NovaGram

🔐 NovaGram — Privacy-Focused Telegram Fork

NovaGram is an independent, open-source fork of the official Telegram clients for Android and Windows, focused on protecting sensitive data stored on the device rather than changing Telegram's underlying messaging protocol.

The Android version keeps the Telegram messaging experience while adding additional controls for local data, notifications, screenshots, metadata and account access.

🛡️ Device Privacy

NovaGram adds a dedicated privacy layer around the Telegram client:

• App PIN protection • Emergency / duress PIN • Decoy interface after emergency actions • Protection against unauthorized access to local account data • Screenshot and screen-recording protection • Hidden notification content • Automatic deletion of your own messages • Read-status controls for conversations started by other users

The emergency PIN can log accounts out, remove local data and open a decoy interface instead of the normal account view.

🧹 Reduce Local Traces

NovaGram is designed to minimize unnecessary information left on the device.

Features include:

• Anonymous file names • EXIF, XMP and comment removal from JPEG and PNG images • Automatic message deletion • Local-data protection • Reduced crash reporting and telemetry • Privacy-focused notification handling

Metadata cleaning currently applies specifically to JPEG and PNG images; other file types may retain their original metadata.

🌐 DNS & Network Privacy

The Android client includes strict DNS-over-HTTPS handling and uses a defined set of DNS resolvers instead of relying on the resolver behavior of the original client.

Telegram calls can also be configured to use Telegram's relay infrastructure rather than exposing a direct peer connection.

📱 Android

NovaGram is available for Android 6.0 and newer. Releases provide ARM builds for arm64 and armv7 devices.

The project maintains its own Android changes on top of the corresponding official Telegram Android code and documents the differences between NovaGram and its upstream version.

⚠️ Important Limitations

NovaGram does not introduce a new encryption protocol or replace Telegram's server-side security. Telegram's cloud data, conversations stored on Telegram servers, copies held by other users and sessions on other devices are not automatically affected by local-data protection.

Metadata removal currently covers JPEG and PNG only, and deleting files does not guarantee secure physical erasure from storage.

NovaGram is an independent third-party project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Telegram.

📜 License

The Android version of NovaGram is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 (GPL-2.0), following the licensing terms of the Telegram Android source on which it is based.

The Windows portion of the project uses GNU GPL v3 with an OpenSSL exception. Telegram's original source code remains copyrighted by its respective authors.

✨ NovaGram adds a focused privacy and local-data protection layer to the familiar Telegram experience while keeping the underlying Telegram protocol and service infrastructure intact.