TGX-Android/Telegram-X

What it is

Telegram X is the official alternative Telegram client for Android, built on the Telegram API and MTProto through TDLib. The repository publishes the complete source code and build instructions for the client, targeting users who want a different Telegram app experience and developers who want to inspect or build it themselves. It is distributed through Google Play, Huawei AppGallery and GitHub Releases Telegram X on Google Play, with APK changes and hashes posted to the Telegram log channel APKs and Build Info.

Build from source

Building is a full Android native project, not a drop-in library, so budget for a toolchain and disk space.

1. Install git with LFS, a JDK 25 or Android Studio with a compatible bundled JDK, and rustup. On macOS or Linux, run scripts/setup-rust.sh to install the Rust version pinned in version.properties and print rust.dir for local.properties. Windows users build inside the MSYS2 UCRT64 environment and must also set msys2.dir.
2. Clone with submodules: git clone --recursive https://github.com/TGX-Android/Telegram-X tgx
3. Create local.properties in the project root with sdk.dir, rust.dir, and, for publishing, telegram.api_id and telegram.api_hash from Telegram API credentials.
4. Build from Android Studio or run ./gradlew assembleLatestDebug. To install a debug build on a connected device, use ./gradlew :app:installLatestDebug -Pabi=arm64.

A successful build produces the app for the selected ABI; without -Pabi, all native ABIs are built. Use ./gradlew :app:validateGitSetup to check that submodules and Git LFS files were fetched.

Requirements and constraints

The build needs at least 8 GB RAM and roughly 7.32 GB of disk when cloning with --shallow-submodules --depth=1, with two to five times more space for intermediate build files. The legacy flavor for Android 4.x requires an older NDK and the -PuseLegacyNdk=true -Pabi=arm32 flags. Publishing with your own app identity also requires Telegram API credentials and a Firebase configuration replacing google-services.json.

Official public builds are reproducible: the README pins the Ubuntu release used for builds before given dates and describes comparing a locally reproduced APK with the published one via apkanalyzer apk compare. For side-loaded APKs, compute the SHA-256 and check it against the log channel or the verification bot @tgx_bot. The code is GPL-3.0; bundled third-party components have their own licenses.

HotRepo's take

On 12 November 2026 the repository appeared on the Java daily list at position 17 with 6,192 stars and 1,189 forks, adding 4 stars that day. That is a modest single-day signal rather than a breakout, consistent with a long-running established client whose source release is mainly of interest to Android developers and Telegram users. The reproducible-build and APK hash verification sections are the more notable part of the project: they give readers a concrete way to check whether a downloaded APK matches published source, which is uncommon enough to be worth highlighting.