Open-Source iOS Telegram Client | Generated by AI
Here’s what you’re looking at:
Telegram-iOS — the official open-source iOS client for Telegram Messenger.
Repo: git@github.com:TelegramMessenger/Telegram-iOS.git
Size: 572 MB on disk
Version: 12.7 (requires Xcode 26.2, macOS 26, Bazel 8.4.2)
Code breakdown:
- 4,182 Swift files (primary language)
- 901 Objective-C (.m/.mm) files
Architecture:
The project is built with Bazel via a build-system/Make/Make.py wrapper. It’s organized into:
| Directory | Purpose |
|---|---|
Telegram/ |
Main app target, extensions (NotificationContent, Share, Watch, WidgetKitWidget, SiriIntents) |
submodules/ |
273 internal libraries — the bulk of the codebase |
third-party/ |
Vendored C/C++ deps (ffmpeg, openssl, sqlcipher, libvpx, opus, webrtc, rlottie, libjxl, dav1d, mozjpeg, libyuv) |
build-system/ |
Bazel rules (rules_apple, rules_swift, rules_xcodeproj) and build configs |
Key submodules (273 total) include:
- TelegramCore — networking, storage, business logic
- TelegramUI — UI components
- TelegramApi — MTProto API bindings
- Postbox — local database (key-value store over sqlcipher)
- TelegramCallsUI / TgVoipWebrtc — voice/video calls
- AccountContext / AccountUtils — multi-account support
- AsyncDisplayKit — async node-based UI rendering (Texture fork)
- Display, ComponentFlow — UI framework layer
Active refactor (documented in CLAUDE.md): A 45+ wave effort to migrate Postbox direct imports to TelegramEngine typealiases — a clean-layering refactor eliminating direct database dependencies from consumer modules.
Git history (latest commits): Routine fixes, poll improvements, animation cleanup — looks like an actively maintained fork or clone of the upstream Telegram repo.
How it builds:
python3 build-system/Make/Make.py --overrideXcodeVersion \
--cacheDir ~/telegram-bazel-cache \
build \
--configurationPath build-system/appstore-configuration.json \
--gitCodesigningRepository git@gitlab.com:peter-iakovlev/fastlanematch.git \
--gitCodesigningType development --gitCodesigningCurrent --buildNumber=1 --configuration=debug_sim_arm64
It’s a massive, well-structured codebase — one of the largest open-source iOS projects out there.