Ghostgram

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Ghostgram is an unofficial Telegram client for iOS. It is built on the official Telegram iOS source code (13.0) and adds privacy, message history and customization features. All of them are in one menu: Settings → Ghostgram.

Ghostgram is not affiliated with Telegram.

• Channel: @ghostgrama
• Chat: @ghostgramchat
• Forum: @ghostgramforum

Features

Privacy

• Ghost mode. Read messages and view stories without marking them read or viewed, hide typing and the other activity statuses (recording a voice or video message, sending a photo, choosing a sticker…), stay offline or always online. "Read on action" marks a chat read when you reply or react. Exceptions by chat, folder or chat type.
• Hide messages from blocked users.
• Delayed sending: a pause before text and media go out.
• Anonymous mode: a camera mask and a changed voice in one tap.
• Spoofing: show another phone number, open a different profile in place of a chosen one. Both are local, on your device only.

Messages

• Deleted & edited messages. Deleted messages stay in the chat, edits keep their previous versions. Exceptions, automatic clean-up by age, export and import of the history.
• Restriction bypass: copy and screenshot protected chats, keep self-destructing and view-once media, reveal spoilers, bypass content restrictions, hide sponsored messages.
• Sending: word replacement rules, anti-caps, reply with a quote, anonymous stickers, no "via @bot", hide "Send as", send with Return.
• Translation: Google, Telegram or the system translator, a translate button on messages, translation before sending, text in photos.
• Menu & gestures: a custom message menu (forward without author, save to Saved Messages or Photos…), double tap to edit, bookmarks.
• Chat export: one chat or the whole account as HTML and JSON.

Security

• Chat protection: a passcode or Face ID on chosen chats, a secret folder, chats hidden on screenshots and screen recordings.
• Passcode: more auto-lock options, lock on every launch, lock now.
• Accounts: Face ID when switching accounts, separate settings for every account, copy settings from another account.

Media & calls

• Voice: a voice changer with presets and your own voice (pitch, timbre, reverb, echo…), an equalizer, transcription of voice and video messages (Telegram's server with Premium, Apple's speech recognition without it, on the device when the language has a model), automatic transcription, translation of the text.
• Video messages & camera: AR masks in video messages and video calls, a mask studio, a photo watermark.
• Calls: call recording, silent mute, a soundboard, in-call statistics, TCP-only calls, no call rating prompts.
• Downloads & quality: faster downloads and uploads, large photos, video subtitles from speech recognition.

Appearance

• Theme & background: AMOLED, separators, edge fade, an animated GIF background for chats and profiles, snowfall.
• Messages: fonts (iOS fonts or your own), bubbles, checkmarks, stickers.
• Chat list: rows, swipes, avatars, folders.
• Panels: tab bar, input field, quick buttons.
• Icons: icon packs, a badge under the Dynamic Island.
• Profile & settings: user ID, data center, dates, which Settings items are shown.

More

• VPN by subscription: VLESS subscriptions and servers, Telegram goes through your server. The Xray core is a separate framework inside the app and is loaded only when the VPN is switched on.
• Name badges next to names (GCONNECT).
• Fake gifts: gifts on your profile that only you see.
• Extras: in-app Safari or another browser, picture in picture for YouTube, IP and api_id in sessions, "Recent Actions" and "Administrators" in menus, more mute and cache options, no Premium offers.
• Ghostgram settings: language, export and import of all settings, reset.

The interface is in English, Russian, Ukrainian and Arabic.

Building

You need a Mac with Xcode and Python 3. Bazel is downloaded by build-system/Make/Make.py on the first run.

1. Clone the repository with its submodules:

   git clone --recursive -j8 https://github.com/ichmagmaus111/ghostgram.git
   cd ghostgram
   

2. Create the configuration file and fill it in: api_id and api_hash from my.telegram.org, your Apple team_id, and bundle_id if you sign the app with your own account.

   cp build-system/ghostgram-configuration.example.json build-system/ghostgram-configuration.json
   

3. Simulator build:

   build-system/GGBuild.sh
   

   The simulator does not check signatures, but Make.py still reads a provisioning profile that matches team_id and bundle_id. Put your profiles into build-system/ghostgram-codesigning/profiles or point GG_CODESIGN at another codesigning folder. Without them the script uses build-system/fake-codesigning, whose profiles are issued for ph.telegra.Telegraph only.

4. Device build (IPA):

   build-system/GGBuildRelease.sh <build number>
   

   It needs a distribution certificate (.p12 with an empty password) in build-system/ghostgram-codesigning/certs and profiles for the app and its extensions in build-system/ghostgram-codesigning/profiles. The result is build-output/ipa/Ghostgram.ipa.

Both scripts pin Bazel to the Xcode chosen with xcode-select (build-system/GGXcodeConfig.sh) and apply the patches from build-system/GGPatches to the rules_apple and tgcalls submodules. The configuration file, the signing folder and the build output are in .gitignore.

VPN core (optional)

Ghostgram/Features/Vless/Core/build-core.sh

Needs Go 1.26 or newer and the Xcode command line tools; the first run downloads Xray-core. Without the core the app still builds, and the VPN screen says that the core is not included.

Code layout

• Ghostgram/ — everything Ghostgram adds: GGCore (settings, strings, logging), GGHooks (the points where Ghostgram connects to Telegram's code), GGSettingsUI (the menu), Features/ (the features), Strings/ (translations; generate.py builds the string tables, check.py checks them).
• The rest of the tree is Telegram iOS. Changes to Telegram's own files are kept small and call into GGHooks.

License

Ghostgram is distributed under the GNU General Public License v2, like the Telegram iOS source code it is based on. Third-party components keep their own licenses; the list is in the app (Settings → Ghostgram → About → Third-Party Components).

If you build your own app from this code, follow Telegram's rules for developers: get your own api_id, do not call your app Telegram or use its logo, take care of your users' privacy and publish your code.