SMS:

Suffice to say, the notifications are received via the service notifications chat on the official Telegram app. The use of SMS messages to send or receive codes doesn't work with FOSS version, whereas with the official (9.5.4) version works. But what if one does not want to have the official Telegram app installed?

So, at this point it is impossible to use Telegram FOSS by itself.

With all due respect, these are my words for the developer or developing team of Telegram FOSS: Concerning the official Telegram version developers, source code or whatever, YOU OWE THEM NOTHING. PASS OVER THEIR @#$% RESTRICTIONS LIKE A STEAMROLLER. FULL STOP. We appreciate your work, but please read above.

Thank you. 🙂

[FabianPastor]

The closed source Telegram server is the one that decides who gets the OTP over SMS or any other way. Telegram FOSS is a 3rd Party Modification from the Official Telegram for Android source code, and as such it needs to follow the ToS (Telegram Terms of Service). The only way i can think of to trick the server to think it's the Official Telegram app is violating the ToS and as such Telegram could take actions against Telegram FOSS because of this.

I get what your issue/point is. Telegram FOSS is precisely for the people that don't want to install the official app due to the services and libraries it uses by default...

Maybe the dev could poke Telegram somehow and ask to make an exception. But i doubt it even got read or approved.

So yeah.. Maybe it's time you (and all) poke Telegram instead the developer/s of this 3rd Party App to raise attention to this issue.

[mgw2013]

@Barkuti Uuuuh... ehem... the SMS is sent to your registered telephone number... I never experienced any issues in registering a device with one of my accounts.

[thermatk]

I don't think SMS will return any time soon :disappointed: Need to plug the interface with some unfriendly message though

[Barkuti]

Thanks for answering thermatk.

For the sake of testing I installed Forkgram 9.5.4.0 from F-droid, and the behaviour is the same: does not receive login codes via SMS. So, it seems that only the official Telegram client can verify a login 🤔 by SMS, and for this reason you should not uninstall or fully close session in your alternative Telegram clients before installing a different client, because if you do you won't be able to receive the login code via the service notifications chat. Why exactly is this happening is beyond my knowledge in these matters, but this is a clear problem and right now I can only point my finger at the official Telegram team. 😑 Could it be that the SMS thing is only managed by the app with the official package name (org.telegram.messenger.web)? Googl€ Play Services involved? Take a look at the following “App info ⇒ App notifications” screenshots from my device, showing the notifications' section for official Telegram and Telegram FOSS:

I momentarily changed my OS language to English, so it could be understood a bit more easily, but since I had configured my clients in Spanish, some stuff is in Spanish but it is easy to understand (“Otros” = “Others”, “Silenciadas” = “Silenced”, “Chats privados” = “Private chats”, “Por defecto” is “Default” and “en la app” is “in app”, and “Disponibilidad de Servicios de Google Play” I guess it translates into “Availability of Google Play Services”). It certainly looks like there's something missing for Telegram FOSS, there is a warning with the message “3 categories deleted”.

Hope this helps something. 🙂

[arch-btw]

For what it's worth Kotatogram can receive sms messages, or so I've heard.. Might be worth looking into why that works, although it's a desktop client.

See here: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/17017#issuecomment-927360765

[Barkuti]

Telegram X (org.thunderdog.challegram) does receive SMS messages too, just tested it. By the way, I presume that Telegram FOSS succesfully sends the SMS login code request to the telegram servers, but I don't know if this is 🤔 so. Hope dev thermatk is sure about this.

[Omegaduc]

NekoX can receive SMS but only with nogcm version

[Barkuti]

For whatever reason, just recently “clean upgraded” my WhatsApp application, and since I had removed the SMS permission from Googl€ Play Services, it complained about not being able to request or receive the verification SMS, and that I needed to enable such permission. Something tells me this has relationship with this problem in Telegram FOSS, doesn't it? Because if the verification code SMS request and etc. is done via Google Play Services, then of course Telegram FOSS can't do it that way; or does it?

But wait, Telegram X did not complain about the SMS thing a few weeks ago, 🤔 and I am… about sure that I already had removed the SMS permission from Google Play services (can't say it 100%, though).

Hope this is of some help for now, and again thanks for your whatever efforts with this application.

[mavosaure]

Telegram X (org.thunderdog.challegram) does receive SMS messages too, just tested it. By the way, I presume that Telegram FOSS succesfully sends the SMS login code request to the telegram servers, but I don't know if this is 🤔 so. Hope dev thermatk is sure about this.

As a workaround, I used Telegram X to get the SMS code. Then I was able to reactivate my Telegram-FOSS on my /e/ 1.1

Not a real solution, but finally it works!

[xtsm]

there's a couple of similar issues in this repo and there also seems to be no way of fixing these (unless someone finds a way to blackmail mr. Durov into respecting alternative clients) can someone at least add a warning message like "telegram foss can't do sms stuff, if something doesn't work you should try official app", could it be a good idea? because right now the flow itself looks okay and user might think there's something wrong with their cellular connection and not with the app (which is probably not the case)

[RayKoopa]

After skimming through this and trying to get a login code via the official apps, I still can't get a code that works with FOSS. What's the flow exactly now?

[neilromig]

I used Telegram X APK (from uptodown) on a LineageOS phone (no GMS) to create a new account and get the code, then used that code in Telegram FOSS.

[Ultrafeel]

Look at Nekogram - it allows even QR to login!

[t0ma5]

Look at Nekogram - it allows even QR to login!

I just tried Nekogram out of curiosity and it sent the code to my "other device"