It's not just you: Telegram is down, and users report seeing a "Connecting" alert when they try to open messages, groups, or channels.
The "Connecting" alert, typically used during slow internet connections, prevents users from accessing the messages.
BleepingComputer also observed Connecting" error when accessing the Telegram desktop client. We're seeing similar reports from users on X and Reddit.
According to reports, this outage started within the last 20 minutes and affects users in Asia and parts of Europe.
It is unknown if this is planned maintenance activity, if there is a problem with their servers, or if the networks are under attack.
Update 1: Telegram is now working again.
Update 2: As of 4 AM EST, Telegram is experiencing issues again.
Update 3: After another 20-minute outage, Telegram is back online. Based on our tests, this outage only affected users in Asia, which uses the Datacenter 5 of Telegram.