What you need to know
- Telegram is one of the world's most popular messaging apps for Windows, Android, and Apple devices.
- Initially designed for the traditional x86-64 platform, its developers have integrated native ARM64 support in version 5.7.2
- Telegram for Windows on ARM is currently listed on GitHub with files for a full installation or as a portable app.
Most of my day-to-day apps have native ARM64 builds for Windows on ARM devices, like the latest Surface Pro 11 powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processors. Even my five-year-old Surface Pro X, with its ancient Microsoft SQ1 chip, runs Windows 11 24H2, and now it finally runs Telegram without emulation or needing a PWA alternative. It's one of the only apps that carries over from my professional suite to my downtime, and I'm glad to see its developers put the effort into an ARM64 build (via Neowin.)
Telegram came to the Microsoft Store years ago, but it runs under Microsoft's Prism emulation layer if you launch it on an ARM device, translating x86-64 instructions rather than running natively on ARM64. It's not a terrible prospect, as Prism's performance improved dramatically with Windows 11 24H2 and should continue the same trend as long as Microsoft maintains its efforts. Even running Telegram with the PWA method I mentioned has been a decent substitute, but nothing is faster than native code.
How to download Telegram for Windows on ARM
You can download Telegram v5.7.2 directly from the 'telegramdesktop' GitHub page. Download the Windows on ARM: Installer file to install the app with an executable (.exe), or use the Windows on ARM: Portable to unpack an archive (.zip) and use Telegram without installing, even directly from a USB storage drive.
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Which apps are still holding out on ARM?
The gang is practically all here, as my daily drivers for work all run natively on ARM. Though I didn't struggle with Telegram running as a PWA before today, it's a welcome sight, and I'll always applaud any development team that has spent the time to adopt ARM64. Practically all of my most important tasks are done on the web these days, and Microsoft Edge has offered an ARM64-native app since the early days of Windows 10 on ARM.
The most significant adoption was probably when Adobe Photoshop came to ARM since I can't think of a day when I don't boot it up for at least a minor photo edit or a quick crop job. However, I'm still waiting on an ARM-native Adobe Premiere and After Effects and settling for Prism emulation until then. Nevertheless, the list of ARM64 apps on Windows 11 keeps growing and generally makes my life easier when I don't have to fire up my desktop PC just to run some unsupported x86-64 software for a few minutes.
Developers, I'm asking you to please keep these native apps coming. As good as Prism emulation might be, there'll never be anything that beats native ARM64 code, and I'll champion your efforts all day long.
