Telegraphica ✦ Legacy Telegram for Mavericks

Telegraphica is a small native Cocoa/AppKit Telegram client built for people who still use Intel Macs on OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks and do not want to give up working hardware just because modern clients moved on.

It is not a Telegram clone, not an official Telegram app, and not a branded Telegram distribution. It is an independent legacy-Mac experiment that talks to Telegram through TDLib's JSON API and keeps the UI native, small, and Mavericks-friendly.

Telegraphica is not affiliated with Telegram. This repository does not include Telegram logos, official artwork, user credentials, TDLib databases, sessions, or account data.

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What Telegraphica Is For

Telegraphica exists for one very specific reason: keeping an old Mac useful for real messaging again.

Modern Telegram Desktop builds no longer target OS X Mavericks, and web clients can be heavy or brittle on vintage browsers. Telegraphica takes the opposite route: a native Objective-C/AppKit shell, old-Xcode-safe code, TDLib underneath, and a UI shaped around the constraints of a 2013-era Mac.

In plain language, the goal is:

• 🧭 open Telegram on OS X 10.9.5;
• 🔐 pass modern Telegram authorization through TDLib;
• 💬 read chats, topics, messages, media previews, and unread state;
• 📤 send text, photos, reactions, and voice messages;
• 🔔 integrate with Notification Center and the Dock;
• 🧰 keep the build reproducible for the old Mac lane.

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Current Open Beta: v0.4.6

This open beta is ready for broader legacy-Mac testing. Telegraphica is still young software, but the everyday loop is now useful enough for real feedback: sign in, read chats, send messages, handle media, manage pinned dialogs, play voice messages, and keep the app updated from GitHub Releases.

✅ Working In This Beta

• 🔐 TDLib login flow: phone number, login code, and 2FA password.
• 🧾 Automatic TDLib app configuration bootstrap for public builds, with local developer override support.
• 💬 Chat list with unread badges, muted indicators, avatars, and selected chat state.
• 🧵 Supergroup topics / forum-style subchat selection.
• 📜 Message history with scroll-based older-message loading.
• ✍️ Typing indicators when TDLib reports active chat actions.
• 📨 Text sending with multiline input support.
• 🖼 Photo sending with preview and optional caption.
• 🎙 Voice-message recording, preview, sending, and playback.
• 🔊 Ogg/Opus voice-message playback through a bundled Mavericks-safe helper.
• 👍 Message reactions with local display and real Telegram sync.
• 🖼 Grouped photo display, image preview, zoom controls, and pinch-to-zoom.
• 🎞 Video playback in a resizable native window.
• 📎 Basic document display with filenames where TDLib exposes them.
• 🔔 Notification Center alerts, Dock unread badges, sound, and click-through to the source chat.
• 👤 Profile, settings, themes, language selector, diagnostics, and about panel.
• 🔄 Manual and launch-time update checks against GitHub Releases.
• 📌 Pinned dialogs stay at the top of the chat list and can be pinned or unpinned from the chat context menu.
• 🧩 Native sticker display with WEBP, TGS, and animated WEBM/VP9 sticker support on Mavericks.
• 🔍 Chat search/navigation with a native search field.
• 🧽 Storage usage view with cache cleanup.
• 🧹 Build/release hygiene scripts for the old-Mac workflow.

⚠️ Known Beta Gaps

• Some sticker packs may still expose edge-case animation/layout bugs; please report the sticker format and a screenshot if that happens.
• The DMG must be HFS+-formatted for Mavericks and is not notarized.
• A public drag-and-drop DMG is considered complete only when Telegraphica.app already bundles a Mavericks-compatible Contents/Frameworks/libtdjson.dylib.
• DMGs without bundled TDLib are development images, not out-of-the-box installers.
• Release confidence still comes from OS X 10.9.5 / Xcode 6.2 HITL testing.
• The project is moving fast, so UI details and release packaging may change.

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Download & Run

Compiled beta builds live in:

➡️ GitHub Releases

For Users

1. Open the latest release page.
2. Click Assets if the download list is collapsed.
3. Download Telegraphica-v0.4.6-macos10.9-x86_64.dmg.
4. Open the downloaded DMG.
5. Drag Telegraphica.app into Applications.
6. Launch Telegraphica and sign in with your Telegram phone number.

If you are not sure which file to download, choose the file ending in .dmg.

For Developers / Troubleshooting

Asset	Best For	Notes
Telegraphica-v0.4.6-macos10.9-x86_64.dmg	Installation	Download this one if you just want to install the app.
Telegraphica-v0.4.6-macos10.9-x86_64.app.zip	Manual app bundle transfer	Use this only if the DMG is inconvenient.
.sha256 files	Checksum verification	You do not need these files to install Telegraphica.

First Launch

Because Telegraphica is distributed directly and is not notarized yet, macOS may warn on first launch.

1. Download the .dmg file from the release assets.
2. Open the DMG and drag Telegraphica.app into Applications.
3. If macOS blocks the app, right-click / Control-click the app and choose Open.
4. Sign in with your phone number, Telegram code, and 2FA password if needed.

