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Telegram Amiga 0.0.92: link previews and video frames

Telegram Amiga Alpha 0.0.92: link previews and video frames

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Telegram Amiga alpha 0.0.92 is available from September 4, 2026 for AmigaOS 3.x, AmigaOS 4.x, MorphOS, AROS i386 and AROS x86_64. After the inline-photo work in 0.0.9 and the captioned photo-send refinements in 0.0.91, this release makes the conversation richer without abandoning the discipline required by Amiga systems.

The most visible addition is link previews. When Telegram provides useful metadata, the message shows the site, page title and first description line. If a preview picture is available, it enters the same bounded pipeline already used for inline images. If the server is still preparing the preview, the client waits instead of guessing.

Version 0.0.92 also adds video frames. Video documents can show a still with duration and size, using the same cache, pacing and bounded photo pipeline without downloading the content twice. The result is more informative even when the video is not opened immediately.

Telegram Amiga remains a native MTProto client written in C, with an Intuition/GadTools GUI and TUI sharing the same engine. It is not a web wrapper: it implements the Telegram protocol while keeping one portable base across five Amiga-like platforms with different runtimes, ABIs, graphics paths and hardware limits.

Links, videos and attachments become clearer

Link previews use the data Telegram associates with the page. The client therefore does not treat every URL as if it automatically had a title, description and image. When metadata arrives, the message can present it clearly; when it does not, the link remains a normal link. That distinction matters: the interface should separate received data from assumptions.

For videos, the client receives the vector thumbnail included in the document and passes it through the bounded photo pipeline. Disk caching, pacing, the Inline photos setting and per-event-loop work limits remain active. Duration and size appear beside the frame, so users can understand the attachment before opening the viewer.

Stickers without a WEBP decoder are not downloaded unnecessarily: they keep showing their emoji. When inline photos are disabled, the client no longer leaves a generic [Photo] marker for every attachment, but indicates what the message contains. Stickers, videos, voice messages, music and files now have more useful system labels: emoji, duration and format, duration, file name or document description.

Long messages without the old bottleneck

The most practical fix concerns text sending. The send path is no longer limited by a 512-byte buffer that used to allow roughly 460 characters before silently truncating the message. The size is derived from the composer, and pasting more text than the composer can hold now tells the user how much was actually accepted.

This is the kind of bug that can remain invisible in a demo and become annoying as soon as the program is used seriously. On a native text client, telling the user what happened is more valuable than a generic compatibility claim.

Executable downloads and cleaner text

When an Amiga program is downloaded, the executable bit is now determined from the file magic bytes rather than its name. The check recognises classic 68k HUNK executables and ELF binaries for AmigaOS 4, MorphOS and AROS. Other protection bits are preserved, taking Amiga’s active-low protection-bit polarity into account.

The release also removes the phantom space left by some symbols that cannot be represented in Latin-1. Unsupported characters no longer disrupt line composition, while modifiers remain handled according to their rendering role. The login panel is clearer too: it says where Telegram sent the code and how many digits to expect when the server provides that information.

Official downloads

Alpha 0.0.92 is available on Aminet and GitHub for all supported targets:

The official repository contains the source, documentation, CHANGELOG and roadmap. The wider journey is collected in the Telegram Amiga development diary; the previous milestone is covered in the article about 0.0.91 and captioned photo sending.

A release shaped by real use

Version 0.0.92 does not merely add another changelog entry. It connects different kinds of content, avoids unnecessary downloads, makes attachments clearer and fixes two reliability issues that matter in daily use: long messages and downloaded programs. The next step remains the 0.1.0 beta gate, which requires a quiet cycle, no known freezes on the five targets, adversarial review and updated documentation.

For testers, the most useful contribution is to report the target, version, network, TLS stack, command and observed behaviour, without publishing session files, codes or personal data. The Amiga laboratory is still open, and this release adds another concrete piece to the bridge between modern MTProto and historical machines.

Sources and materials

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IT specialist, developer and systems engineer with a long history across code, Linux servers, retrocomputers and e-learning platforms. On AndroidLab he brings a technical, pragmatic eye: less brochure smoke, more attention to infrastructure, usability, privacy, updates and the real consequences of manufacturers' choices.

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