[Feature request] Multiple accounts support

[rizaumami]

### Steps to reproduce Nothing. ### Expected behaviour There is menu to login into (three?) different accounts just like in Telegram v4.7 for Android, so I don't have to open multiple Telegram Desktop windows and messing with launcher script or config directory, etc. ### Actual behaviour I can now login into multiple accounts by issuing `-workdir` or `-many -workdir`, but this is an inconvenient process because I have to open multiple Telegram Desktop windows and provide many config directories. ### Configuration **Operating system:** Debian Sid 64 bit **Version of Telegram Desktop:** 1.2.6 alpha **Used theme**: Default

Logs:

Insert logs here (if necessary)

[zarEclEC]

Try Franz, it's not perfect but it's something.

I'd love to have it implemented natively, too 👍

[rizaumami]

I knew about Franz, Rambox, Wavebox or just the new Firefox Quantum multi container. But that all just a Telegram web (wrapper), which mean it's limited in features and resource hungry. I hope for a native implementation.

[cobalto]

533

[stek29]

@cobalto Multiple instances != Multiple accounts in once instance.

[cobalto]

@stek29 disagree. They asked for multiple instances to have multiple accounts at the same machine when "multiple accounts" wasnt a feature of telegram. Now it is and now you can ask for it.

So, I think its for the same use, that's why I quoted the other one here.

But I probably should have done the opposite, but now both are linked and that's what I wanted. Not gonna fix that now ^^'

[vogelito]

Would love to see this.

[Kirill]

I need this too

[Fathurhoho]

I really need this feature.

[Silicomancer]

Needed badly here too.

[zeroone2numeral2]

Yes yes same here

I claimed my heart reaction too, kind heart-reaction stranger. Now deliver

[azzamsa]

hope it will be implemented soon. So we can easily switch between account for family and work.

[hroost]

+1

[rikarsen]

waiting for it

[ShadowJonathan]

+1

[sigaev-pro]

+1

[RememberTheAir]

Stop with the +1s, reactions are there for a reason. +1s are just useless noise

[Kirill]

@john-preston, did you have plan for this issue?

[john-preston]

@Kirill At the moment I don’t :(

[Piterden]

Hi, guys)

Any updates?

[nectop]

waiting for implementation.

[abbasnaqdi]

+1

[steemnd]

It's available on Android since Pleistocene, why it takes so long to do the same thing on the desktop client?

[sprite-1]

Hope this gets added soon

[ange007]

Very need this function. It is very important to separate the work account and the personal.

[amishbni]

Any updates on this feature? :disappointed:

[c0d3x27]

Steps to reproduce

Nothing.

Expected behaviour

There is menu to login into (three?) different accounts just like in Telegram v4.7 for Android, so I don't have to open multiple Telegram Desktop windows and messing with launcher script or config directory, etc.

Actual behaviour

I can now login into multiple accounts by issuing -workdir or -many -workdir, but this is an inconvenient process because I have to open multiple Telegram Desktop windows and provide many config directories.

Configuration

Operating system: Debian Sid 64 bit Version of Telegram Desktop: 1.2.6 alpha Used theme: Default Logs: Insert logs here (if necessary)

first go there and download it for you system. 1)TelegramForcePortable https://imgur.com/a/VUGxOrU 2 method) On macOS, just use -workdir parameter, it won’t work if you add many -workdir

[markuznw]

Subscribing to this, guess tdesktop is the only remaining client between both official clients and unofficial that still don't have it. Hope it gets implemented soon :)

[Nachtalb]

I don't know about windows. But on OSX and Linux you can use the -workdir argument to create more instances.

I do know this is inconvenient for some people and that this issue exists for over a year now and there is still no way in the client itself to switch accounts with a few mouse clicks. But neither have I seen some guide to use this feature so here it is. I hope it helps you out.

:exclamation: replace words in {{}} with your own username and such (without the brackets).

Linux MacOSX Windows

Linux

• Create a folder here ~/.local/share/TelegramDesktop/{{MyUsername}}
• Create a new .desktop file here ~/.local/share/applications/telegramdesktop-{{myusername}}.desktop.
• Put in your data in here

  [Desktop Entry]
  Version=1.0
  Name=Telegram MyUsername
  Comment=Official desktop application for the Telegram messaging service
  TryExec=/opt/Telegram/Telegram
  Exec=/opt/Telegram/Telegram -workdir /home/{{your_user}}/.local/share/TelegramDesktop/{{MyUsername}} -- %u
  Icon=telegram
  Terminal=false
  StartupWMClass=TelegramDesktop
  Type=Application
  Categories=Network;InstantMessaging;Qt;
  MimeType=x-scheme-handler/tg;
  Keywords=tg;chat;im;messaging;messenger;sms;tdesktop;
  X-GNOME-UsesNotifications=true
  X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.23

MacOSX

• Create a folder here: ~/.local/share/TelegramDesktop/{{MyUsername}}
• Open Automator
• Create a new Application
• Add an apple script by drag & drop from the left-hand side
• Add the following text:

  do shell script "Applications/Telegram.app/Contents/MacOS/Telegram -workdir '/Users/{{your_user}}/.local/share/TelegramDesktop/{{MyUsername}}'"

  

• Save to /Applications/Telegram {{MyUsername}}.app
• Now lastly if you want the have the same icon for your new app, open the file info of both apps (the original telegram and yours) with CMD+I and click on the icon in the top left of the original application. Hit copy CMD+C, click on yours and hit past CMD+V.

