So, Telegram has launched horrible ads that look a lot like spam to me. At least in my channels it’s typically some crypto bullshit. So, I wonder if people know about alternatives to the subscription service for blocking them? Sadly, Forkgram won’t offer that option and it doesn’t seem to be allowed. However, I wonder if there are still forks out there which block the ads? Or do people know of alternative options?

  • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    4 months ago

    It won’t take long for clients to pop up. But ultimately people shouldn’t rely on telegram or any billionaire backed software for pretty much anything.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    4 months ago

    It’s just a joke. I don’t want you to actually feel bad.

    But you should do some research on Telegram, and the fact that they rolled ads out on its own should be a giant Red Flag waving you down. They’re not a good company, and their homespun encryption is dubious at best.

    • Timber@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 months ago

      I know! But I don’t really have a choice currently; which app would you suggest for tickers / info channels? Mastodon would be an option, but it’s not quite the same. Abd I’d first have to convince everyone to use it :/

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        I feel that. That’s why I said it was a joke. If I could get all my people off Discord and on Matrix I would but oh well.

        Matrix/Element would be my preferred as I could self-host, but I don’t have better suggestions that are more like Telegram I am sorry to say.

      • helenslunch@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        Just be more like me and refuse to talk to people who aren’t on Signal. Works for me sometimes.

  • edric@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    4 months ago

    Huh, I clicked the link and it’s blocked by my DNS content blocker. Have you tried using an adblocker on your phone?

    • Timber@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Which one? There’s three in my post. And I do use an ad blocking DNS, but this can’t block message-like ads from Telegram. Otherwise it would have to somehow read the encrypted message content…

      • edric@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        The first one (ads). I’m not a heavy user, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen ads or sponsored messages even in unencrypted chats. I use Mullvad’s DNS blocker.

  • hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    i kinda wanna quit nowadays but android customization channels (custom roms, gcam etc) are moving there from xda nowadays so no choice :(

    wish there was some read only tg scraper.

  • shekau@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    4 months ago

    Nekogram and Mercurygram (both from F-Droid) may be the option? Using them both now and so far I dont see any ads popping up.

  • helenslunch@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    Telegram has launched horrible ads that look a lot like spam to me.

    Ads and spam are the same thing…

  • IuseArchbtw@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    While I’m not using telegram (and you should neither, it sucks and it’s bad for privacy), here are two options:

    Change your DNS. If that’s the way they’re distributing their ads, they’ll be gone

    Maybe Telegram FLOSS (F-Droid-Store) can help?

    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 months ago

      Because not everyone can cut off every bad platform. People have family and work on it and Whatsapp. Be more understanding about people’s situations.

  • Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    I was under the imoression that Telegram was a better alternative to WhatsApp but even WhatsApp doesn’t have ads. What should I be using, then?

    • RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      4 months ago

      WhatsApp kind of has ads, in the form of advertised channels and still sucks up your data. For simplicity use Signal, for decentralized and number less registration use Simplex, and if you want the maximum privacy use Briar (Briar has huge trade offs for more privacy, so unless you gotta leak some documents or something I wouldn’t use it)

    • Undertaker@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Why were you under that impression? No default encryption, no group chat encryption. Data on the servers, meta data, company resides in UAE and many more. Wenn don’t know what’s und er the hood of WhatsApp but what de know about Telegram is nauseatic

      • Rose@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        We know WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol for encryption, but it also collects a lot of metadata. Arguably still better than Telegram that collects everything. Its secret chats may be e2ee but nobody uses them even for discussing sensitive matters, and they don’t work on the Desktop.

    • doodledup@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      4 months ago

      Telegram was never a better alternative. It’s not even encrypted. All your chats go straight to Abu Dhabi where everyone can freely access them.

      Signal is a viable alternative to Whatsapp. Threema is too, but less popular.