Tips and Tricks

Unofficial knowledge base about the Telegram messenger

Press and hold a chat’s profile picture on Android to pull up a preview of its messages – without marking messages as read. On iOS, press and hold anywhere on the chat. This also opens up a menu with additional actions and lets you scroll inside the preview.
Photos and videos can be sent at their full quality and size – up to 2 GB per file. On Android and iOS, tap the 📎 to open the attachment menu, and then select ‘File’ in the bottom bar. You can also quickly send recent media from your gallery as uncompressed files.
Convert an invite link for your group or channel into a scannable QR code to send and share anywhere.
You can move chats from other apps to Telegram and keep all your memories in one place. When importing chats, if the destination chat on Telegram is new or has less than 1000 messages, everything will be seamlessly sorted by its original date and time.
Share unique links inside or outside of Telegram to let other users instantly join your group or channel. In addition to the permanent link, you can create multiple links with custom properties – like a limited duration or number of uses. Any invite link can also be converted into a QR Code.
Add custom widgets to your home page that show a preview of recent messages, or just a shortcut to your chats. All widgets display unread message counters and instantly open the chat when tapped.
Set a timer in private chats, groups or channels to automatically erase messages after a certain period – from 1 day to 1 year later. The timer only affects messages sent after it is enabled, and can be modified at any time from ⋮ or ⋯ on a chat’s info page. In groups and channels, […]
By default, it is only visible to your contacts. In all chats, you appear to people who don't know you as your chosen name. If you create a username, people can search for your profile and get in contact with you – without needing to know your phone number. Your […]
Direct replies and reactions to your messages, as well as @-mentions show special unread badges in the chat list. In the chat you will see individual buttons that you can tap to jump directly to unseen responses. Replies are threaded – tap the quoted message in any reply to jump […]
Use the search field at the top of your chat list to find people by their usernames, as well as messages or media from all your chats. Global Search also shows public channels and groups that you are welcome to join. On iOS, swipe down on your chat list to reveal the search […]
Messages, chats, call history and groups you created can be completely deletedat any time. Simply make your selection and check the box to delete for all participants – deleted items leave no trace, giving you full control over your digital footprint.
, open the 📎 attachment menu and choose “Poll”. Polls can be anonymous or have visible votes, showing who voted for what. You can also create multiple answer and quiz-style polls.