Windows

• Create a folder here: C:\Users\{{your_user}}\AppData\Roaming\Telegram Desktop\{{MyUsername}}
• Rightclick on your desktop and create a new shortcut
• Put this in the location field

"C:\Users\{{your_user}}\AppData\Roaming\Telegram Desktop\Telegram.exe" -workdir "C:\Users\{{your_user}}\AppData\Roaming\Telegram Desktop\{{MyUsername}}"

• Click next and type in a name for the shortcut, usually something like Telegram {{MyUsername}}
• Lastly, to find the application via the start menu you have to copy the link in here

C:\Users\{{your_user}}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Telegram Desktop

https://gist.github.com/Nachtalb/ec590dc974f6ba4674972d4937b230be

[ShadowJonathan]

There should not need to be a workaround for this, this should be implemented directly into the client.

[Nachtalb]

@ShadowJonathan I think so too. But it is not implemented yet and I don't know C++ and so cannot make a PR. For the time being, until someone implements it, this is the best solution we've got IMHO.

[c0d3x27]

@ShadowJonathan I think so too. But it is not implemented yet and I don't know C++ and so cannot make a PR. For the time being, until someone implements it, this is the best solution we've got IMHO.

exactly so i dont even know or see the reason to down vote my solution for this. people are just ungraceful

[hexauni]

@ShadowJonathan Multiple instances and multiple accounts are definitely different things, and look at the "actual behaviour" part

[ShadowJonathan]

@hexauniverse in this case, a strategy with multiple instances has to be used to have telegram work with multiple accounts at once, it is a workaround

[ShadowJonathan]

Telegram Mobile Android also now implements this natively, before this, only Telegram X did.

I think it's time for telegram desktop to also have this feature, to normalize the features all across the native clients, what do you think, @john-preston?

[fredboy]

I can't understand, why it's still not implemented. It's pretty important feature for a lot of people and the official android app supports it, so the devs ignoring this seems strange.

[BijoRino]

UNIGRAM

[RememberTheAir]

@fredboy simply because it's hard to implement it

[fredboy]

@RememberTheAir is it? Just create separate config folders and make a UI for it. Even if it's not that simple, you have a lot of examples how to do it. I don't think that's the problem here

[RememberTheAir]

@fredboy it's not just a matter of creating different dirs and configs and copying code from other softwares lol. TDesktop is a quiet big C++ codebase which has not been written with multiple accounts in mind and, for what I know, a lot of parts of the app (especially messages and media storage) would have to be rewritten to handle properly the activity of multiple accounts. That's not something trivial you do in a week, especially if you consider the frequency at which Telegram releases new features. The fact that adding multi-accounts support is not a trivial task at all and would require a major rewrite of the app has been stated by the dev somewhere around this issues tracker, iirc

[fredboy]

@RememberTheAir damn, i'm stupid. Anyway, easy or not, I hope they're working on it, cause it's quite useful and demanded feature.

[MaxMls]

I hope this task will be closed soon.

[Kogoruhn]

Just do it! :D Please.

[levicki]

@stek29 @john-preston

Guys, why are PC users second-class citizens compared to mobile device users nowadays?

We shouldn't be waiting two years to get this basic feature in the official Telegram desktop client. Also, not even acknowledging this feature request officially for two years, and setting a milestone for it or closing it as "won't fix" if you don't intend to follow up is plain rude.

In my opinion the easiest way to implement it would be to change the list of chats into a tree with accounts represented as collapsible/expandable root nodes and chats as their leaf nodes so you can be logged in into more than one account at the same time from a single Telegram instance and window.

[ScottRFrost]

I tried https://github.com/UnigramDev/Unigram and realized it was kind of unstable and slow despite my decent system specs, so I used the power of GitHub and noticed there are THOUSANDS of forks of this project. https://github.com/Forkgram/tdesktop worked fine for my 2nd account. Certainly easier than trying to do command line arguments and run multiple instance of TDesktop (with the same icon, etc). https://github.com/kotatogram/kotatogram-desktop looked similar. There's A LOT out there.

[amishbni]

@ScottRFrost No Linux support for Forkgram? It appears Linux users are third-class citizens.

[RememberTheAir]

@amirashabani ...or maybe its developer is a Windows users and he's building that client based on his needs, which appears to be the case. I don't see any issue asking for Linux support, maybe you can try to ask to its dev if he's available to build for linux too

[ScottRFrost]

@amirashabani - If you're on ChromeOS (which is what I assume you mean by desktop linux) then you can just use the Android Telegram X, which support multiple accounts.

If you mean old school try-hard KDE or something, then you're out of luck, but you're probably used very few apps working if you're running old school desktop Linux. Re-roll to Windows or Hackintosh.

[dausruddin]

@ScottRFrost Am I missing something? I can't find multi-account feature in Forkgram.

[RememberTheAir]

@dausruddin there isn't. He's suggesting to use different forks each one with its own account. Actually you can use tdesktop to do this, it can be launched multiple times using different working directories where config files are stored independently (see the OP)

[dausruddin]

@RememberTheAir oh. I am quite dissapointed. Thanks. I guess I'll stick to Unigram for now even I got error popping up sometimes.