maxme1 / chat-browser

A minimalistic browser of your local backups of Telegram chats

What is this?

This is a minimalistic browser of your local backups of Telegram chats.

A live version is available here. I created a generic chat as an example.

What can it do?

Pretty much everything except sending messages:

• view your chats and messages
• filter messages by text and content type (media, message types, authors etc.)
• display media content (images, videos, audio, files)
• show additional statistics, such as monthly/weekly/daily activity charts

How to use it?

1. Export your chats from Telegram. See this guide for details. If your chats contain sensitive information, make sure to keep the exported data in a secure location, such as an encrypted drive.
2. The backups will need a bit of processing. Choose a storage folder for the processed chats. Mine is path/to/storage/folder.
3. Run

   python normalizer/main.py path/to/storage/folder path/to/exported/chat/folder

   for each chat you backed up
4. Run the file server

   cd path/to/storage/folder 
   npx serve --cors

5. Run the frontend

   cd frontend
   npm install
   npm run dev

6. Go to localhost:5173 in your browser

It's not the most user-friendly setup. I hope to simplify it in the future.