Telegram interview

6⃣ Which post are you most proud of, and which one do you wish you hadn’t made?

Hard to pick one. That first post clapping back against some Indian MP was probably the first real test of the new Twitter M.O. No ragrets.

7⃣ Let’s move on to Telegram: why should someone choose Telegram over another messaging app that focuses on security?

Every other app out there does what it does to make their shareholders rich. That's great if you're a shareholder, less so if you're a user. Telegram is monetized just enough to keep itself afloat and so the priority is making a service that works well and respects its users.

8⃣ What is your favorite Telegram feature, and why?

Again, hard to pick just one. The Edit feature is one I use constantly every day but the sticker maker is hard to beat for the memes.

9⃣ What is the best part of being the administrator of the X account of one of the largest messaging apps in the world?

Complete freedom to do as one pleases. There's no approval process, no mandates, no performance reviews. At no point is it there to sell anything or to try and convince users of things. It's just a good time. The instructions were clear: "don't be predictable" and "fear no one".

1⃣ And finally, what advice would you give to someone who would like to join the Telegram team?

Learn broadly - seek out culture, history, pop media, poetry, art. Focus specifically - know your niche and hone it into an art. Be funny - take an improv class if you must.

If you want to be on the tech side of things, I can't really give any advice except be the very best and win a contest. Being funny probably doesn't help there.

Cheers. 😽

🎤 Thanks to @Telegram (𝕏) for accepting the interview, Telegram X account admin and streamer.

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1⃣ Alright, intern, let’s start from the beginning. How did you discover and get the job as the administrator of Telegram’s X account, and how did you feel when you received confirmation that you had been hired?

Pretty simple. A friend tipped me off to a job posting on telegram.org/jobs for writers. I went and applied through the jobs bot and did some writing tasks. A few weeks later, woke up to a message from some stranger named Markus saying he had an offer I shouldn't refuse.

So I didn't.

2⃣ Your posts are truly iconic and unconventional. Do you think other companies or social media platforms should also use a more playful approach when communicating with their users?

Probably not. Other companies have to keep board members and execs and investors happy and most of them care only about money. I answer to one man and he likes funny.

3⃣ How do you respond to criticism from people who say that an official account should post fewer memes and be more diplomatic?

I heard there are ten million branded accounts putting out corpo slop. I'm sure they can find one boring enough to make them happy.

4⃣ Do you think your posts accurately reflect the average Telegram user and the platform’s ideals?

God I hope not.

5⃣ It seems that there are multiple people behind the Telegram Intern role. Is that the case? If so, how many of you are there, and how do you organize yourselves?

I'm me but sometimes I'm he and together we're we except when we're thee. Intern is a state of mind.

7⃣ Besides your leak channels, you’ve also released other projects on Telegram, such as @gifts_detector. Which project are you most proud of whether it’s yours or one you contributed to and why?

I've contributed to several Telegram-related products that people still use today. At the same time, I can't really say I'm especially proud of most of the projects I created entirely by myself. Many of them eventually died because they required much more time and maintenance than I was able to give them. My most popular personal project is probably @gifts_detector. Maybe in the near future, especially with the help of modern AI models, I'll be able to revive some of the projects I worked on in the past.

8⃣ Let’s talk about one of the most controversial and discussed matters regarding you. dictionary.tg reports an event involving you and pyrouser, where an argument escalated into doxxing. Would you like to explain what really happened how a simple opinion about a bot led to a near arrest, and how the whole situation eventually ended?

There was a conflict between me and Aleksandr (Mark) where we had very different opinions and statements about each other. Unfortunately, it escalated far beyond what the original disagreement was about, and personal information ended up being shared by people on multiple sides, including third parties and supporters. I don't think there's much value in restarting that conflict today or going through every accusation again. People who are genuinely interested in the history of it can probably still find archived discussions and old posts, but personally I consider it something that should have been handled very differently by everyone involved.

9⃣ Which Telegram projects that you were not involved in are your favorites, and do you know the people behind them?

I know people behind quite a few projects that are still popular in the Telegram ecosystem. One of my personal favorites is My Wallet, formerly MyTonWallet. I really like the direction in which the project has been growing, as well as the way the team communicates with and supports its users.

1⃣ Do you plan to create new projects or develop new initiatives related to the ones you’re currently working on?

I'm honestly not sure yet, and I don't want to make promises about the future. Right now, there aren't many new public Telegram projects that I'm especially interested in building from scratch. I'm more interested in creating tools and automations for my own use. That said, I'll probably still try to revive several of my older projects.

💬 Telegram isn't a perfect platform and has a huge problem with OSINT bots and exploits being discovered every day. What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever been threatened as a result of your public role? If so, how did you react?

I haven't really been seriously threatened because of being a public person. Actually, I enjoy the small amount of recognition that comes with it. Sometimes I join a chat and people I've never met say something like, "Hey Aryn, I know you," and then tell me they've seen my posts or used one of the projects I worked on. I think that's pretty cute, and moments like that have definitely motivated me to keep doing public projects and sharing things with the community.

🎤 Thanks to @qaztech for accepting the interview, Telegram veteran and founder of @adurovleaks.

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1⃣ Tell me about your main projects, @durovleaks and @adurovleaks. How did they start and why?

@durovleaks isn't actually my project — I'm only an admin there. It was created to post some of the most interesting information about Telegram, the Durov brothers, and people around them. @adurovleaks is basically my own spin-off of @durovleaks, with less censorship. It's a place where I can express my own opinions more freely and sometimes post more provocative stuff. 🍆

2⃣ You’ve leaked a huge amount of information about Durov, his family, some members of the Telegram staff, and internal features of the app. How did you gain access to all this information?

