Telegram is a hugely popular messaging client, especially for those interested in privacy. It’s easy to use and widely available for all platforms – Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS all have access to this platform, making it ideal for diverse teams of people. There are a few ways to get Telegram installed on your Linux desktop, so here we take a look at how to install the Telegram desktop app in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.
Tip: if you are hesitant about using Telegram on your Desktop, here are the things you didn’t know that Telegram for PC can do.
Install Telegram From the Software Center
Ubuntu users have the easiest time getting access to the Telegram Desktop app without doing anything differently.
- Go to the Software Center and search for Telegram in the search bar.
- Click on the “Telegram Desktop” choice that comes up and click Install.
Alternatively, you can also install from the terminal by entering the following command:
sudo apt update sudo apt install telegram-desktop
That’ll grab the latest version from the repositories and install it on your system.
Do you know: you can hide Telegram chat without having to delete it?
Install Telegram With the Official Binary
There is also a distro-agnostic tarball available from Telegram’s official downloads page. Download it, then extract it.
cd ~/Downloads tar -xJvf tsetup.x.x.xx.tar
Note: This presumes that you downloaded it to your “Downloads” folder. Change the folder to whichever you downloaded it to. Also, replace “x.x.xx” with the actual version number of the download.
Move the binary to the “/opt” directory, and link it to the “/bin” directory:
sudo mv Telegram /opt/telegram sudo ln -sf /opt/telegram/Telegram /usr/bin/telegram
Install Telegram From the Terminal
Many versions of Linux already include the Telegram Desktop client package. All you have to do is install it via the Terminal. Of course, the exact command varies based on your distro.
Using APT on Debian-Based Distros
If you’re using any Debian-based distros, you’ll use APT to install Telegram:
sudo apt update sudo apt install telegram-desktop
With DNF on RPM-Based Distros
For RPM-based distros, you’ll need to add a few repositories first, including Epel and RPM Fusion. Once those are installed, you’re ready to install Telegram.
- Start by installing the Epel repositories via Terminal:
sudo dnf install epel-release
- Follow up by installing RPM Fusion repositories:
sudo dnf install --nogpgcheck https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %rhel).noarch.rpm -y
And
sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %rhel).noarch.rpm -y
If you’re using Fedora Linux, the commands are slightly different:
sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
And
sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
- Once those are installed, install Telegram using the DNF package manager:
sudo dnf install telegram-desktop
Via Pacman on Arch-Based Distros
Finally, you can use Pacman to install Telegram on Arch-based distros, such as Manjaro.
sudo pacman -S telegram-desktop
Install Telegram Using a Universal Package Manager
If you can’t get Telegram to install using any of the above methods, a universal package manager like Snap or Flatpak may be your own option. Depending on your distro, you may need to install Snap or Flatpak before you can install Telegram via either one.
You can install Snap for your distro by running the correct command via Terminal:
Ubuntu and Debian-based distros:
sudo apt install snapd
Arch-based distros:
yaourt -S snapd<br>sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.socket
Fedora-based distros:
sudo dnf install snapd
OpenSUSE-based distros:
sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/system:/snappy/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/ snappy<br>sudo zypper install snapd
To install Flatpak, select your distro from Flatpak’s site and follow the instructions.
Via Snap
Snap packages can be a bit controversial, but they’re an important part of our ecosystem for many users and is the method many use to get the most out of their applications. It’s helpful to be able to have very few packages installed on your system and have all desktop apps run in containers.
To install the Snap of the Telegram Desktop app, just enter the following command into your terminal:
sudo snap install telegram-desktop
Via Flatpack
Flatpak is another universal package format that’s widely available for a huge variety of Linux distros. Many users prefer it because the applications don’t have privileged access to your system, so they’re confined better than Snaps are. Regardless of which you prefer, there is a Flatpak of the Telegram Desktop app on Flathub.
To install it, run the following command on your system:
flatpak install flathub org.telegram.desktop
Regardless of how you install it, you should be able to run the Telegram Desktop App one of two ways, either through the Applications menu or through the terminal.
Through the terminal, you can run any of the following commands based on your installation method:
# For the Ubuntu package or the tarball telegram # for the Snap /snap/bin/telegram-desktop # for the flatpak flatpak run org.telegram.desktop
Regardless of how you run it, you are now all set to use Telegram on your Linux Desktop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Telegram for Linux safe?
Thanks to end-to-end encryption, your chats are kept private. But, what you might not know is this only applies to Secret Chats, which you have to manually enable.
And, while Telegram states they only store essential data, they can keep that data for up to a year. Many users prefer sending self-destructing media and deleting conversations when they’re finished for added privacy. Download your chats at any time for safekeeping. If you don’t want to delete them, clean up Telegram by archiving old messages.
As with most apps, it’s safe as long as you’re careful. For instance, don’t respond to users you don’t know and definitely don’t click on or download anything suspicious.
Can I use Telegram on Kali Linux?
Yes. Simply download it from Telegram and finish the installation via Terminal. See the section “Use the Official Binary to Install Telegram in Any Linux Distro.”
Image credit: Unsplash
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