In this article
Telegram runs in a browser with nothing installed, which makes it the right client for a computer that is not yours: a library terminal, a hotel machine, a locked-down work laptop, somebody else's desk for ten minutes.
That convenience has one cost, and it is the whole reason this step exists. A browser keeps the session after you close the tab, and a session is the account. Everything else here is detail.
What you will be able to do after this step
- check_circle Reach your account from any browser, without installing anything.
- check_circle Choose between the two web clients Telegram runs, and switch between them.
- check_circle Leave a borrowed computer without leaving your account behind on it.
- check_circle Turn the web client into a proper desktop window when you want one.
public Two web clients, both official
Telegram runs two separate web clients from the same address, distinguished by the path: web.telegram.org/k/ and web.telegram.org/a/. They are commonly called by those letters. Both came out of a development contest, both are maintained, and both sign in to the same account — they are alternatives, not a stable version and a beta.
They differ in how much of the interface they attempt. One is lighter and quicker on modest hardware; the other reaches closer to what the desktop application does, and asks more of the machine for it. On a current computer you will notice the feature difference and not the weight; on an old laptop or a budget Chromebook you will notice the opposite.
You do not have to commit. Typing the other path loads the other client on the same signed-in session, and both have a menu entry that switches for you. There is no re-scanning and nothing to migrate, so trying both takes a minute.
Which of the two?
Neither is the real one. The question is what the machine in front of you can spare.
bolt The lighter client — /k/
widgets The fuller client — /a/
Open whichever loads first and see how it feels. If the page is sluggish, switch paths before concluding that Telegram in a browser is slow.
security The rule for a computer that is not yours
When you sign in, the browser stores the session so that you are not asked again. That is ordinary and desirable on your own machine. On a borrowed one it means that closing the tab, closing the browser, and walking away leaves your account reachable by whoever sits down next — no password, no code, just the browser you used.
Two habits remove the problem entirely, and they cost nothing:
Use a private window. Incognito, InPrivate, private browsing — whatever that browser calls it. Closing the window discards the storage it used, and with it the session. This is the single most useful thing in this step.
Log out explicitly, from inside Telegram. Not by closing the tab. The menu has a log-out entry, and using it ends the session on Telegram's side rather than merely hiding it from view.
And if you have already walked away and remembered afterwards, the situation is recoverable from anywhere. Open Settings, then Devices, on your phone, find the web session in the list, and end it. It stops working immediately, on a computer you cannot see and will never touch again. Step 028 covers that screen properly — it is worth knowing before you need it.
open_in_new Making it a desktop window instead
On your own computer, the browser tab is the weakest part of the experience: Telegram ends up somewhere among thirty other tabs and its notifications compete with everything else. Most current browsers will install a web application as its own window, and Telegram's web client supports this.
The result is a window with no address bar and its own icon in the taskbar or dock. It is still the web client — same session, same storage, same everything — but it behaves like an application, which is usually what people actually wanted.
It is worth knowing when this is the right answer rather than installing the real desktop application. If you cannot install software on the machine, a web app is the only route. If you can, the native client from Step 003 or Step 004 is better in every respect: it handles large files more gracefully, its notifications are more reliable, and it does not disappear when you clear your browser data.
- Open the web client in a browser that supports installing web apps Most Chromium-based browsers do, and Safari has its own equivalent. Sign in first, so the installed window opens to your chats rather than a login screen.
- Use the install control in the address bar or the browser menu It is usually a small icon at the right-hand end of the address bar, or an entry in the menu naming the site.
- Pin it where you will find it The taskbar or the dock. A web app you have to go looking for in a browser menu is a web app you will stop using within a week.
- Allow notifications only if you want them The browser will ask once. Saying yes is what makes this behave like an app; saying no leaves you with a window you have to check manually.
attach_file The files you opened do not leave with the session
Ending a session closes the account. It does nothing about what you downloaded while you were in it. A document you opened to read, a photograph you saved to look at properly, a file somebody sent — those are now ordinary files in that computer's downloads folder, and no amount of terminating sessions removes them.
