#228

drafts/Telegram.md

@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@
 
 ![Patel Clouds Theme in the Chat Background Tool](https://i.snap.as/9Bxz27ZX.png)
 
-Believe it or not, I, too originally sought the Russian-owned, cross-platform-as-hell messaging service for “privacy” - or perhaps *solitude* would be more apt. It was in 2017, amidst the shock that the Tump Presidency was *actually going to happen* [^1], that I happened to hear about his pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVoss, whom had just 18 months prior led myself and some twenty thousand other poor souls in a most capitalist prayer to the Christian God for prosperity at her pyramid scheme’s ultimate “superbowl” gathering in Cincinatti. I had decided to “infiltrate” AMWAY under the ridiculous assumption that I might be able to contribute some new insight in writing critically about what I might witness. (In truth, I found my experiences that summer so utterly traumatic, existentially, that I never was able to do so.) I don’t know what consequences of her ascension to the Lord of American Schooling I expected to happen, but I was pretty hysterical about it - that is, more unhumorously alarmed about some grander world happening as I’d ever been by a long shot. For the first and only time in memory, I felt compelled to take some sort of malicious, obscured action - to organize somehow for a purpose other than to be publicly critical of this person, and to use my knowledge about digital media to the fullest possible extent to scrutinize her administration’s every movement and to be prepared, even, to take some sort of real action if she… well, I don’t know. I *didn’t* know anything, really, about anti-government organization, generally, but I was not acting rationally in the slightest.[^2]
+## How I’ve used Telegram as the ultimate cross-platform Universal Clipboard, file sharing service, and more.
+
+Believe it or not, I, too originally sought the Russian-owned, cross-platform-as-hell messaging service for “privacy” - or perhaps *solitude* would be more apt. It was in 2017, amidst the shock that the Tump Presidency was *actually going to happen* [^1], that I happened to hear about his pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVoss, whom had just 18 months prior led myself and some twenty thousand other poor souls in a most capitalist prayer to the Christian God for prosperity at her pyramid scheme’s ultimate “superbowl” gathering in Cincinatti. I had decided to “infiltrate” AMWAY under the ridiculous assumption that I might be able to contribute some new insight in writing critically about what I might witaness. (In truth, I found my experiences that summer so utterly traumatic, existentially, that I never was able to do so.) I don’t know what consequences of her ascension to the Lord of American Schooling I expected to happen, but I was pretty hysterical about it - that is, more unhumorously alarmed about some grander world happening as I’d ever been by a long shot. For the first and only time in memory, I felt compelled to take some sort of malicious, obscured action - to organize somehow for a purpose other than to be publicly critical of this person, and to use my knowledge about digital media to the fullest possible extent to scrutinize her administration’s every movement and to be prepared, even, to take some sort of real action if she… well, I don’t know. I *didn’t* know anything, really, about anti-government organization, generally, but I was not acting rationally in the slightest.[^2]
 
 ![White Sapphire](https://i.snap.as/aNADRjvK.png)
 
@@ -14,8 +16,35 @@ Was any of it genuinely useful in helping me maintain *Action Readiness* in hypo
 
 `https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1442554265956986882`
 
-I have used this “flow” so extensively for so long that it has become synonymous in my muscle memory with 
+## Drafting
+
+I have used this “flow” so extensively for so long that it has come to define the whole of the abstract method in my muscle memory. Observe me browsing the web on my phone in an exhausted or particularly distractible state and you’d probably catch at least one or two completely irrational, inexplicable instances of sharing to my “[Saved Messages](https://telegram.org/blog/albums-saved-messages)” Telegram channel, which would be problematic for just about any other link-saving service. Add too many links to Safari’s Read Later list and you’ll end up crashing the browser on your Mac. I don’t even feel comfortable sending links willy nilly to the brilliant bookmark managing/curatorial service Raindrop, these days, after finding out that my [Reading List feed](https://raindrop.io/davidblue/reading-list-13380406) has *actual daily followers*, but there are zero consequences to sending ultimately-worthless or duplicate links to my personal Telegram channel, which has no content limit and is instantly and competently searchable.
+
+![Send to Telegram Drafts Action](https://i.snap.as/p3K96LiX.png)
+
+Over the years, I’ve discovered a bunch of other uses for the Saved Messages channel. As demonstrated in the screenshots embedded above, the [Send to Telegram Action](https://actions.getdrafts.com/a/18E) for my writing app, Drafts, utilizes Telegram for iOS’ Universal Links support (in the format `tg://…`) to instantly send the whole text of the current document in Drafts to a Telegram channel of one’s choice. I suspect this was intended to streamline posting for admins of public channels, but I’ve used it to quickly “back up” work as well as to transfer edits directly to my (Windows-running) PC. By adding `&to=+[my phone number]` to the end of the action’s URL, I was able to remove the single, unnecessary step of choosing the destination chat. Because text messages are automatically split at 5000 characters, though, I usually depend on the [Share as Markdown File Action](https://actions.getdrafts.com/a/1V4) (the output of which I also send to Saved Messages through the Share Sheet) for the latter function.
+
+I found my inspiration for this Post in replying to a [thread on the Automators.fm Discourse forum](https://talk.automators.fm/t/equivalent-to-drafts-but-for-windows/6159) regarding a Windows equivlalent to the same Mac/iOS/iPadOS app Drafts mentioned above. I suppose my reply was a bit off-topic, in retrospect, but still worth including:
+
+> I have been using [**Telegram**](https://desktop.telegram.org/), of all things for years. Notably, if you hit Ctrl + 0 from *anywhere* in the Windows client, you and your cursor are taken to the compose field beneath your personal "Saved Messages" channel, which is searchable, has an extremely high per-message character limit (after which it just automatically splits,) and is ridiculously reliable in saving "drafts" live as you're typing. as in... I have actively tried to lose characters by killing the application and then logging in on my phone and have yet to accomplish losing a single one (among other advantages: zero formatting added to plain text by default - not even line breaks - no total file limit and *2GB* per file limit uploads, absurdly cross-platform, literally more reliable than SMS in poor network conditions.) You can immediately reenter a sent message with `↑` to edit, copy it, escape with just `Esc` and then paste to start a new revision. 
+
+The feature within Telegram that makes this whole usecase worthwhile was introduced in [November, 2016](https://telegram.org/blog/drafts), and is entitled - appropriately - “Drafts.” Unlike the Drafts function in Twitter’s various native clients, for instance, Telegram’s really is impossible to fool, though it’s not perfect. [Markdown formatting support](https://telegra.ph/markdown-07-07) is inconsistent across Telegram clients - the iOS app being the most woeful - and the few keyboard shortcuts the app supports on iPad are not supported whatsoever on iPhone.
+
+## Universal Clipboard
+
+Users familiar with the MacOS + iOS + iPadOS ecosystem should be well-acquainted with “[Universal Clipboard](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209460),” which instantly synchronizes clipboard content across Apple devices. More recently, Android + Windows users have supposedly had access to an [equivalent functionality](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/seamlessly-transfer-content-between-your-devices-8a0ead3c-2f15-1338-66ca-70cf4ae81fcb#WindowsVersion=Windows_10). To my knowledge, though, truly cross-platform clipboard sync has yet to be realized.[^4] As someone who’s used iOS and Windows regularly - along with Linux, occasionally - for more than a decade, now, I’d put my full weight behind Telegram as the best available solution from (far too much) personal experience.
+
+![Security Considerations in Telegram for iOS](https://i.snap.as/Qim9gsZZ.png)
+
+When first entering a new system, real or virtual, regardless of OS, my very first step upon completion of its setup process has for years been to install Telegram, largely because all of my passwords for any/all given services are huge - 30+ characters, at least - and complex enough that typing them out is both tricky and absurdly time-consuming. Authorizing a new Telegram client, however, is as simple as entering a one-time numeric passcode or scanning a QR code. Managing logged-in sessions (see: the far right screenshot embedded above) is quick, reliable, and includes a handy button to kill all but the current session. Thanks to these considerations, I feel quite comfortable sending myself passwords in Telegram, including .csv exports of whole password vaults, when it’s appropriate, even when working on systems I do not own. For this function, I can’t think of any other service/software capable of replacing Telegram. 
+
+## Community
+
+In the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of watching *MacStories* relaunch their premium membership program, *Club MacStories*, on their incredible bespoke CMS. Part of this launch included their first exclusive community space, on Discord, which has been deeply rewarding for me, personally, but has also highlighted some serious limitations of that service which I not-so-long-ago [advocated so heavily for](https://bilge.world/discord-slack-comparison). Namely, **hyperlinks to specific messages** within Discord is a hopelessly problematic endeavor. Even for a public server like *Extratone*’s, navigating to a message link [like this example](https://discord.com/channels/107272441889341440/107272441889341440/893958033401593898) will require any and all users to log in to Discord on the web, which - on mobile devices, especially - seems to struggle to navigate to the precise position of the subject message. Slack’s public message links are smart enough at least to prompt users to open them Slack for iOS, but Telegram’s system for message links in public channels and groups makes both services look daft.
+
+Telegram message IDs are purely chronological from their channel/group chat’s creation - the first message in a channel or group chat is `1` and the 15th is `15`. Together with the simplicity of channel/group chat IDs, which are just their alphanumeric @ names, this format makes URL schemes for Telegram message links super malleable and easy to understand. The sixth message posted in the [@extratone channel](https://t.me/extratone), for instance, can be found at [https://t.me/extratone/6](https://t.me/extratone/6), which even those without Telegram installed can view natively within their web browser. Within Telegram clients, said links are ultra-responsive, regardless of whether or not one had previously “joined” the channel or group containing the message. 
 
 [1] I still have not accepted this, by the way. I’m still back there.
 [2] If I were to be 100% sincere, I might ask you to consider that this (hilariously brief) intent was a method of coping with the great existential truths I was facing for the first time.
-[3] I *definitey* was, though. For whatever reason, I do not remember associating the term “automation” with such activities, but I just found the “receipt” for my “purchase” of [IFTTT for iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ifttt/id660944635)… From July, 2013. 
+[3] I *definitey* was, though. For whatever reason, I do not remember associating the term “automation” with such activities, but I just found the “receipt” for my “purchase” of [IFTTT for iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ifttt/id660944635)… From July, 2013.
+[4] I am currently working on a less-than-instant solution using iCloud and CopyQ’s clipboard sync function.