A lot of it comes from researching and reverse-engineering publicly accessible content and Telegram itself — for example, projects like @tgcrawl. For some other things, I also had several people with internal knowledge who sent me information over time.

3⃣ Have you ever received strikes on your channels or limitations on your account after major leaks, such as revealing addresses or private chats?

Yes. I received a strike once after publishing personal information related to Durov's family. Looking back, I regret publishing information about people close to him who had nothing to do with Telegram itself. Those were probably some of the biggest mistakes I made. I was much younger at the time and didn't fully understand the consequences of exposing someone's personal information. I think there should be a clear line between someone's professional activity and their family.

4⃣ You’re now a veteran of Telegram. What discovery or experience has surprised you the most overall, and why?

Probably realizing how real and sometimes surprisingly simple certain bugs can be. A lot of vulnerabilities can be fixed if they are reported properly, but unfortunately, effectively reporting unusual or complicated issues isn't equally accessible to everyone. In some cases, it helps a lot to know someone inside Telegram who can make sure the report reaches the right people.

5⃣ Is there anything you still haven’t published because it was too personal or because it went against your ethics?

Yes. There were definitely things I decided not to publish because, after thinking about them more carefully, I felt they crossed a line or were simply too personal. I don't remember every specific example today, but over time my attitude toward this kind of information has changed quite a lot.

6⃣ What do you think about Pavel Durov and the way he has been managing Telegram lately? Many recent updates focus on gifts, the introduction of advertising, and a UI design that has been increasingly debated between “liquid glass” and Android looking more and more like a copy of iOS.

I think Pavel managed Telegram very well for many years, especially if we put aside things like moderation, reports, and user support. Personally, I like things such as Gifts, collectible numbers, Premium, and other monetization features. Telegram needs sustainable ways to make money, and I think these features are much better than relying entirely on traditional advertising. I still think Telegram is being managed well today, but it feels less transparent than before. There are strange bans, moderation decisions, abuse-related controversies, employee stories, and various internal dramas that sometimes raise questions. As for the design, I actually like the iOS-style "Liquid Glass" direction. I haven't used the native Telegram Android app enough recently to give a strong opinion about it. What I do think both platforms still need is better optimization. Telegram has definitely not been very kind to my iPhone battery over the years. :)

7⃣ What is the hardest type of spam to fight? And what practical advice can you give to group administrators?

The hardest spam to catch is the kind that isn't sent in mass blasts and involves manually written messages. Detecting AI-generated text isn't difficult, and mass mailings are easy to spot too - but when neither of those signals is present, it becomes a problem. For that scenario there is a report-and-global-ban system: a spammer manually blocked in response to a user or admin report gets banned across all chats.

8⃣ One of the features available in @LolsBot is the user “lookup,” which shows some user statistics such as the number of groups a user is in, previous usernames, and more. Don’t you think some of this information could be used by malicious actors or to support OSINT bots?

Of course, any publicly available information about users can be used for both good and bad purposes. But in Lols case, the amount of publicly accessible data is very limited, and there are no plans to expand functionality in that direction.

9⃣ How useful is AI for detecting spam compared to traditional rule-based systems?

Rule-based spam detection makes sense within a specific chat, but it still requires daily tuning to keep up with new spammers. Neural networks can significantly improve detection quality, but they consume more resources and demand a more deliberate approach than it might seem at first glance - especially when dealing with tens of thousands of chats with very different user behavior patterns.

1⃣Can you tell us about the future plans for @LolsBot?

The main near-term plans remain: improving bot accuracy, automating tasks that currently require manual intervention, optimizing costs and architecture, and of course expanding the bot's admin feature set. Right now the focus is primarily on anti-spam functionality rather than other useful features that currently push admins to use additional bots (sometimes paid ones) in their groups.

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🎤 Thanks to @lolsUserbot for accepting the interview, Telegram expert and founder of @LolsBot.

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1⃣ Tell us about your main project, @LolsBot How and when was it created? Was it born out of a necessity? Did other people help you develop it?

The project appeared four years ago out of an urgent need for effective tools to fight spammers. I tried various big group admin bots that existed at the time, but none of them could provide proper anti-spam functionality. They all only had customizable filters, where you had to add new stop words every day or prevent users from sending any links and photos at all.

Since then, other bots have of course continued to improve as well, but fighting spam is still not their main priority. That's why it hasn't been difficult for me to remain a leader in this field despite the complete absence of any paid promotion or advertising.

Other people definitely help too - with advice, testing, and by reporting missed spam cases and false positives. Thanks to this, the bot never stands still and continues to develop constantly.

2⃣ What has been the most complex part of programming @LolsBot?

I can't single out any particular part of the work on the bot as the most difficult. My specialization isn't related to programming or engineering, so all of this was new to me. A huge number of different technologies were used in working on the bot. Some have already been discarded as unsuitable, but it still represents a zoo of technologies that other developers often call incompatible or unsuitable for solving this task. But for me, it's an interesting experiment and a way of self-development. The whole project is just a hobby for me.

3⃣ In 2023, you said you were spending $940 per month on server maintenance. Can you tell us how much you spend today to keep the project running, and what percentage of the costs is covered by the bot’s premium users?

As of today, the bot costs approximately $1,300 per month, and this amount is covered 200% by paid subscribers - and their number continues to grow despite Telegram being blocked in Russia.

