Telegram-App: Improvements

flohack · 10 Apr 2017, 11:05

Hi All,

Currently the core telegram app lacks usability in some areas (supergroups, secret chats, certain attachments). While it could be some day necessary to make a major overhaul, currently already small improvements could be helpful.
I investigated the code already but I am lost without some help. Please write me a PM if you want to contribute. Knowledge of Qt would be nice.

Cesar Herrera · 15 Apr 2017, 19:44

I'd like the light started when you got a message and the screen were off. Different colours for calls, SMS, and Telegram.

Alexisme · 16 Apr 2017, 20:28

Hi,

I'm not a developer, I'm only a user, so sorry, I can't help by developing.

I wanted to ask if the Telegram development should not focus on calls ! (the new Telegram feature!), because the Telegram app works quiet good (even if not supergroups or secret chats), but I think that the calls would make the app much more attractive and make it to the most used app on Ubuntu Touch!
But I'm not a developer, so I don't even know if it's even possible! And if it is, would it be "easy" to bring to UT?

flohack · 17 Apr 2017, 08:20

@Alexisme Hello,

yes but before we can do calls we need to fix a few ugly bugs, and then we should try to get audio messages up & running - but yes you are right, it would be good to reach feature parity with the official App clients...

BR

flohack · 17 Apr 2017, 08:21

@Cesar-Herrera Hello,

good idea, but that needs more work than just patching the telegram app. Also think about devices which don´t have a multicolor led (at least 2 colors are always there maybe, but Im not so sure about more). I take your idea on my list, but as I said this needs also work on the core OS, since notifications does not have this in its interface.
BR

flohack · 17 Apr 2017, 11:03

Guys,

today we successfully moved the existing App code from Launchpad to Github and merged a lot of pending fixes into it. We currently built a test click package, which will be released sooner or later in the OpenStore.

The repo is currently here: https://github.com/yunit-io/telegram-app

lduboeuf · 17 Apr 2017, 11:47

@Flohack hi, any links to repo ?

flohack · 17 Apr 2017, 11:58

@lduboeuf Yes sorry forgot, see above

flohack · 3 May 2017, 19:06

And here we are guys, first release of the telegram-app "Community Edition" - https://twitter.com/ubports/status/859831980174737409

NeoTheThird · 4 May 2017, 08:43

Good job!

GIEMME · 4 May 2017, 12:19

Great Job !!! Thank You.
How will be organized the Notification Service, with the shotdown of the Canonical Infrastructure?
G

flohack · 4 May 2017, 20:44

@GIEMME We dont know now the details. Probably we will also take longer time so the notification may get interrupted soon. Reason is that we need to modify the system images and integrate a new way of notifications. Plus the Apps need a little more amount of background time, which is currently not the way UT works.

We keep you updated...

GIEMME · 4 May 2017, 21:17

@Flohack No problem. Thank You.

MrTone · 5 May 2017, 11:11

Great Job !!! Thank You.

PhoenixLandPirat · 6 May 2017, 20:13

@Alexisme Calls would be a massive feature.
It would be nice to add, but to integrate it would be very difficult.

A big issue is that we dont have background processes.
The messaging app and the phone app aren't limited the same way.
Canonicals plan, was to make the messaging app the one stop for several services, how close this was to being done I dont know, the most I know is that you can receive XMPP messages but can't send them.
Are there patches to be able to send XMPP messages? I dont know.
Are there patches so other services can call in the background? I dont know
How much effort it would take to get the advantages canonical where working on with telegram compared to an alternative decision that we could make?

What am I trying to get at?

Basically that if we added the call feature to the this telegram app at this point, if you switched from the telegram app to something else, the call would abruptly end, so we can't just tackle this via app developers, we have to make decisions on the OS level, and the app has to wait for those decisions and for them decisions to be implemented.

It might be that we can just plug in telegram to use the phone app to do VoIP and then not have to worry about anything other then making there encryption work, or it might be the case that we have to change things in the OS, then spend a lot of time coding the front end of the call system for telegram, tweaking things to work correctly.

flohack · 8 May 2017, 18:23

Yes thats all very true.

What I can see from today is a few possible workaround: You could explain that calls in the beginning will need an announcement by a normal message, which will be delivered by then hopefully still working notifications, and then the other party can respond by switching on Telegram an start a call ("You have a callback pending...") - As there are no costs involved, its just a not-so-comfortable way. Active calls would be possible.
I do not like the idea of a centralized messaging app. Many other unified messenger have failed to deliver what people want: Simply all features. Telegram is so special already that a unified messenger again has to make compromises regarding which features will work, which wont. My goal is to have 100% feature parity with the official client.
The current plan is to catch up with the most important features first (supergroups, secret chats, 2-factor auth etc) and then stabilize the code as much as possible.
You can see on Github the Issue list and where we are targeting the issues to. Currently we are targeting for 3.x release for the next months and 3.1 probably end of year.

bq4.5 · 5 Jun 2017, 10:49

Bug reporting:

I have tried to leave an old chat and delete it, both options are not working, even you get a question if you want to allow the action.

BQ E4.5

flohack · 5 Jun 2017, 12:52

@bq4.5 Was it a secret chat?

bq4.5 · 6 May 2017, 14:23

@Flohack said in Telegram-App: Improvements:

@bq4.5 Was it a secret chat?

Just a normal chat and it seems i can't delete any chat even with people that have uninstalled telegram from their phones. Will submit a bug and print screen to https://github.com/ubports/telegram-app/issues.

flohack · 6 Aug 2017, 08:24

Guys,

please help me decide for the size of the reworked attachment panel:

Left is the current version. The middle and right are trimmed down each. I tried on my E5 and I like the middle one best. The advantage of the smallest one would be that there is more room for future buttons (like for example Contact/vCard).

BR