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Comment by kop316 | Hacker News Reader

Hmm...So I have Telegram installed via F-Droid (so presumably without Google Play Services). I do NOT have the "People Nearby" feature. I am curious if that means my location is not published?

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I can't find the feature at the described location either, but apparently if you go to contacts there is a "find people nearby" button. If I click it it asks me to share the location, which I have disabled. So I guess I'm safe?

It's mentioned in this changelog item: https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/blob/847...

It usually takes some time for Telegram to be published on F-Droid, so the newest version on F-Droid is 7.2.1 while the newest one on Android is 7.3.1. It might contain such a menu on the newer version like in that screenshot. Or the button only appears at that place if you have enabled location sharing.

I found it, and it seems like for the the feature is "opt in", as I have to click it to make myself visible.

But I also see a lot of folks on it....so it us concerning if it isn't opt in for non-F-Droid users?

This has been a feature in Telegram since at least March 2020 when I first used it.

It's under Hamburger Menu > Contacts > Find People Nearby. You do not need give access to Contacts, but you do need to give access to Location.

Barring no exploits, you have to press "Make Myself Visible" and then confirm with a popup in order to share your location.

Same, I don't see this feature either on iOS Telegram app.

Edit: I turned enabled location sharing under iOS settings for Telegram app and "Find People Nearby" is now showing as the first list item under the Contacts tab.

I have Telegram on iOS and I can't find any People Nearby feature. It doesn't request the location permission according to Settings either.

It took me a while to find it on iOS, it’s under the contacts tab called “find people near by”. It doesn’t seem to work without location enabled so hopefully that would keep you safe.

Wow Telegram ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Most folks would be inclined to look under "Settings" rather than "Contacts" for something like this. How strange!

To be fair, it doesn't ask for permissions until you click on it, and (on iOS at least) the permission isn't automatically granted. This all looks above board IMHO

Also doesn't work unless you share contacts - which .... why would you anyways?

People do that so they do not have to type by hand all their friends using the app. Granted, most people probably don’t have a lot of friends using Telegram... but that’s not what Telegram is hoping.

The F-Droid version unfortunately seems helplessly outdated.

I wouldn't call it helplessly outdated, at most it's a version behind. But there's a number of reasons for this. For starters Telegram themselves lag behind in releasing the source code for the app[1]. Then the volunteers who make the FOSS version[2] have to update their fork and make sure it works. Then finally it's submitted to F-Droid, where it's compiled by their build servers (of which the build process occasionally breaks and needs to be fixed).

I think the assurances that this offers (entirely FOSS, reproducible builds, better privacy and security[3]) outweighs being sometimes days or weeks behind the releases they upload to the Google Play Store.

[1] https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram [2] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS [3] https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS#changes

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