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.
> The main reason that made you make this feature suggestion is "people not wanting to share their identity with intolerant parents"... A silent signup feature was suggested, you should check it out: Silent sign up #82
No, that's what the person I asked to share my suggestion added. I thank him/her for that, but that's not what I meant. The reason I want this suggestion implemented is simple: not even Telegram should know who I am. Phone numbers, here in Italy, are linked to real identity, by law. I'm searching for a service that provides privacy and anonimity, and Telegram can be that service, it just need to provide an alternative method to sign up for very privacy-focused users, like other messaging apps provide
Thank you for your comment, I'm available to further discuss this and improve the suggestion together. Bye 👋
The fact that other messaging apps are adding the possibility to sign up just by using an email address doesn't mean that Telegram should follow the same path.
Having a read-only period after signing up still makes no sense to me. As mentioned in the FAQ, Telegram wants to be a super-fast and simple messaging app; limiting people to read-only for months or years just because they signed up using an email would just complicate things.
You can already read messages from public groups & channels using the official website (for example: https://t.me/s/telegram/3) without a Telegram account.
The turing test would require a massive work from Telegram developers (and also from volunteers). In addition, TSF volunteers are not qualified to deal with problems regarding user restrictions — there is already @SpamBot for that.
"not even Telegram should know who I am." — Telegram does not know who you are and never will. Phone numbers are used as an unique identifier and Telegram can't access the data mobile companies have about that phone number.
If you fear about being found or recognized using your phone numbers, just turn on your privacy settings ("Who can see my phone number?" and "Who can find me by my number?").
Unlike emails, there is a very limited amount of phone numbers all over the world. On the other hand, there are dozens of thousands of free email providers, while phone numbers are hard to get for free.
Additionally, Telegram has never shared a single byte of data to third parties or governments. Unless you are a terrorist, you should not worry about that.
> If you fear about being found or recognized using your phone numbers, just turn on your privacy settings ("Who can see my phone number?" and "Who can find me by my number?"). Additionally, Telegram has never shared a single byte of data to third parties or governments. Unless you are a terrorist, you should not worry about that.
Governments can force telegram to hand over the phone number of the owner. You say that Telegram does not share that information, but that's not how it should work. Why should I trust Telegram? How can I really prove that it was never shared? I can't. So the only solution to be really sure is simply not give even Telegram that information
Telegram has not *yet* shared a single byte of data to third parties or governments. You've misjudged my primary reasoning here, I want this feature because it protects protesters in places like Hong Kong, where the CCP actually believes that they are terrorists, even though the protesters are speaking up to protect their rights. Telegram has already played a central role in the protests in HK, and [sadly not in a positive way](https://www.zdnet.com/article/hong-kong-protesters-warn-of-telegram-feature-that-can-disclose-their-identities/). Being able to create an account that is not tied to a phone number would have protected those protesters. And yes, I know there are now privacy settings that control who can find you by your phone number, and I've upvoted the other suggestions which expand on its functionality. But someday, there will be a government threat that Telegram can't ignore, and when that day comes, there needs to be a way for users to protect themselves.
N
Nayeem Ahmed
Once I was travelling to another country and I had to reset my phone for some reason. I couldn't login to Telegram because of login code sent to my mobile number that I didn't have access to at that time in a foreign country.
So, it would be awesome if there any second way to get the login verification code like email or backup codes (That Gmail gives when 2FA using authenticator app is enabled)
And why not give the option to login using phone number and a password for already registered users?
I think you are moving away from the initial proposal. The initial proposal wants that the telephone number should never be entered, neither during registration nor during login. Mixed registration and login solutions can be proposed, they are fine, but this proposal is clear: a registration and authentication method that does not require a telephone number as a requirement at any time, as the telephone number can lead to identification of the person
As mentioned in the FAQ (https://telegram.org/faq#q-do-you-process-data-requests), Telegram uses a distributed infrastructure. No single government or block of like-minded countries can force Telegram to disclose users data. Telegram can be forced to give up data ONLY if an issue is grave and universal enough (i.e. global terrorism) to pass the scrutiny of several different legal systems around the world.