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Legacy Build Guide

Telegraphica is intentionally built around a conservative Objective-C lane:

Item	Target
OS	OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks
CPU	Intel x86_64
UI	Cocoa / AppKit
Language	Objective-C, non-ARC
Telegram core	TDLib JSON API (tdjson)
Preferred legacy toolchain	Xcode 6.2

Build the app:

./build_legacy.sh

Bundle a local TDLib JSON library into the app:

TELEGRAPHICA_TDJSON_PATH=/path/to/libtdjson.dylib ./build_legacy.sh

Create a DMG from the built app:

./scripts/package_release_installer.sh

The installer packager refuses to create a public DMG unless the built app contains Telegraphica.app/Contents/Frameworks/libtdjson.dylib. A development-only TDLib-less image can be forced with TELEGRAPHICA_ALLOW_TDLIBLESS_INSTALLER=1, but that image should not be published as an end-user installer.

On the legacy Mac, build the complete release artifacts in one pass:

./scripts/package_legacy_release_artifacts.sh --tdjson /path/to/libtdjson.dylib

That command rebuilds Telegraphica, bundles TDLib, creates an HFS+ DMG, creates an app zip, and writes SHA256 files into dist/. These are the artifacts that should be uploaded to GitHub for an out-of-the-box Mavericks beta.

The build script targets MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.9, builds x86_64, stamps LSMinimumSystemVersion, checks the resulting binary with file, lipo, and otool, then writes release artifacts into dist/.

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TDLib

Telegraphica talks to Telegram through TDLib's C JSON API. The current practical legacy target is TDLib v1.8.0.

Useful scripts:

./scripts/build_tdlib_legacy.sh --archive /path/to/td-v1.8.0.tar.gz --openssl-root /opt/local
./scripts/check_tdjson_legacy.sh /path/to/libtdjson.dylib

The app can load TDLib from:

• Telegraphica.app/Contents/Frameworks/libtdjson.dylib
• a path bundled by TELEGRAPHICA_TDJSON_PATH
• /usr/local/lib/libtdjson.dylib
• /opt/homebrew/lib/libtdjson.dylib
• libtdjson.dylib next to the current process

More detail:

• docs/mavericks-transfer.md
• docs/feasibility.md
• docs/security.md

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Local Credentials

Telegram API credentials are read locally from:

~/Library/Application Support/Telegraphica/tdlib-config.plist

Start from:

docs/local-tdlib-config.example.plist

Copy that example outside the repository, edit the copy with values from my.telegram.org, and keep the real file local to your Mac.

Public release builds fetch the Telegraphica TDLib app configuration automatically on first launch so people can sign in without manually entering Telegram API fields. Do not add plaintext release credentials to app resources or repository files.

Never commit, upload, paste, or screenshot:

• api_id / api_hash
• phone numbers, login codes, or 2FA passwords
• TDLib databases or session files
• Keychain-backed encryption keys
• raw TDLib authorization responses
• private chat/message screenshots unless you intentionally want to share them

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Project Layout

Telegraphica.xcodeproj/        Xcode project kept Xcode 6.x-compatible
Sources/                       Objective-C/AppKit source
Sources/Core/                  TDLib boundary and chat/message models
Sources/Services/              Logger and Keychain helpers
Sources/UI/                    Legacy AppKit chat shell
Sources/Resources/             App icons, localizations, bundled resources
readme-assets/                 README artwork
docs/                          Feasibility, security, Mavericks, release notes
scripts/                       Build, TDLib, validation, release helpers
build_legacy.sh                Main Mavericks/x86_64 build lane
PRODUCT.md                     Product and design direction

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Engineering Notes

• 🧱 Native first: no Electron, no web wrapper, no SwiftUI requirement.
• 🕰 Old-Xcode-safe: avoids modern AppKit APIs that would break Xcode 6.2.
• 🔌 Dynamic TDLib boundary: the app can launch without vendoring TDLib.
• 🔐 Local data discipline: credentials and sessions stay outside git.
• 🧪 HITL-driven: Mavericks/Xcode 6.2 testing remains the source of truth.
• 🧹 Clean release artifacts: public builds exclude .git, dist, build outputs, TDLib source trees, credentials, and sessions.

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Roadmap

• Improve edge-case animated sticker playback and GIF handling.
• More complete document download and preview handling.
• Richer contact/profile views.
• More polished skeuomorphic theme variants.
• Safer automatic update flow for legacy Macs.
• Optional all-in-one installer once the redistributable Mavericks TDLib lane is finalized.

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Compatibility & Security

Supported target: OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks on Intel x86_64.

Modern macOS can be used for editing and smoke checks, but the real target is the old Mac lane.

Security posture:

• public builds fetch Telegraphica app-level Telegram API configuration on first launch;
• no bundled user credentials, phone numbers, login codes, or 2FA passwords;
• no committed sessions or TDLib databases;
• diagnostics are redacted where practical;
• local secrets belong in Application Support and Keychain, not in source;
• release archives are checked before publishing.

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Issues & Feedback

This is beta software. Bugs, UI notes, old-Mac build logs, and compatibility reports are welcome:

• GitHub Issues
• GitHub Releases

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