Signing in, privacy, files and devices: short answers to what people ask before they press play.
The basics
Reelbox is a free web app with its own video player for the files in your Telegram account. It plays formats browsers usually refuse, such as MKV and HEVC, with every audio track and subtitles, and it runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install.
No. Reelbox has no catalogue, library or feed of its own and hosts no videos. It only plays what is already in your own Telegram account: your chats, groups, channels and Saved Messages. A new Telegram account with no videos in it shows an empty list.
No. Reelbox is an independent, unofficial app built on Telegram’s public API, the same way other third-party Telegram apps are. It is not made by, affiliated with or endorsed by Telegram.
Yes. There are no ads, no paid tier and no Reelbox account. It is made by one person, and if it helps you, you can buy them a coffee.
Signing in and privacy
Your phone number, the code and your two-step verification password go straight from your browser to Telegram. No other server receives them.
Telegram then creates a session for Reelbox, as it does for each of your devices. The session is kept in this browser only. You can see it and end it at any time in Telegram under Settings, Devices.
No. The site only serves the app’s files. Videos travel from Telegram to your browser directly, and your watch history stays in your browser. Once you are signed in, nothing in Reelbox is measured.
The public pages and the sign-in screen use Microsoft Clarity, without cookies, to see which parts people read and click. What you type there, and the sign-in card, are hidden from it, and it stays off if your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track.
In Reelbox, open Settings, then Account, and choose Sign out. That ends the session on Telegram and deletes your watch history, starred chats and saved pictures from the browser. You can also end the session from Telegram, under Settings, Devices.
Playing videos
No. Press play and the video streams from Telegram as you watch, usually starting within a few seconds. Skip ahead and it fetches from that point, so you never wait for the whole file.
Nothing is written to your disk or copied to a server. The part being played is held in memory, and closing the tab lets it go.
MKV, MP4, WebM, AVI and MPEG-TS, with H.264, HEVC, VP9 or AV1 video and AAC, Opus, AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS or TrueHD sound. Every audio track in the file can be switched to, and text subtitles inside the file are shown.
Most often the built-in decoder could not load, for example because of a browser extension or a very old browser, and the browser alone cannot play that format. The error panel offers to try again, to switch decoder, or to copy details you can send.
If it plays but stutters, the Telegram data centre that stores the file may be far away or busy. Pausing for a few seconds lets the player read ahead.
Subtitle tracks inside the file are listed in the player's Subtitles menu. For files without them, search online from the same menu: OpenSubtitles first looks for the exact file by a fingerprint, so the timing usually fits.
About the size of the part of the file you watch. A 2 GB file watched to the end uses about 2 GB. Skipping ahead does not fetch the part you skipped.
Devices and languages
Yes, in the phone’s browser. A phone cannot scan a QR code on its own screen, so sign in there with your phone number. Full screen fills the screen with all the controls (turn the phone on its side for the biggest picture), and the miniplayer becomes a bar along the bottom.
Reelbox has no cast button of its own yet. A laptop connected to the TV works, as does the browser on a smart TV. Chrome can also send a tab to a Chromecast with its Cast menu, which mirrors the picture as it appears on your screen.
21: English, Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Arabic, Persian, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam. Reelbox follows your browser’s language, and you can pick another before you sign in or in Settings.
Sign in by scanning a QR code or with your phone number. Reelbox is free, has no ads and keeps nothing on a server.