Telegram Realtime Location Tracking

How to Track Realtime Location of ANY Telegram User — 2 Methods

Geolocation Tracking for Telegram Messenger

6 min readNov 10, 2023

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Greetings there! Did you know that Telegram is more than just a chatting app? It has a cool feature called “geolocation tracking.” That’s a fancy way of saying you can find where your friends are on a map. Let’s talk about how to use this fun feature and also how to keep your own location a secret. Telegram has a special trick that shows you who’s close by. It’s like playing a game of hide and seek on your phone. You can even pretend your friends are in different parts of the world. But there’s a rule — you can only do this every 5 minutes. And here’s the catch: it won’t work if your friend doesn’t use Telegram or turns off their location.

Imagine you’re playing a game, and it gets a bit too tricky. That’s what happened with Telegram recently. They had this feature called “People Nearby,” but it was too powerful, like a superhero ability. After more than a year, they realized it and made it less powerful. Now, when you use it, you only get to see if someone is 500 meters, 1 kilometer, 2 kilometers away, and so on. It’s like looking at a bigger map instead of a tiny one.

It took them a long time to realize their mistake, but now you won’t see exactly where your friends are. I’m not so sure about Telegram and keeping things private. Or it might be that the huge sudden outburst of negativity from Russian and Ukrainian media has finally made them come to senses.

Method 1: Using Telegram Nearby Map

Telegram Nearby Map uses OpenStreetMap and the official Telegram library to find the position of nearby users.

Please note: Telegram’s API was updated a while ago to make nearby user distances less precise, preventing exact location calculations. Therefore, Telegram Nearby Map displays users nearby, but does not show their exact location. Inspired by a Hacker News discussion.

How does it work?

Every 25 seconds all nearby users will be received with TDLib from Telegram. This includes the distance of every nearby user to “my” location. With three distances from three different points, it is possible to calculate the position of the nearby user.

This only finds Telegram users which have activated the nearby feature. Per default it is deactivated.

Installation

Requirements: node.js and an Telegram account

Create an API key for your Telegram account here
Download the repository from https://github.com/tejado/telegram-nearby-map
Create config.js (see config.example.js) and put your Telegram API credentials in it
Install all dependencies: npm install
Start the app: npm start
Look carefully at the output: you will need to confirm your Telegram login
Go to http://localhost:3000 and have fun

Method 2: Geogramint

Geogramint is an OSINT tool that uses Telegram’s API to find nearby users and groups. Inspired by Tejado’s Telegram Nearby Map, which is no longer maintained, it aims to provide a more user-friendly alternative. Geogramint only finds Telegram users and groups which have activated the nearby feature. Per default it is deactivated. The tool is fully supported on Windows and partially supported on Mac OS and Linux distributions.

Installation on Windows

Requirements: Python 3.8 or 3.9 and an Telegram account

Create an API key for your Telegram account here
Download the installer from https://github.com/Alb-310/Geogramint/releases

Installation on Mac OS / Linux

Requirements: Python 3.8 or 3.9 and an Telegram account

Use Below Commands on terminal

git clone https://github.com/Alb-310/Geogramint.git

cd Geogramint/

pip install -r requirements.txt

python geogramint.py # for GUI mode

OR

python geogramint.py --help # for CLI mode

How to use Geogramint? : GUI

1.Start by creating an API key for your Telegram account here. You will also need to put a profile picture on your account and, in your Privacy and Security settings, enable the profile picture for everyone.

2. Launch Geogramint

3. In the settings, write your information (api_id, api_hash and phone number) like the same we did for Method 1 in this blog, report preference and then save

4. Choose the location where you want to search, either by moving around the map or by using the search feature with coordinates in lat, lon format

5. Telegram will send you a verification code, write it in the pop-up window (+ your two-step verification password if you have one)

6. Then click Start Search

7. All results will be displayed following:

🟢 Green for 500m

🟡 Yellow for 1000m

🟠 Orange for 2000m

🔴 Red for >3000m

NB: results can also be found in Geogramint/cache_telegram/ in json and csv format + profiles pictures

8. Reset will clear the results and erase the cache_telegram

How to use Geogramint? : CLI

Start by creating an API key for your Telegram account here. You will also need to put a profile picture on your account and, in your Privacy and Security settings, enable the profile picture for everyone.

2. Launch Geogramint using the below command in terminal:

python geogramint.py

3. Start with the config, with the command set-config set your information (api_id, api_hash and phone number)

4. Start the search feature by using coordinates in lat lon format with the command start-scan :

5. All results will be displayed following: