TeleBox

A native Android application that transforms a Telegram account into a personal cloud storage workspace.

Introduction

TeleBox provides a modern file management interface backed by Telegram. It allows users to authenticate with their Telegram account, upload and download files, organize content into folders, search stored files, monitor transfers, and preview supported documents and media directly within the application.

The project combines a native Android interface written in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose with a Rust engine responsible for Telegram communication and file operations. Kotlin bindings generated through UniFFI provide a structured bridge between the Android application and the native Rust library.

Key capabilities include:

• Telegram authentication using a phone number or QR code
• Support for Telegram two-factor authentication
• File and folder management
• Upload and download progress tracking
• Global file search
• Grid and list views
• Media playback and document previews
• Local download management
• Light, dark, and system themes
• Responsive layouts for different Android screen sizes

Screenshots

Authentication	Main Interface	Sidebar

Technology Used

Area	Technology	Purpose
Android application	Kotlin	Primary Android development language
User interface	Jetpack Compose and Material 3	Declarative UI and application styling
State management	Android ViewModel and Kotlin Flow	Application state and reactive updates
Concurrency	Kotlin Coroutines	Asynchronous Android operations
Local preferences	Android DataStore	Local application settings and preferences
Native engine	Rust	Telegram communication and file operations
Async runtime	Tokio	Asynchronous Rust runtime
Telegram client	grammers	MTProto communication with Telegram
Native interoperability	UniFFI, JNI, and JNA	Communication between Kotlin and Rust
Media playback	AndroidX Media3 ExoPlayer	Audio and video playback
Image loading	Coil	Image and thumbnail loading
QR authentication	ZXing	Telegram login QR code generation
Android build system	Gradle	Android dependency and build management
Native build system	Cargo and cargo-ndk	Rust compilation for Android targets
Automation	GitHub Actions	Automated native and Android builds

Local Development

Requirements

Install the following tools before building the complete project:

• Git
• JDK 17
• Android Studio or Android SDK command-line tools
• Android SDK 35
• Android NDK r26d
• Gradle 8.9
• Rust stable toolchain
• cargo-ndk
• UniFFI Bindgen 0.28.3
• An Android device or emulator running Android 8.0, API level 26, or later

Rust and Android NDK tooling are only required when rebuilding the native engine. The repository includes generated Kotlin bindings and native libraries for arm64-v8a devices and x86_64 emulators.

Build Instructions

1. Clone the repository to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/RaeesRizwan09/TeleBox.git
cd TeleBox

2. Execute the build pipeline script. This script automatically compiles the Rust components and links the generated native libraries directly into the Android project:

./build_pipeline.sh

3. Open Android Studio and select "Open an existing project".
4. Navigate to the androidApp directory and select it.
5. Allow Gradle to synchronize all project dependencies.
6. Select your preferred emulator or a connected physical device, then click "Run" to build and launch the application.