What are beta versions, and how do they relate to the test server?

Recently, subscribers have been asking a lot about using beta versions and entering the test server.

Here are the details.

First of all, it is necessary to clearly understand what a beta version is and what a test server is. These are two completely different entities that are connected to each other rather indirectly.

The difference between Telegram Beta and test server:

  • A beta version of an application is a special version of the application installed on your device. This version sometimes has functions that are not yet available in the stable version of the same application. It can also be used to connect to a test server.
  • A Telegram test server is a special server that is completely separate from the main server. It also has accounts, chats, and channels, but not the same ones as on the main server, but different ones. All these accounts and chats are not connected to the accounts and chats of the main server.

You can draw the following analogy:

  • Your application is a car.
  • The main Telegram server is a city with streets, signs, traffic lights, and other road users.
  • A Telegram test server is a training ground. There may also be other road users, signs and traffic lights on it, but all of this works differently, and the rules may be different, and you won’t be able to go out of town for a barbecue.

We’ll talk about these entities in more detail below.

1. Beta version

A beta version of any application is a preliminary version of the application that has already been tested by developers and testers, and is now available for testing to some regular users. It usually doesn’t contain critical bugs: it launches correctly and generally works well, but it’s too early to give it to all users, so it’s only available to beta testers — those enthusiasts and daredevils who are ready to take a risk and start using it despite the fact that it may still have bugs, including critical ones.

Telegram also has beta versions. Anyone can install them on Android and PC, but on iOS it is quite difficult: the number of places for Telegram iOS beta testers is strictly limited, and a new user can become a beta tester only if there is a free place for him.

1.1. Telegram Desktop Beta

Method #1:

Download the beta version of the application from the official Telegram website.

Method #2:

  1. Download the stable version of the application from the official website, if you do not have it installed yet.
  2. Go to the «Settings › Advanced settings» section and in the «Version and updates» section enable the «Install beta versions» option.

Method #3:
Download the required version of the application from the telegramdesktop / tdesktop repository. Beta versions are marked with the «Pre-release» tag.

1.2. Telegram Android Beta

Telegram developers publish beta versions of the Telegram Android application on the App Center.

In addition, we have a separate channel @betainfoen, where we publish apk files of beta versions, downloading them from the App Center, and news about new features that appear in these versions.

2. Test server

Telegram has a test server. It is designed so that developers and testers working in Telegram can test new features on it without touching the main server, which is used by almost a billion active users.

Any user of the beta version of Telegram can log in to this server. But there is practically no point in this:

  1. This server does not have anything that is on the main server. No users, no groups, no channels, no bots. Nothing.
  2. Any function available on the main Telegram server can be broken on the test server at any time. Both intentionally and accidentally. And it can remain broken for as long as you like.
  3. Many limits on the test server have values ​​that differ from the values ​​of the same limits on the main server. For example, a purchased Telegram Premium subscription may expire not in a month, but in five minutes. Likewise, stars for subscribing to a channel via a paid link may be debited every five minutes, although on the main server they are debited once a month.
  4. The test server makes unsteady calls and sends SMS messages or emails with authorization codes unsteadily. Authorization there works completely differently. You will not be able to get into your account on the test server: this account does not exist there. You can only get into the test account, and then only if you are lucky, and even then there will be no point: you will not see anything after authorization. Or you will see scraps of chats created by an unknown person and an unknown time.

Please, do not try to log into an account on the test server if you do not know exactly why you are doing this, how exactly you need to do this and how you need to interact with what will be available to you after authorization.

We deliberately do not tell you how to log in to the test server in this article. If you are a beta tester, you already know this. If not, then no instruction, even the most detailed, will help you log in to the Telegram test server without problems, and even if you do succeed, the content and behavior of the test server will still not meet your expectations.