Telegram has banned SMS auth on PC and in browser Telegram De | Telegram Info English

Telegram has banned SMS auth on PC and in browser

Telegram Desktop, Telegram MacOS and all official web versions (Webogram, WebK, WebZ, React) stopped sending SMS auth codes. Now, if there are no other active sessions, you can only use an already authorized mobile device with an active Internet connection to log in, since the code is being received as an in-app message. SMS continues to work in mobile apps and unofficial Telegram Desktop builds.

The intent of this change is unclear, since it will not increase security: spammers can easily use a different client. Telegram developers do not comment on this situation, but indicate that this change will remain forever. Furthermore, the negative impact of this change is obvious: in order to log in without already having an authorized device nearby, you have to have a phone with the Internet turned on, and if the phone does not have Telegram installed, you will have to download it first (if your device supports Telegram at all), then go through SMS login process in it, and only after that you can get the code to log in on PC.

At the same time, 6-digit auth codes are being tested for some numbers on the test server. Currently, users receive 5-digit auth codes.

It seems these two events are not related to each other, but there is a noticeable tendency to increase authorization security lately.