Unhook for Telegram
A Chrome extension (Manifest V3) to control what you see in Telegram Web K
(web.telegram.org/k/) — like Unhook, but tailored to Telegram and far more
customizable. Hide distracting UI, curate which chats appear, and lock yourself
into a focused view.
Built for the WebK client (/k/) only. If you open the extension on WebA
(/a/), the popup offers to switch you over.
Features
Focus folder ⭐ (the reliable way to show only chosen chats)
Create a native Telegram folder (e.g. focus mode) containing exactly the
chats you want, type its name into the extension, and on every page load the
extension auto-opens that folder for you. Because the filtering is done by
Telegram itself, it's always correct and complete — no matter how many chats you
have.
- Clicks the folder tab on load, re-checking for a few seconds to beat
Telegram restoring your last-open folder.
- Works with Hide folder tabs turned on — the folder opens even while the
tab bar is hidden.
- Loads every chat in the folder. Telegram Web K on its own only lists folder
chats it already has cached, so older chats you added to the folder can go
missing; the extension fetches those so the folder is always complete.
Block other chats
Filters only shape the chat list — Telegram still opens any chat you reach
another way (a channel link inside a message, a mention, search). With Block
other chats on, opening a chat outside your focus set covers the conversation
with a "Hidden by Focus Mode" screen and a Back to focus button.
-
Unlock for 1 minute (in the popup, under Block other chats) switches the
whole extension off for 60 seconds — folder tabs, search and every chat come
back — with a countdown in the popup and at the bottom of Telegram. Then it
all returns by itself and the focus folder reopens, even if you are still in
another chat. For the times you really need to step out of focus briefly.
-
The focus set is your focus folder (when Focus folder is on) and/or your
whitelist (when whitelist mode is on). Blocked names are always blocked.
-
Membership comes from Telegram's own folder data, so every chat in the
folder counts — not just the ones currently on screen.
Presets (one-click toggles)
- Hide the search bar
- Hide the folder / category tabs (All, Personal, Groups, Channels…)
- Hide the stories bar
- Hide the menu / settings button (the ☰ hamburger)
- Hide the new-chat button (the floating ✎ pencil)
- Hide the entire chat list (total focus mode)
Chat filtering by name
- Show only these chats (whitelist) — hide everything except the names you list.
- Hide chats by name (blacklist) — hide any conversation whose title contains
a word you add. Applies in whitelist mode too.
- Matching is case-insensitive and substring-based (
family matches "Family ❤️").
saved messages matches your Saved Messages chat.
- Filters your whole chat list (not just what's on screen), in every folder,
with no gaps — see How it works.
Element picker
Click Pick element to hide, then click anything in Telegram to remove it.
It generates a CSS selector from what you clicked and remembers it — the
fallback when a preset doesn't match your build, or for hiding anything not
covered by a preset. Picking a chat in the list adds it to Hide chats by
name instead (a selector can't cleanly remove one row of Telegram's virtual
list).
Quality-of-life
- A master switch turns everything on/off at once.
- Settings sync across your Chrome profile (
chrome.storage.sync).
- Everything applies instantly — no page reload needed.
Install (developer mode)
- Open
chrome://extensions.
- Turn on Developer mode (top-right).
- Click Load unpacked and select this folder.
- Open web.telegram.org/k/ and click the extension icon.
Recommended setup for a focus view
- In Telegram, create a folder named
focus mode and add the chats you care about.
- In the popup: enable Focus folder (the name box defaults to
focus mode).
- Also enable Hide folder tabs, Hide search bar, and any others you like.
You'll land straight in your curated, distraction-free view every time.
How it works
- Presets and picked elements are a stylesheet injected by
src/content.js — fast, flicker-free, and it survives re-renders.
- Focus folder clicks your folder's tab in
#folders-tabs on load, and
src/page.js loads any folder chats missing from WebK's local cache
(appMessagesManager.reloadConversation), which WebK then adds to the list.
- Name filtering runs in
src/page.js, inside WebK's own page context.
WebK's chat list is virtual: only the rows on screen exist in the DOM,
each absolutely positioned, so hiding rows would leave gaps and miss every
chat that isn't on screen. Instead, page.js wraps the function WebK uses to
fetch pages of dialogs: it scans the folder's whole list once, keeps the
matching chats, and hands Telegram only those. Telegram then renders a
normal, gap-free list. Live updates (a new message in a hidden chat) are
filtered the same way.
page.js relies on WebK internals (window.appDialogsManager). If a Telegram
update changes them, name filtering stops (a warning is logged to the console)
while everything else keeps working. If a preset stops matching after an
update, the element picker still works.
Project structure
| Path | Purpose |
|---|
manifest.json | MV3 manifest |
src/content.js | Presets, focus-folder click, element picker; forwards filter settings to page.js |
src/page.js | Name filtering (whitelist / blacklist) and the "block other chats" guard, inside WebK's page context |
popup/ | Extension popup UI (popup.html / popup.css / popup.js) |
icons/ | Toolbar/store icons |
tools/make_icons.py | Regenerates the icons (python3 tools/make_icons.py) |
Notes
- No data leaves your browser. All settings live in
chrome.storage.sync.
- The extension only runs on
https://web.telegram.org/k/*.
- Presets target WebK's stable structural ids/classes (
#column-left,
#folders-tabs, #folders-container, #new-menu, …); the element picker is
the fallback for anything a preset misses.
License
MIT