4⃣ Was it difficult to convince group owners to use your bot? And how did you manage to make Lols so popular?

Convincing group admins that the bot is safe for them is quite difficult. Many worry even about the bot stealing their group, although that is technically impossible. A more realistic risk is false positives, especially in groups where advertising is allowed. Early on I spent a lot of time communicating with admins, but I stopped doing that because I often get a negative reaction when a stranger reaches out to offer help - sometimes they even accuse me of organizing the spam attack myself.

Nowadays admins add the bot themselves, seeing it work well in other groups or on the advice of fellow admins.

5⃣ In your opinion, what features should a good moderation bot have in order to be effective?

In my view, a good moderator bot is one that works automatically and requires no daily attention from admins. With Lols, some admins forget about spammers and occasionally remove the bot thinking the problem has gone away, only to bring it back a few days later.

6⃣ What could Telegram do today to better limit spam in groups?

Telegram has enormous potential to make anti-spam efforts far more effective, since they have access to a large amount of user activity data. However, many spammers pay for Premium subscriptions - which may give Telegram an incentive to look the other way and offload the problem to bots. That said, Telegram was originally conceived as a base platform whose functionality is extended by third-party bots. The catch is that bots don't have access to all the methods available to regular admins, which complicates spam detection.

💬 Telegram isn't a perfect platform and has a huge problem with OSINT bots and exploits being discovered every day. What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever been threatened as a result of your public role? If so, how did you react?

Telegram, like any large platform, is not perfect. Managing and controlling issues such as OSINT bots and emerging exploits at scale is extremely challenging. I believe the platform still has room to improve in addressing these concerns, and I hope stronger solutions will be developed over time.
Regarding personal experience, yes—I have faced situations involving threats. At times, I’ve been offered money to promote certain content or to criticize specific topics, and I’ve also received threats due to my involvement in reporting harmful activities. For example, I previously worked with a team to identify and report channels that were sharing illegal content, including material involving minors, which led to further backlash.
In such situations, I choose not to engage. I ignore these threats and continue focusing on my work. I stand by what I believe is fair and right, and I do not compromise my principles under pressure. Criticism is acceptable, but threats are not.

7⃣ Recently, there was a lot of buzz around the news that Nekogram was allegedly collecting users’ phone numbers (and possibly other data). Did you use Nekogram? And do you think this is a risk users should be aware of when using third-party clients, or is it unacceptable and surprising that Nekogram had a “dark side”?

I generally do not recommend using unofficial clients. I have tested several of them for evaluation purposes, and while some can be useful for specific features, they often bypass certain Telegram security measures. If users choose to use third-party clients, they should be fully aware of the risks involved. There are many such applications available, and like any technology, they can have a “dark side.” It’s important to use them responsibly, stay informed, and be prepared for potential worst-case scenarios. I would also like to highlight a recent Telegram update that introduces a security alert on the profiles of users who use third-party apps. This alert informs others that messages sent to them may be less secure, helping users better understand the risks associated with unofficial clients.

8⃣ What do you think is Telegram’s biggest issue today?

Previously, one of Telegram’s biggest issues was stability, but it has improved significantly over time. I’ve personally reported several bugs to the developers, and many of them were fixed quickly, which shows strong responsiveness from the team. That said, Telegram still lacks certain features that are available in other messaging apps. Earlier, major concerns included connectivity issues—especially instability in voice and video calls—as well as delayed notifications in chats. Another growing concern is the increasing number of government restrictions and bans in certain regions, which can affect accessibility and user trust. However, one of the biggest challenges today is user perception. Many people still don’t fully recognize Telegram as a powerful primary messaging platform and continue to rely on other apps instead.

9⃣ Beyond your own projects within the Telegram community, which channels, bots, or mini apps do you appreciate the most and think have done a great job?

There are many great channels in the Telegram ecosystem, although unfortunately, several of the ones I appreciated the most are no longer active. I do miss many of those communities, as they played an important role in shaping the platform.
At the same time, there are newer channels that are doing an excellent job today and continuing to grow the ecosystem. When it comes to bots, I’ve seen many useful ones in the past, but it’s disappointing that several of them are no longer maintained or have stopped working. As for mini apps, I believe they have huge potential and are one of Telegram’s most promising features. However, I haven’t come across many truly impressive mini apps yet, which feels like a missed opportunity at this stage.

1⃣ If you had to give advice to someone who wants to start a news or leak channel, what would it be?

Go for it—don’t hesitate. This doesn’t apply just to channels, but to anything you’re passionate about. If you have an idea and the drive to pursue it, take the initiative and start. Focus on building something meaningful rather than chasing money. Do it for the passion and the value you can provide. Most importantly, stay consistent—long-term dedication is what truly makes the difference.

🎤 Thanks to @starusername for accepting the interview, Telegram expert and founder of @NewsAndTipsNT.

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1⃣ Well Rohan, let’s start with your biggest project: News and Tips. How did it begin? Did you get help from anyone, or was it something you initially built on your own?

It actually surprised me how the News and Tips channel grew to become so successful and impactful. The origin of the channel is quite interesting and a bit funny as well.

I am a strong tech enthusiast, and I found the Telegram application particularly fascinating. When I started exploring it, I joined several groups to ask questions and learn more. However, many of these groups were highly restricted, and in some cases, I was even removed because my questions were considered too simple or repetitive.

That experience motivated me to create a space where users could freely ask questions without feeling judged. I also wanted to build a platform without third-party advertisements, as they were very common and often intrusive at that time.

Initially, I built the channel entirely on my own without any help. As it started growing, many subscribers began supporting me—some contributed by sending gifts, and others helped in building bots and managing the channel

2⃣ Today, News and Tips is a major Telegram channel with a strong community. What do you think has been the key to this success, and what have you offered that other news channels haven’t?

Our key to success was providing fast and reliable updates, along with accurate predictions. In the earlier stages, consistency and timing played a major role in building trust with our audience. However, over time, I became busy with other commitments, which affected that consistency to some extent. If you look at our track record, the channel has successfully predicted several major developments in Telegram, including the current integration of AI features. I believe this forward-looking approach is something that set us apart from many other news channels.

3⃣ As of today, how much are you personally involved in the news published on the channel, and how many contributors are working behind News and Tips?

As of now, I am still the primary content creator and publisher for the channel. Recently, a new admin, @, joined, and both of us are actively involved in editing and managing the content.
Additionally, Nick (@godspro) supports us by providing useful bot that help with automation of beta files. We also have another admin, but he is not currently active.

4⃣ In your opinion, what has been your best post in terms of originality, timeliness, or uniqueness on News and Tips?

There have been several posts that contributed to making News and Tips unique in terms of originality and timeliness. It’s difficult to single out just one, as many of them played a role in shaping the channel’s identity. However, I’ve compiled a list of some of our most notable and impactful posts, which you can check here: https://t.me/NewsAndTipsNT/1139⁠�

5⃣ Have there ever been difficult periods for your channel? Did you ever consider shutting it down?

Yes, there have been difficult periods, and in fact, we are going through one right now especially for me personally. However, despite these challenges, I have never seriously considered shutting down the channel. During this time, @ has been a great support and a valuable helping hand in managing and maintaining the channel.

6⃣ Besides News and Tips, you’ve developed other projects like @InternationalInsider. Which project are you most attached to? And is there a project of yours that never saw the light of day?

@InternationalInsider was a very ambitious project and still has strong growth potential. However, managing two channels at the same time has been challenging for me, so I’ve decided to focus primarily on News and Tips for now. As for other projects, there aren’t any that never saw the light of day. These two are the main projects I’ve worked on.

1⃣ Nowadays @iDubTG is not very active. In a previous response you mentioned that you stepped away from the project to focus more on your private life. Have you lost some of the passion and curiosity you used to have for Telegram? And would you ever consider coming back to posting in the future?

This is a great question that I felt like I didn't address properly on my channel, so I'm going to address it here. As you may notice from some of my answers, I'm basically like a literal grandpa when it comes to Telegram now. I still keep in contact with some of my friends in the community on this app, even them showing me new features, but I'm still so out of touch now. I haven't been looking at the community as a whole for nearly 2 years; I'm entirely out of my depth in everything Telegram now. I genuinely couldn't tell you anything new.

I can see how much the app has improved; I always get whiplash every time I open Telegram Beta Chat, seeing how much has changed and how the chat I once spoke in every day has adapted to it's new features. I wouldn't really call myself an "OG" at all though; even though I was here since 2020-2021, some have been here even longer.

Why did I disappear? I don't exactly know. Maybe I got bored, but I simply just gradually stopped interacting with the community as much, each day interacting less until I basically didn't anymore. Maybe it's that, and a combination of my final exams at the place I was studying and a big switch in my life, but I'm still not entirely sure. I guess I just lost the great passion and interest I had in this app, and through no fault of Telegram did this happen. I was extremely curious to find new features and bugs in this app, but I simply just don't feel like that anymore, most likely because I'm an adult now, and I've "grown out of it" or "grown up".

It's kind of sad, in a way. I still get nostalgia from the old times in Telegram, the times I had in the community, the friends I had here, and also the projects and just overall cool creative ideas that came out of my young imaginative mind. It's time from a bygone era of my life, though.

Do I see myself coming back? Most likely not, but you never know. It's not like I'm entirely against me coming back, but the only way I'd return is if my passion and curiosity for this app comes back, for whatever reason. Maybe some insane future event will happen that brings me back here; I literally cant say. I genuinely have no earthly idea.

5⃣ One of the most interesting projects you collaborated on is dictionary.tg. What motivated you to create it, how long did it take to gather all the information, and most importantly, where and how to get the information?

dictionary.tg was/is a project that I helped on, providing ideas, etc. The initial idea (not mine) was to have a Wikipedia like structure, but we eventually settled on making a dictionary. There were a multitude of features that I brainstormed, such as having an iceberg for the dictionary (like those lore iceberg images, but instead it's how well known the knowledge is) dictionary games, and much further expansion. Ultimately, not much came to fruition. Gathering information was a very gradual process which didn't take any specified amount of time, we mostly added definitions as we went along. We gathered sources from what we deemed as "reputable". Admittedly, we didn't put enough thought into this at the beginning.

6⃣ Which community-made projects on Telegram do you appreciate the most, and which ones inspired you to start creating your own?

Back in the day, at my youthful age, I loved custom Telegram clients, more specifically TGX for a period of time, and wished to build a Telegram client using TDLib, entirely from scratch for Android. This idea never happened as I'm no programmer, and even if it did, It'd be nigh impossible.

7⃣ One of the most controversial topics on Telegram is gifts. What do you think about the direction Telegram gifts have taken from 2024 up to today?

I saw gifts as an idea that made sense from Telegram's perspective, at least back then. I don't keep up to date with most features now, but as a rule of thumb, when thinking about most features, you have to not only think from your perspective, but Telegram's as well. You can see how they've matured the feature over time, and if Telegram just purely made messaging featured, it'd become oversaturated, and they'd run out of ideas or get idea burnout much faster.

8⃣ Do you think Telegram has improved over time in terms of moderation, support, community, and features?

Honestly, I've not really been on Telegram much in recent times, but from what I've gotten glimpse at, it looks like they are trying to minimize their spam issues.

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🎤 Thanks to @iDubno for accepting the interview, Telegram old-school insider and creator of @iDubTG.

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1⃣ First of all, tell me how your main channel @iDubTG was born. What was your original goal? Did anyone encourage or push you to create it?

At the time, I felt like most Telegram news channels were reporting on the same pieces of information, and that there was nothing really "exclusive" that set any other channel apart. Furthermore, speed and grammar was a major issue I saw in channels back then. My original goal when it was first created was to have Telegram news, but focused on speed. As time went on, "exclusive" news became a large part of it, posting information that no other channel had, as at my young age back then, I saw this as a brilliant idea. No one really pushed me to create It, it was just a spur of the moment idea.

2⃣ What do you think set your news/leak channel apart from others covering Telegram?

As the channel progressed, many people, and also a "secret" society on Telegram that I will for all intents and purposes in this interview call the "Telegram FBI", most likely started to notice that my channel began posting very vague posts, some with images, and some with random bold texts or meanings.

These were called "hints", which would hint at new / upcoming features on Telegram much before other news channels did, and back then, my young optimist self thought I was a genius that just invented an infallible news system. I couldn't have been more wrong. These "hint" posts, got more ambitious as time went on. Some of the news I was considering posting at the time was very risky, but certainly not as risky as some other channels were going about it. The majority of leak channels back then would fail spectacularly, as they couldn't help being noisy about what they discovered, and also sharing what they discovered in harmful ways.

Back then, certain channels would post entire full videos from private clients detailing leaked features in their entirety. Most channels that did this either stopped, or caused the clients they were using to be revoked, and the restrictions made tighter, as many people fled to using these clients, but the clients were made for bug testing, not to gawk at unreleased features. I thought that by not directly showing the features, I could get away with not being interrogated by the "Telegram FBI". I was very wrong.

It was a very wild time for me back then, I started making posts without considering the risk it caused, which got me into a lot of trouble. I got heavily questioned into how on earth I was predicting and hinting at features on my channel like some goddamn sooth sayer, and where exactly I was obtaining this information from. iDubTG started to get subscribers from certain people, and also some from the "Telegram FBI", so it was clear they knew I had more than I was letting on at the time.

But don't worry, Telegram FBI! If you're reading this interview, I haven't been involved in the community for over 2 years. I literally know nothing. I couldn't even tell you the latest features of Telegram.

3⃣ Which post are you the most proud of, and which one gave you the most satisfaction after publishing it?

This is an easy question to answer. The post I made regarding the stories feature link was hands down the best one, as no channel had reported or caught any sign of the stories feature. It got spread everywhere and basically boosted my channel completely, giving me motivation to post more.

4⃣ Have you ever worked on any side projects that you never officially released?

Technically, yes. I was going to post a ARG analogue style horror on my channel wherein I gradually revealed the existence of the stories feature, but I never completed it. Additionally, there was some expansion ideas I had for the iDubTG Podcast that never happened, such as inviting more guests and doing interviews.

6⃣ How did the other TSF members react when you decided to leave?
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7⃣ You leaked a significant amount of internal TSF data. After doing so, did you receive any direct or indirect threats from the team? Do you still maintain contact with former TSF members, or did they all turn their backs on you?

I didn't leave voluntarily; I was kicked. At first, the team reacted calmly, but after the aggressive leaks, some became angry - especially Ark that joined the team the same day as me (sorry, Ark). There weren't any threats, just complaints. I no longer maintain contact with any of them.

8⃣ Can you explain in detail the issues related to the TSF working environment?

I can't remember specific details anymore, and many would likely be outdated anyway. Rumor has it that a lot has changed since I was let go.

9⃣ Beyond the negative aspects of your time in the TSF, did the experience leave you with anything valuable? In other words, did you learn any important lessons from what some refer to as Telegram’s “Pentagon”?

Yes, it was interesting to see the inner workings, and I definitely improved my communication skills. For the most part, the main issue at the time was the lack of communication with other Telegram teams and the high number of "inactive" TSF members; only a few were actually active. I don't know how things are going on now.

1⃣ Is there anything you still haven’t leaked because it is too personal or private?

No. Most of the leaks were just random screenshots I had taken.

💬 Telegram isn't a perfect platform and has a huge problem with OSINT bots and exploits being discovered every day. What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever been threatened as a result of your public role? If so, how did you react?

It is a real problem, but it's mostly a flaw of governments and services that don't prioritize user data security. I have been doxxed a couple of times, but it was completely unrelated to the TSF or my role there.

🎤 Thanks to @youtyay for accepting the interview, Telegram veteran and ex-TSF.

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⚠️ Message from youtya:

First of all, I would like to apologize to any TSF member reading this. I was quite immature back then. While I remain a Telegram critic (though I continue to use it due to a lack of alternatives), I realize now that I should have expressed my opinions regarding Telegram and TSF policy directly to the team and left on more professional terms.

I also want to tell everyone: TSF isn't some deep, mysterious layer of the "Telegram iceberg." Don’t think I'm "cool" just because I'm ex-TSF. I'm just a regular person. Perhaps I was a bit childish and enjoyed the status back then, but now I no longer want to be associated with it.