It does not work like that. Just like you are connected to only a server when you are using Telegram, Telegram has your phone number in that server. Datas can be splitted, encrypted, whatever, but as some point those data needs to be retrieved and decrypted: in that precise moment, governement can access to server and read data.
"Cloud chat data is stored in multiple data centers around the globe that are controlled by different legal entities spread across different jurisdictions. The relevant decryption keys are split into parts and are never kept in the same place as the data they protect. As a result, several court orders from different jurisdictions are required to force us to give up any data." (Telegram FAQ)
Telegram's uses a client-server encryption using a 2048-bit key shared by the client device and the server. The key is created upon user registration directly on the client device by exchanging Diffie-Hellman keys, and never transmitted over a network. (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto/description#authorization-key-auth-key)
This makes impossible for the government or other entities to intercept & access your data, unless you give them access to your device for some mysterious reason.
You can check how Telegram's custom protocol works (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto) and, if you doubt it's secure and think that someone can intercept & successfully decrypt your messages, just let Telegram know.
You don't seems to understand. We are not talking about intercepting network traffic. We are talking about simply accessing a telegram server, by going directly and phisically to it. Those servers need to have at some moments the plaintext of your number, or else how could they send it to you?
Log in here to report bugs or suggest features. Please enter your phone number in the international format and we will send a confirmation message to your account via Telegram.
"people
not wanting to share their identity with intolerant parents"... A silent
signup feature was suggested, you should check it out:
Silent sign up #82
No, that's what the person I asked to share my suggestion added. I thank
him/her for that, but that's not what I meant. The reason I want this
suggestion implemented is simple: not even Telegram should know who I
am. Phone numbers, here in Italy, are linked to real identity, by law.
I'm searching for a service that provides privacy and anonimity, and
Telegram can be that service, it just need to provide an alternative
method to sign up for very privacy-focused users, like other messaging
apps provide
Thank you for your comment, I'm available to further discuss this and
improve the suggestion together. Bye 👋
Having a read-only period after signing up still makes no sense to me. As mentioned in the FAQ, Telegram wants to be a super-fast and simple messaging app; limiting people to read-only for months or years just because they signed up using an email would just complicate things.
You can already read messages from public groups & channels using the official website (for example: https://t.me/s/telegram/3) without a Telegram account.
The turing test would require a massive work from Telegram developers (and also from volunteers). In addition, TSF volunteers are not qualified to deal with problems regarding user restrictions — there is already @SpamBot for that.
If you fear about being found or recognized using your phone numbers, just turn on your privacy settings ("Who can see my phone number?" and "Who can find me by my number?").
Unlike emails, there is a very limited amount of phone numbers all over the world. On the other hand, there are dozens of thousands of free email providers, while phone numbers are hard to get for free.
Additionally, Telegram has never shared a single byte of data to third parties or governments. Unless you are a terrorist, you should not worry about that.
Additionally, Telegram has never shared a single byte of data to third parties or governments. Unless you are a terrorist, you should not worry about that.
Governments can force telegram to hand over the phone number of the owner. You say that Telegram does not share that information, but that's not how it should work. Why should I trust Telegram? How can I really prove that it was never shared? I can't. So the only solution to be really sure is simply not give even Telegram that information
So, it would be awesome if there any second way to get the login verification code like email or backup codes (That Gmail gives when 2FA using authenticator app is enabled)
And why not give the option to login using phone number and a password for already registered users?
Telegram's uses a client-server encryption using a 2048-bit key shared by the client device and the server. The key is created upon user registration directly on the client device by exchanging Diffie-Hellman keys, and never transmitted over a network. (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto/description#authorization-key-auth-key)
This makes impossible for the government or other entities to intercept & access your data, unless you give them access to your device for some mysterious reason.
You can check how Telegram's custom protocol works (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto) and, if you doubt it's secure and think that someone can intercept & successfully decrypt your messages, just let Telegram know.