telegram-tracker

This script allows to track your friend's online status changes.

Example output:

=2018-01-19 @ 00:48:23: User went offline.
~2018-01-19 @ 01:46:18: User went online.
=2018-01-19 @ 01:46:29: User went offline.
=2018-01-19 @ 01:46:39: User went offline after being online for short time.

= means that the time is exact as returned by the Telegram server, and ~ means that the time is measured locally and can be inexact.

How to run

First install the dependencies. You'll need Python 3 (at least 3.6) and Telethon package.

Telethon can be installed with pip:

$ pip install --user telethon

...or possibly from your distribution repositories.

Then you need to register your Telegram application on the Telegram website. After you have acquired api_id and api_hash, put them into settings/keys.py like this:

API_ID = 123456
API_HASH = '1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef'

To begin tracking someone, start the script like this (the current working directory needs to be this repository root):

$ python3 -m track '+380991234567'

Use the real phone number or a nickname. The special string "me" can be used to track yourself (it can be useful if e.g. you suffer from dissociative identity disorder or if you're just doing some testing).

How it works

The script polls the user status every 15 seconds. If the status switches to online, it can't determine the exact time of the transition and shows the time when it found out this information. On the other hand, offline transitions are measured exactly as the Telegram server returns the exact time of going offline. The script may not detect short (less than 15 seconds) transitions to offline and back online. It can, however, detect that the user was online for short time (last online time returned by the server changes).

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you need to. Telethon library handles it automatically and asks you for your phone number at the first run and for the confirmation code and password if required.

Can I track any Telegram user with this software?

Acquiring someone's status is done on your behalf, so if you don't have the access to this information or have limited access, the script may either show inexact information based on polling (that means, the timestamps would be inexact and some transitions may be missed) or not work at all.

The best results can be achieved if you can see the user's last online time in the Telegram application.

Does it change my own online status?

No, you stay offline unless you are using Telegram from your device at that moment. Running this script doesn't make you appear online in Telegram and doesn't change your last online time.

License

The software is licensed under MIT License. The full text and the copyright notice is in LICENSE file.

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