1⃣ I would like to retrace with you the journey that led you to join the TSF and leave it by leaking a large amount of sensitive data. How did you first get involved with Telegram, and what did you like about the platform at the beginning?
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2⃣ How did you first hear about the TSF, and how long after that did you apply to join? Were you helped by anyone during this process?

I wanted to join the TSF because I was trying to dig into Telegram as deeply as possible. Between 2018 and 2020, the platform and its features were incredibly attractive to me. I was trying to figure out how everything worked internally, finding every Telegram-related channel or bot, and exploring every page of their website. One of those pages was tsf.telegram.org. I applied immediately.

3⃣ We know that it can take a very long time to be accepted as a Telegram supporter; sometimes even years. When you were finally accepted into the team, were you excited, or had you almost forgotten that you had even applied?

It took about 1.5 to 2 years from my first application to receive a response from @TelegramAuditions. I don't know the exact timeframe because I deleted my initial application and resubmitted a new one on March 21, 2022. I finally got a reply on November 22. I was just walking in the park when the message arrived. Words can't describe how happy I was, as I had almost forgotten I'd even applied. Of course, I had been prepared to be ignored, as that had happened before when Telegram was looking for Content Moderators and left many applicants without an answer after the test tasks.

I was interviewed that same day by Nick via the @TelegramAuditions account. The interview ended abruptly after I answered one of the questions. The next message I received was on December 24 - it was the onboarding instructions. My work began that day.

4⃣ How long did you serve as a TSF member before you began to realize that something was wrong?
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5⃣ Was there a specific tipping point that made the situation unbearable?

It took me about 1-2 weeks to realize that the TSF (at least the CIS segment) and Telegram itself were quite a mess. I was faced with a paradoxical mix of chaos and strict subordination. I can't recall every detail, but I was shocked by how Support handled questions: many were skipped and forgotten, or answered using unfitting templates. Despite being an unpaid volunteer (aside from a free Premium subscription once a month for meeting the quota), you are expected to maintain and even "beautify" Telegram's image. There is a very thin line between what is considered a correct or incorrect answer.

At the same time, Telegram began its aggressive monetization, and most new features were just minor client-side tweaks. I didn't like that direction. I continued answering questions, but simultaneously started leaking some data to my friends. Once I realized I was likely going to be kicked out, I collected more data. Shortly after, I received a message from Daria informing me of my dismissal.

1⃣ Many community-driven projects have been developed on Telegram, and Italians have been busy contributing to the platform over time. Some stand out, such as Group Help, OctoGram, BotsArchive, and so on. What are your favorite projects, both Italian and non-Italian?

It's true, the Italian community on Telegram has been surprisingly active over time. Comparatively, there have been many notable Italian projects, sometimes even more visible than those from other countries, and that's something to think about.

Among the Italian projects, a special mention definitely goes to Bruno's Channel Help, which I've used extensively and consider an example of a useful and well-thought-out project for the platform.

As for international projects, I'm particularly attached to the tginfo community, started by Antonio Maretti. It's a project I care deeply about, also because I'm an active member: I helped found and manage the Chinese division. It's one of those examples where the community truly manages to create something lasting and international.

💬 Telegram isn't a perfect platform and has a huge problem with OSINT bots and exploits being discovered every day. What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever been threatened as a result of your public role? If so, how did you react?

I prefer not to go into too much detail because these are also personal experiences, but yes: Telegram still has several difficulties in managing unpleasant situations such as doxxing, abuse, and exploits related to OSINT bots.

Over time, I've been subjected to various types of attacks, mostly related to my visibility and activity on the platform. The main problem is that, for a "normal" user, it's very difficult to get effective support through official channels. Reports are also often handled not based on the severity of the case, but rather according to automated mechanisms that primarily take into account the volume of reports, some of which are supported by automated systems.

This has led to the emergence of third-party projects that seek to fill these gaps, helping users and communities manage situations that Telegram still struggles to address directly. It must be said that the situation has improved compared to the past, but there remains a clear lack of human resources dedicated to these issues, especially considering the scale of the platform.

It's a delicate and complex topic, but I believe it's one of the aspects on which Telegram should invest more in the future

6⃣ Given your contributions to Telegram, have you ever received recognition from other important key figures or directly from the Telegram team?

The concept of "recognition" is relative. I've interacted with prominent developers and Telegram insiders, and I've received positive feedback from people I consider important in the industry. However, I've never received direct public recognition from Telegram.

I've actively contributed to several PR , some of which were actually merged after private discussions with the developers. In general, however, Telegram isn't a platform that gives formal recognition, not even to figures like Evgeny Nadymov, the creator of Telegram's first web implementations.

Personally, I don't give it too much weight, you work and contribute because it's useful to the project, without expecting official recognition.

7⃣ Let's get a little more personal now. Besides this account, have you had any others in the past? If so, what happened to them?

Yes, I had another account in the past, but unfortunately I lost it due to my own mistake. I forgot to update my phone number and took an action that resulted in a temporary soft ban. After that, I was unable to log in again because I no longer had access to the associated number.

Fortunately, Telegram now offers solutions like passkey access, which makes it much easier to avoid similar problems.

8⃣ Besides being a Telegram user, do you work in tech outside of social media, or is your nature completely different?

I'd say I'm a multicultural and multifaceted person. I've worked in various fields: UX design, Android development, marketing design, and I have experience as a freelance software engineer. I also occasionally open illustration commissions on my Twitter page, but it's not a regular activity.

