The team behind Telega, an alternative client for the Telegram messenger, said the project will cease operations on July 1. The developers cited external restrictions from technology platforms, including the app’s removal from the App Store, as well as an inability to ensure full localization and compliance with all current requirements.
“In a year, we built a convenient and востребованное application for Russian users. Telega demonstrated a viable business model, gathered a multimillion audience, and came a long way under very difficult conditions,” the project said.
Telega was launched in April 2025. It became notably popular after Telegram was “slowed down” in Russia.
In spring 2026, the project was accused of introducing hidden functionality that allegedly made it possible to intercept all data exchanged between the app and Telegram’s servers and made the client unsafe to use. Critics specifically claimed the app could read messages without the user’s knowledge, pass data to third parties, including law enforcement, alter message content, block “undesirable” channels and accounts, and disable secret chats on command from Telega’s server.
The authors of an investigation into Telega described the client as “a cut-down version of Max.” A post on Habr said that, in some respects, Telega could be even worse because users might assume their data is protected as it is in Telegram, while years of correspondence history and channel subscriptions could in fact be exposed.
In April 2026, Telega was removed from the App Store, and the project’s security certificates were also revoked. Before that, it was reported that the client’s developers used technology solutions from VK, including a calls module and part of the server infrastructure, as well as analytics and data storage services in Yandex Cloud.