You currently need a phone number to sign up for Telegram. Add an option to sign up using an email address or another method, like some messengers do (e.g., Wire, Matrix, Threema, Session).
Potential spam issues could be mitigated by:
Only allowing addresses from major email providers at first and slowly expanding reach if it's manageable.
Automatically limiting such accounts from contacting strangers until their perform some additional actions.
Allowing group admins to prevent such accounts from posting by default.
Use Cases
Avoiding an identifier tied to your identity, hiding identity from governments or people who know your number.
Workaround
Use a virtual phone number.
Warning: Do NOT use temporary numbers to connect to your account, as you may lose access to your account when you lose access to the number.
even more reasons to add non sms registration methods, I would recommend idena
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I have an idea: Telegram could also lift all restrictions on accounts created without a phone number if they purchase something for a certain amount of stars to prove that they are not bots.
Yeah, at that point Telegram will become kinda pay-to-use, but at least you'll be able to get rid of the need to link your phone number to your account
Well, you already can do that with anonymous numbers on Telegram's fragment.com, but for TONs
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even more reasons to add non sms registration methods, I would recommend idena
Yeah, at that point Telegram will become kinda pay-to-use, but at least you'll be able to get rid of the need to link your phone number to your account
Well, you already can do that with anonymous numbers on Telegram's fragment.com, but for TONs