I'd say I'm not strictly technical by nature; I'm also very interested in the humanities, so I always try to combine creative and technological skills in my projects.

9⃣ Is there anything you absolutely can't stand about Telegram? Both on the technical and front-end fronts, let's say, whether it's the much-discussed gifts since their release, the lack of customization for bots, or the graphical direction Tandorid is taking, which is heavily oriented toward iOS...

Yes, there are some things I struggle to appreciate about Telegram today, both technically and organizationally. Over the years, the platform's philosophy has changed, or at least the perception many developers had of it.

From an administrative standpoint, joining the development team is quite complex: very specific skills are required, including knowledge of the Russian language, as Pavel Durov prefers to communicate directly with the team in a natural way. This choice is consistent with his vision, but it makes entry difficult for many international developers.

Visually, Telegram Android isn't necessarily ugly, but the direction it's taken is heavily inspired by iOS. Personally, I would have preferred a style closer to Material 3 Expressive, but it should be noted that this isn't a news: Telegram has always followed the iOS aesthetic on Android. Durov has repeatedly demonstrated his appreciation for iOS design, even though he doesn't share its ecosystem, so in this respect he's been consistent over time.

From a technical and backend perspective, one of the most frustrating aspects is the strong tendency to maintain legacy components. A concrete example is group calls, which use a very old version of WebRTC, causing instability and frequent crashes. I had previously reported this issue, and the Google team also confirmed that the cause was related to custom thread management implementations, which were later superseded by the adoption of more modern standards like C++17.

In summary, Telegram remains a powerful platform, but some technical and organizational choices make it more difficult for developers to contribute effectively.

3⃣ You chose to develop and dedicate a lot of time to Telegram. Why here? What does Telegram offer that other social networks/messaging apps don't?

In reality, choosing Telegram wasn't immediate or planned, but rather the result of a natural progression. I started using Telegram in 2017, at the suggestion of a colleague while I was working at a startup; it was the primary communication tool within the team. From there, over time, I began to meet more and more people and feel part of the environment.

Many of the people I met were bot developers and open source projects, like Bruno, Guard, Tappo, and Xene. Hanging out with this community almost naturally made me want to develop on Telegram, because it was a vibrant, collaborative, and technically stimulating ecosystem.

Compared to other messaging platforms, Telegram offers features that are hard to find elsewhere: a strong focus on developers, powerful and relatively open APIs, a highly active community, and a user-centric philosophy. Being a free platform, with an open source foundation and no aggressive advertising model, has fostered a healthier environment for experimentation and collaboration.

It's precisely this combination, technique, community, and vision, that has driven me to stay on Telegram and invest so much time and effort into it.

4⃣ Do you have any future plans or projects ready to be released to the public?

I currently have no projects ready for immediate release to the public. I prefer to be very cautious about this aspect, because over the years I've learned that releasing something just for the sake of "releasing" a project rarely yields good results.

That said, there are some interesting ideas and possibilities. One in particular concerns NTgCalls: the core is currently already compiled on Android and is used unofficially by projects like Telegram X. In the future, I would like to be able to collaborate more directly with developers in the Telegram Android ecosystem to create a more robust and official integration.

For now, however, I prefer to focus on improving and maintaining what exists, rather than announcing new releases without the right technical maturity behind them.

5⃣ As a developer, what would you like to see on Telegram that the platform doesn't offer today?

As a developer, there are several aspects of Telegram that could be improved. One of the main points concerns group calls: it would be very useful to allow bots to officially join calls, without having to resort to solutions like RTMP streaming or userbots.

RTMP, besides being a technically inelegant solution, also introduces trust and security issues. It requires providing a bot with streaming keys or sensitive credentials, and many users aren't comfortable sharing this type of information with third-party software that could potentially cause damage or be compromised. Furthermore, an RTMP stream doesn't allow the bot to actually participate in the call, severely limiting interaction.

Another important aspect concerns the Bot API. Over time, the community has requested many features that are still only accessible via MTProto. This separation is difficult to justify from a development perspective: making more calls available in the Bot API would make the ecosystem more coherent and accessible.

Overall, Telegram has huge potential for developers, and with small but targeted improvements it could become even more robust and complete.

🎤 Thanks to @Laky64 for accepting the interview, Telegram expert and founder of PyTgCalls

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1⃣ Let's start with one of your most important projects, PyTgCalls. Tell me a something about how the idea was born, what were the obstacles to overcome, and what or who inspired you to create this library?

The PyTgCalls project was born from a concrete need and an enthusiasm shared with some friends. With the introduction of group calls on Telegram, we wanted to create something similar to Discord: the ability to play music and audio content within group calls. The main problem was that Telegram didn't provide an official API or documentation for this type of feature.

Faced with this void, I decided to start from scratch and begin studying WebRTC to understand how low-level calls worked. During this phase, I discovered that another developer, vrumger (also known as twitface), was working on an initial experimental implementation. He had already laid the foundation, but there were still several stability and connection issues, so I decided to join the project to contribute in a more structured way.

Meanwhile, there was another approach, based on the tgcalls module in Telegram Desktop, developed by MarshalX. However, we decided not to pursue that approach because it had architectural and performance limitations: the code wasn't designed for streaming, it used a very old version of WebRTC, and it wasn't optimized for intensive use.

At that point, we began to gradually build a more robust solution, starting with an initial JavaScript core (tgcallsjs), thanks also to some clarifications provided by Evgeny Nadymov on the initial implementations in the Telegram web client. The project was subsequently completely rewritten and split into two main components: NTgCalls, the C++ core, and PyTgCalls, the Python interface.

