TeleCatch: An open-access software for visualizing, filtering and extracting Telegram messages data

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Telegram’s growing role as a digital communication platform creates opportunities and challenges for analyzing public discourse. TeleCatch, an open-source tool, simplifies access to data from public Telegram groups and channels, requiring no programming skills. Built with FastAPI and Telethon, it enables collection management, rapid sampling, and retrieval of text and media, offering a privacy-focused, decentralized approach. TeleCatch has proven valuable in studies on human mobility and food security, supporting diverse research fields. Future updates will enhance search capabilities and visualization features, further expanding its applicability for digital communication and social media analysis. • Open-source and accessible tool for filtering and extracting data from Telegram. • Enables large-scale data collection without coding skills. • Decentralized data streaming ensures data privacy and control. • Supports retrieval of both text messages and media files for comprehensive analysis.