Unigram is a Telegram UWP app for the windows 10 ecosystem. It is an alternative to the official Telegram app and targets on Xbox, PC, Windows Mobile , Surface Hub, and HoloLens. Unigram is an open-source project and has great integration for devices with Windows 10 (18362.0) or higher.
I prefer browser based chats since they are sandboxed and require very little permissions, but since Telegram Web doesn’t have the translate feature; which drove me to find a native app. The UWP app is also very light on resource and used around 50mb memory idling on the tray. It goes a little higher when you open the Unigram window.
Unigram Features
Unigram has regular messaging (including secret chats), contacts, groups, channels, stickers, animated stickers, gifs, scheduling, voice call, video calls, and more. Numerous settings give you control over the applications interface, data storage, networking, and privacy. It has almost all the options you’d expect from an official Telegram app.
They maintain updates through the Microsoft store, so it’s easy for people on Xbox and mobile devices using Windows 10. As a native app, notifications allow direct reply to messages. And you can control its notifications on Windows settings.
A full list of the features:
- Based on TDLib
- Secret chats
- Folders synced with other Telegram clients
- Instant view (now updated with the most recent 2.0)
- Multi-account
- Full featured private and group calls and video calls (video sharing, raise the hand etc.)
- Videos and photos editor (easily crop photos, rotate, flip, draw on images before sending them)
- Drag & drop files to chats to send them quickly or use Windows 10 Share
- Open chats in separated windows
- Replace sent media content
- Polls 2.0 and Quizzes
- Backgrounds 2.0 (blurred and motion options available)
- Built-in app lock with support for Windows Hello authentication (fingerprint, face and iris recognition)
- Advanced markdown editor for messages
- In-app music player
- Animated stickers and emojis, video stickers
- Scheduled and silent messages
- Advanced formatting of the messages (markdown support and spoiler feature)
- Channel statistics for big channels
- Full support of Windows notifications and Action Centre (reply to a message or mark it as read without opening the app)
- Accessibility for visually impaired people
Downsides
With me using it for over a month, I didn’t encounter any bugs yet, but there are some obvious downsides with Unigram.
- It is only available on Windows 10 and above.
- You need a Microsoft account and store to download the stable version. They release a beta version on their telegram channel, if you don’t want to go through the Microsoft store. You may run into bugs as common in beta software.
- Unigram also doesn’t have bot commands menu like the Android application does.
To Summarize
If you use Telegram every day, a native application might suit you better than a browser-based chat. Especially when the web-based chat lack features. Unigram’s lite resource usage coupled with tons of features is a great way to use Telegram and an alternative for the official desktop application. You can find the keyboard shortcuts reference here.