Today, the project is the result of years of study, experimentation, and collaboration, and continues to evolve thanks to the exchange of knowledge with organizations like Shiguredo, with whom we collaborate to tackle one of the most complex challenges: working with libwebrtc in C++ despite the almost total absence of official documentation.

2⃣ Besides PyTgCalls you have developed other smaller projects such as: @TestFlightTrackBot and @tgscheme... which is your favorite and why?

That's a difficult question, because I don't really have a "favorite" project, strictly speaking. Each of these works represents a different challenge and is, in some way, a little creature to which I'm attached. Furthermore, many of these projects wouldn't have reached the level of care and maturity they have today without the support and dialogue of the people around me.

That said, if I had to choose the project I'm most proud of, I'd probably say gobotapi. It's a less visible and almost "ghost" project, used by few people, but it represents a fundamental foundation. Without it, projects like tgscheme and TestFlightTrackBot probably wouldn't exist, because they're built right on top of that library. It's one of those behind-the-scenes efforts that holds everything else together.

If I had to pick the project that gave me the most trouble, I'd say TgScheme. It was the most complex and challenging from a technical standpoint, but also the one that taught me the most, especially in terms of reverse engineering and analyzing undocumented systems.

1⃣ 2025 was Telegram's year of revenue, with exponential growth in the value of anonymous numbers and the incredible popularity of NFT gifts. Do you agree with this method of earning money, and what do you think of the constant scams that unfortunately appear every day on Telegram regarding these NFTs?

It's right and inevitable that Telegram monetizes its users, and I'm happy they're doing so to ensure a sustainable future.
What saddens me most is that over the past two years, largely due to their small development team, they've focused almost exclusively on monetization and have somewhat suffered as WhatsApp and other platforms "catch up," risking going from a leader to a follower of innovation.
Scams have always been a problem on Telegram, with or without NFTs, and there's never been enough effort to address this issue.

💬 Telegram isn't a perfect platform and has a huge problem with osint bots and exploits being discovered every day. What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever been threatened as a result of your public role?

Telegram has always had this duality: on the one hand, they're very focused on offering mechanisms that allow for greater privacy, but on the other, there are many security issues (again due to the small development team) and too much openness on the social media and API levels, which exposes it to problems like OSINT bots, etc.
But this is probably also the least of the problems: there’s a whole business around scams and stolen account that’s at an all-time high, on top of all the illegal material that's always been circulating on Telegram and the moderation that has never even remotely kept pace.

5⃣ Let's talk about the latest updates, Telegram is introducing very interesting features for bot developers (e.g. use of premium emojis without nft tags, inline and non colored buttons) what do you think of this improvement, did it come too late or you simply can't wait to implement the new features?

I'm happy that Telegram has never abandoned bot updates, even though there are sometimes periods of sluggishness, useless updates, or poorly developed ones.
In my opinion, they've always handled the use of premium emojis in bots poorly; they should have immediately created an exclusive "business" subscription for bots. It didn't make sense to make people buy the NFT for exorbitant prices, and at the same time, it's a bit gratuitous to give premium emojis to 40 bots with a single Telegram Premium subscription, even though the latter is obviously "better." The fact is, they partially scammed those who bought NFTs for that reason.
As for the buttons, let's hope they're well-made, because in 10 years there have been few improvements. So, I can't wait to implement everything in my bots, and I think it will be a significant improvement in the graphics.

6⃣ You're the developer of some of the world's most popular Telegram bots, like Group Help, Channel Help, and ModularBot. How has this impacted your personal and online life? Has it become more complicated, or has it opened doors for you that once seemed impossible?

Telegram has given me so much on all fronts, and I will always be grateful that I took this opportunity 10 years ago and that people have always believed in my services.
I've also had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people who have entered my personal life, from all over Italy.
Of course, managing projects of this size has required and still requires commitment and sacrifice, but it has also given me so much unique satisfaction.

7⃣ Is Group Help still a live project in 2026? Do you want to continue working on and to follow the new needs of users?

Group Help is a very live project, and while we don't often release major public updates, there's always a lot of work going on behind the scenes to maintain and improve the various features and keep up with the increasingly sophisticated methods used to disrupt groups. Of course, I try to alternate between all my projects as needed.

8⃣ Over the years, Telegram has given birth to many entirely community-created projects, such as tginfo and adurovsleak for the old school, or telelakel and tonnel marketplace for the new... What are your favorite projects in the entire ecosystem, and what is it about them that amazes you?

Many Italian projects have been born, and many have unfortunately died. I mentioned IATA, for example, which will always remain dear to my heart and that of those who experienced it, as well as others in which I was personally involved. I'd also mention OTI, which was a great resource in the Italian landscape a few years ago.
Today, many international organizations have become true institutions, like TGInfo, and they act as a kind of glue for the entire Telegram community, which is normally scattered across the various language communities. I'm truly happy to have been following teleLakel for some time; they're doing truly incredible work and enjoying well-deserved success.

9⃣ Among the hundreds of official and unofficial clients, which one is your favorite today and the one you absolutely hate?

As an Android phone owner, I've long been a fan of Telegram Plus, but I now think the official Telegram has reached a good level of functionality, especially since they added folders. For this reason and for security reasons, I personally now prefer to use almost exclusively official clients. The Nicegram network offers many interesting features, but the client has become excessively annoying due to excessive ads.