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Ask HN: Where does Telegram store contacts?

2 points by qqn ↗ HN
I've deleted all my contacts in Telegram (settings > contacts) yet still get new "your contact has joined Telegram" messages. Where is Telegram keeping this separate, "central" list of my contacts I can't access through the app?

2 comments

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qqn
Dangerously for privacy, a friend's account keeps getting notifications of when my contacts join because the app must have automatically scraped my contacts from my account to theirs when I was setting up their Telegram a few years ago (it was a used phone so all I can think of is I might've used my SIM card to test things out during the process).

Since we can't access this "central" list there's no way to clear them up apart from as they join, one by one.

qqn
Nvm, on Telegram X under Privacy and Security you can "Delete Synced Contacts".