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Privacy-boosted Telegram desktop client with OpenPGP layer

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<h1 align="center">
  <img src="src/assets/ombra-chat-logo.svg" alt="OmbraChat logo" width="256" height="256"/>
  <br>
  OmbraChat
</h1>

<p align="center"><strong>Privacy-focused Telegram desktop client</strong></p>

> ⚠️ Alpha release! Expect to find bugs and missing features!

OmbraChat is a desktop client for Telegram designed for privacy-conscious nerds.

In addition to supporting secret chats and encrypting Telegram's local database, it offers some extra features like:

* The ability to associate a PGP key with a user, allowing to encrypt all standard one-on-one chats (which are not encrypted by default in Telegram). PGP encryption can also be activated within secret chats, providing an additional layer of encryption. Messages sent from a standard Telegram client will appear as .pgp files (see the screenshot below).

* An option to define a default chat group (folder) that is automatically selected when the app starts; this can be useful if you want to hide certain chats from prying eyes when opening the client.

* Deliberately avoid useless features like AI and animated stickers, as they just increase the attack surface without adding real value.

Following screenshot displays how the PGP messages are seen in OmbraChat and in the standard Telegram client:

![ombra-chat vs telegram](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat/master/screenshots/ombra-chat-comparison.png)

> ⚠️ **Disclaimer**: this app is currently a pet project and I'm not a cryptographer, so do not rely on it for highly sensitive data.

The app is named OmbraChat because "ombra" means "shadow" in Italian.

Currently it has been tested only on Linux, but it could work also on other OS.

Source code available on [GitHub](https://github.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat) and [Codeberg](https://codeberg.org/zonia3000/ombra-chat).

## Implemented features

* Text messages
* Photo messages
* Document messages
* Sharing of documents using drag and drop
* PGP encrypted text and document messages
* Easy sharing and trusting of public PGP keys
* Basic secret chats support (still buggy)
* Encrypted Telegram's local database
* Selection of default chat folder
* Chat folders creation and editing
* Chat deletion
* Basic reactions
* Emoji messages (read-only, not animated)
* Listening of voice messages (not sending)
* Light/Dark theme

## Why?

There are numerous open-source messaging applications that offer robust end-to-end encryption support. However, the existence of multiple options often leads to fragmentation, with users reluctant to create numerous accounts. Consequently, even tech-savvy individuals tend to use mostly Telegram, where encrypted chats are not created by default and not supported by the official desktop client.

This alternative client allows us to continue utilizing Telegram's infrastructure while addressing its privacy limitations. While PGP may not be user-friendly and lacks features like forward secrecy, it is still better than standard unencrypted chats. On the other hand, it's nice to have direct control over your keys instead of depending on automatic mechanisms that can be somewhat unclear.

Moreover, switching to alternative clients with their own encryption will create resistance against the rising governmental push to invade our private conversations (yes, I'm looking at you, "Chat Control 2.0").

## Install

Check the [latest release](https://github.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat/releases) for some pre-built binaries.

If you install the .deb or .rpm you will also need the libtdjson.so file. You can download it from the release page and copy it into `/usr/lib` or other proper location.

If you are using Wayland, install the .deb or .rpm rather than the AppImage, since Tauri's AppImage doesn't work well with Wayland (see https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/issues/11790).

## Configure PGP keys

### Setup your private key

During the initial configuration the app generates a PGP keypair for you. You should provide a password to encrypt the key. You have to insert this password to decrypt the key every time the app is started.

![initial configuration](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat/master/screenshots/ombra-chat-initial-config.png)

The keypair uses Curve25519 and is generated using [rPGP](https://github.com/rpgp/rpgp). You can also import an externally generated key, but consider that keys generated with GnuPG may not be fully compatible. The purpose of the "Select PGP key" button is mostly to import a key generated with OmbraChat on a different device.

Once the app is started, you can export your key from the settings modal:

![export your key](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat/master/screenshots/ombra-chat-export-key.png)

### Associate a chat with a public key

To share your public key to a friend, go to their chat, open the chat settings modal and click on the "Share public key" button.

![share your key](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat/master/screenshots/ombra-chat-share-key.png)

A special message is sent. Your friend can accept the key directly on the "Use this key" button. The new messages will be encrypted using that key. Your friend has to share their key too and you have to accept it. Ideally, you should check the keys on an external trusted channel.

![use shared key](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat/master/screenshots/ombra-chat-use-key.png)

It is also possible to manually import a key from file.

## Application data

The application stores its data in a folder that can be configured during the first setup. The default location is `~/.ombra-chat`.

Preferences are stored in `~/.local/share/net.zonia3000.ombra-chat`.

## Developing

Build tdlib using following instructions: https://tdlib.github.io/td/build.html?language=C

Alternatively, you can download the libtdjson.so from the [release page](https://github.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat/releases). You may need to configure the pkg-config file, like `/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/tdjson.pc`:

```
prefix=/usr/local

Name: tdjson
Description: Telegram Library - JSON interface (shared)
Version: 1.8.65

CFlags: -I"${prefix}/include"
Libs: -L"${prefix}/lib" -ltdjson
Requires.private: tdjson_private
```

Clone tdlib-rs in a folder at the same level of the ombra-chat repo folder:

```sh
git clone https://github.com/ombra-chat/tdlib-rs.git
```

Install [Tauri prerequisites](https://v2.tauri.app/start/prerequisites/), then clone this repo and install the app dependencies:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/ombra-chat/ombra-chat.git
cd ombra-chat
npm install
```

To run in developer mode:

```bash
npm run tauri dev
```

To build release packages:

```bash
npm run tauri build
```

## Debug

You can use the following environment variables to increase the logging. Notice that TDLib logging can be split from all the other logging, since the library can produce a very verbose output.

* `RUST_LOG=ombra_chat_lib=trace`: standard Rust logging;
* `TDLIB_LOG_LEVEL=3`: TDLib logging; values are:
    * 0: fatal errors
    * 1: errors
    * 2: warnings and debug warnings
    * 3: informational (this is usually verbose enough)
    * 4: debug
    * 5: trace
* `TDLIB_LOG_FILE`: path to a file where to redirect TDLib logs (instead of using stdout)

If `TDLIB_LOG_LEVEL` is not specified, it fallbacks to the `RUST_LOG` level.

Be also aware that TDLib log may contain sensitive data in plaintext.

## AI policy

LLM contributions are **not** welcome and it is forbidden to use this code to train AI models.

DuckDuckGo AI has been used sporadically in this project to improve some sentences in this README file and to receive some suggestions about Rust syntax. DuckDuckGo states that it doesn't use the data to further train the AI.

The maintainer of this project is concerned about ethical issues related to AI and tries to use it as little as possibile.

## License

OmbraChat is released under GPLv3.

The app is based on [tdlib](https://github.com/tdlib/td) released with Boost Software License - copyright Aliaksei Levin (levlam@telegram.org), Arseny Smirnov (arseny30@gmail.com) 2014-2025

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