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Telegram truly has the best UX of all messengers out there; it’s a shame I can’t switch to it because they don’t do E2EE by default. If I’m going to be switching to a new app it will have to be a Matrix (https://matrix.org/) client. Anyone want to work on a Telegram fork that runs on Matrix?

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What I don't understand is why the free software movement so often reinvents the wheel, Telegram releases all the code to their UI but any new security focused chat app always starts from the ground up.

I think developers prefer writing code they understand over trying to understand someone else's code. I've taken a look at Telegram's codebase, and replacing the Telegram API with the Matrix API is way harder than it sounds. Telegram wasn't developed with this flexibility in mind, and the Matrix SDK has its own way of doing things.

This. I often end up writing my own libraries because of this reason. Kinda hard to get into other people's minds...

If you want to get involved, you might want to take a look at FluffyChat (https://gitlab.com/ChristianPauly/fluffychat) and Ditto (https://dittochat.org/) before starting your own fork. Both projects provide a more simple, Telegram-like user interface on top of Matrix.

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