Hey @Jason and @ronbillock!
There are several sources you can install Telegram from, in all distros:
- From the repositories (usually older version)
- From the Flatpak market (latest version)
- From the Snap store (latest version)
Unlike Windows, you can’t update the app itself directly from… well, the app. You’ll need to check which source you first pulled it from.
As it comes specifically to Zorin, I know that it doesn’t play with Snaps out of the box. So, chances are that you either have it installed from the official repositories or the Flatpak market.
How can you tell?
Open up a terminal so that we can check what is what.
Repository check
First, let’s make sure that the databases are up to date. Execute:
sudo apt update
Then, look to see if it’s installed via the repositories:
apt search telegram-desktop
It will produce the actual package. If it says [Installed] next to it, then you have the repository version. That one, unfortunately, is always a few versions behind the latest one - as the community takes time to vet all of its features before updates become available.
You can try to execute:
sudo apt upgrade -y
And see if that resolves the repository version, but I sincerely doubt it.
Flatpak Approach
The way you can check if your version is a Flatpak, execute:
flatpak list
This will produce all the Flatpaks that are installed in your system. Keep in mind that Zorin is very Flatpak-oriented, so chances are you will see quite a few of them. If you do spot Telegram in there, then you can perform an upgrade, by executing:
flatpak update
Flatpaks do not require elevated privileges (unlike repositories and Snaps), so you don’t need sudo here.
Switch to Flatpak Telegram
If you have a repository Telegram installed and want to switch to the latest Flatpak one, then you can either install both versions (yes, it’s possible) or you can remove the repository one and install the Flatpak one. The way you can do this is the following:
sudo apt purge telegram-desktop
flatpak install org.telegram.desktop
Then your Telegram will always be the latest version.
If you don’t have Flatpak access
You can always install it via the following commands:
sudo apt install flatpak
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
Then, Flatpak will be fully accessible.
And you can always update all Flatpaks with the command I posted earlier:
flatpak update
I hope this helps!