FinchGram
Download
Privacy

What FinchGram does with your data

FinchGram is a Telegram client that runs on your Mac. There is no FinchGram server and no FinchGram account: the app talks to Telegram, to GitHub for its updates, and to the servers you add yourself, and it collects nothing about you.

Last updated 2026-10-22 · FinchGram for macOS

Nothing collected

No analytics, no crash reports, no advertising, no tracking. FinchGram itself calls no AI.

Kept on your Mac

What Telegram sends you is kept in your user folder. FinchGram has no copy of it anywhere else.

AI only if you say so

No AI assistant sees a chat until you turn AI access on, choose the chats and allow the app.

Where your data goes

FinchGram connects to these, and to nothing else.

  • Telegram

    Everything a Telegram app sends: your phone number when you log in, and your messages and files. It goes through TDLib, Telegram's own library, to Telegram's servers, as with Telegram's own apps. Telegram also learns the app's version and your Mac's model, system version and language, which it lists under your active sessions. Telegram's Privacy Policy applies.

  • GitHub, for updates

    Once a day, at a random time, FinchGram asks GitHub whether there is a newer release, and downloads it when there is. GitHub sees your IP address, as with any visit. Turn off “Check for updates automatically” in Settings to stop it. GitHub's Privacy Statement applies.

  • WebDAV servers you add

    The Downloads page connects only to the servers you add, with the account you give it, and only reads from them. With an http:// address, the password and the files cross your network unencrypted; use https:// beyond your own network.

  • AI assistants you allow

    Only once you turn AI access on, and only what you let them see. More below.

There is no FinchGram server, so there is nowhere for the app to send anything about you: no analytics, no crash reports, no usage counts.

What stays on your Mac

FinchGram keeps its own files in ~/Library/Application Support/FinchGram/ and what it fetches for you in ~/Documents/FinchGram/; the files you save go to Downloads.

  • Chats and messages tdlib/

    TDLib's database: the chats and messages Telegram sent, so that chats open at once. Encrypted as a whole, with a key of its own in your login keychain.

  • Photos, videos and files media_cache/

    What Telegram sent, as plain files under Documents, where you can see them and clear them; what you clear is fetched again when you look at it.

  • Settings settings.toml

    Your preferences, including AI access: which chats, and what may be written.

  • FinchGram's database finchgram.db

    Your WebDAV servers with their passwords, and the apps you allowed or refused at AI access. Encrypted as a whole, with its key in your login keychain.

  • Keys, in the macOS Keychain

    The keys of the two databases are in your login keychain, under FinchGram, where only this app reads them; a password is never in a plain file.

  • Two logs downloads.log mcp.log

    What the download engine did, with addresses shown without the account and never a password; and which AI apps connected and what they asked for, never a message's words. Both stay small: they start afresh past a size limit.

  • What you save

    Files from WebDAV servers go to ~/Documents/FinchGram/webdav, a folder per server, or to the folder you choose; photos, videos and screenshots you save go to Downloads.

To remove everything FinchGram keeps, quit it, delete the folders ~/Library/Application Support/FinchGram and ~/Documents/FinchGram, and in Keychain Access delete the items named “FinchGram”.

AI access

FinchGram is an MCP server: an AI assistant's app on your Mac, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Cursor, can read your Telegram and act in it through FinchGram, with your account. It is off until you turn it on in Settings → AI access.

  • You choose the chats an assistant may see: every chat except secret chats, or only the ones you pick.
  • You choose what it may write: messages under your name, drafts for you to send, or nothing.
  • The first time an app connects, FinchGram asks you whether to allow it, and remembers your answer for that app.
  • Reading marks nothing as read, and secret chats are never shown.
  • FinchGram keeps nothing for an AI, indexes nothing, and calls no AI itself.

What an assistant reads leaves FinchGram for that app, over a connection that stays on your Mac. The app usually passes it on to its AI service to answer you, and what happens there is up to that app and its privacy policy. Read it before you turn AI access on.

What FinchGram asks macOS for

  • Notifications

    For new messages. Turn off “Message previews” in Settings to keep their words off the screen.

  • Screen Recording

    Only for the screenshot tool (⌘⇧A). A screenshot stays on your Mac unless you send, copy or save it.

  • Keychain

    To keep the keys of its two databases.

You can check all of this

FinchGram is open source under the GPL-3.0. Every release is built by GitHub Actions from the public source and signed, and the app checks the signature before it installs an update. What this page says can be checked against the code.

Read the source on GitHub

This website

finchgram.com runs on Cloudflare Workers. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads nothing from other companies: its fonts and screenshots come from finchgram.com itself. Cloudflare, which serves it, sees each request as any host does and keeps its usual short-lived logs; Cloudflare's Privacy Policy applies to those.

Changes and questions

When this page changes, the date at the top changes with it. Questions about privacy: an issue on GitHub.

FinchGram is an unofficial client, not made by Telegram.