This is the part of the borrowed-computer routine that people miss, because the browser's private window is genuinely good at the rest. Private browsing discards the session and the site's storage; it does not discard files you deliberately saved to disk. That is not a flaw, it is what saving a file means.
So the habit has a third item. Before you get up: open the downloads folder and remove what you put there. On a library or hotel machine this matters more than the session, because a stranger who finds a contract or a photograph does not need to sign in to anything to read it.
Where you can, avoid the download entirely. Images and many documents preview inside the web client without being written to disk, and reading something in place leaves nothing behind.
rule What the browser cannot do
The web clients are complete in the way that matters — your entire cloud history, every group and channel, search, media, files, calls in most browsers. Two things are genuinely absent, and both follow from what a browser is.
Secret Chats. They are encrypted between two specific devices and their keys never leave those devices, which is exactly what a browser cannot promise. A page shares its home with extensions and with whatever else that browser profile has running. Secret Chats therefore exist only in the mobile and native desktop applications, and Step 025 explains the trade in full.
Exporting your chat history. As Step 004 noted, the export tool lives in Telegram Desktop. If you need an archive of a conversation, that is the client to install, and it is not something the browser can stand in for.
Everything else is a matter of degree. Very large files are more comfortable in a native client, and background notifications depend on the browser staying alive in some form. None of that changes what you can read or send.
help Common questions at this stage
How do I sign in without typing my number and waiting for a code?
Both web clients offer a QR code on the login screen. On your phone, open Settings, then Devices, then the option to link a desktop device, and point the camera at the screen. It is faster than the code route and avoids the delay of waiting for a message. The important corollary, covered in Step 002: never scan a Telegram login QR code that somebody else shows you or sends you. That code is a request to sign a new session into an account, and scanning it signs your account in on their computer.
Can I switch between the two web clients without losing my session?
Yes. They share the browser and the account, so navigating to the other path keeps you signed in, and both have a menu entry that does the switch. Nothing is transferred because nothing was stored locally in the first place — each client simply asks the servers for the same history. Try both on any machine where the first one feels slow.
Do notifications work when the browser window is closed?
Only if something is still running. Installed as a web app with notifications allowed, a browser can deliver messages while the window is not visible, which is how most people use it. Fully quitting the browser ends that, as does a machine going to sleep. If reliable notification is the requirement, the native client is the honest answer; the web client is at its best when it is open in front of you.
Is the web client less secure than the app?
Not in the sense of your messages being exposed in transit — the same encryption applies between the client and Telegram. The difference is the environment it runs in. A browser hosts extensions, other sites, and whatever else the profile has accumulated, and a session stored there is easier to leave behind by accident. That is why the recommendations here are about where you run it and how you leave it, rather than about the client itself.
My workplace blocks web.telegram.org. Is there another address?
There is not a second official address, and looking for a mirror is a bad idea for exactly the reasons Step 002 gave: a site that offers to proxy your Telegram login is asking you to sign in through somebody else's server. If the network blocks it, use your phone's own connection. Telegram does have proxy support for genuinely censored networks, and Step 035 covers it — a corporate policy is a different situation from a national block, and worth treating as one.
I signed in on a computer months ago and cannot remember where. What do I do?
Open Settings, then Devices, on any signed-in client. Every active session is listed with the browser or application it is running in, roughly where it connected from, and when it was last active. Terminate anything you do not recognise — there is no cost to being wrong, since a legitimate device simply asks you to sign in again. It is worth doing once now, before the list grows.
At a glance
- 1Two web clients
web.telegram.org/k and /a are both official; switch if one misbehaves.
- 2Borrowed computer
Use a private window and log out; end the session from your phone if you forget.
- 3Downloads stay
Files you saved remain on that computer after you log out.
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