Accessing Telegram desktop without mobile QR code scan

I'm not very comfortable with using Telegram on a phone that runs an O/S developed by Google or Apple. I don't think that's anonymous given how much data Google etc. harvest from users. Much prefer the idea of putting Telegram Desktop on a linux box or logging in via a web browser.

Telegram used to allow logging in to either the Telegram desktop app or web.telegram.org by authenticating using a SMS sent to your mobile. As far as I can determine that feature doesn't work right now. The screens to do it are still there but when I go through them I end up at a page saying "a message has been sent to your telegram mobile app to authenticate" or something like that. No SMS is ever sent even though I click that option.

Does SMS authentication to login to Telegram for Desktop or web.telegram.org work for anyone else?

Thanks Martin yes I agree that is a good suggestion in certain scenarios - i.e. when you don't care about burner location being given away.

For anyone interested I figured out one approach to using Telegram with SMS verification from a desktop. If you run an Android virtual machine you can download the Telegram app and the SMS verification still seems to be working on that even though it is broken in the Telegram desktop app and browser app.

Needless to say you need to use a few more pieces of the puzzle for the virtual machine to be at least pseudoanonymous. For example unless you take preventative steps your IP is known to certain parties in this Android VM setup. Obviously the google account used to setup Android too. Experts say full anonyimity on the web is near impossible but most of us are not important for that to matter

Last edited: Nov 12, 2021