Telegram Tips

Add Links to Text. Links can be added directly to text from the formatting menu – keeping messages short and organized.\n\nTapping a formatted link opens a confirmation window so you can double-check the URL before opening it. Except for t.me links to Telegram chats – those always open instantly.

Launching Web Apps. Telegram bots are able to host seamless web apps – which can be accessed in any chat.\n\nBots that support this feature can be launched via link or @-mention. Try typing @DurgerKingBot (followed by a space) or posting this link.\n\nIn groups, web apps can support collaboration and multiplayer features – more info is available in our Guide for Developers and API.

Picture-in-Picture Playback. Continue watching videos while you browse other chats or even other apps.\n\nTap or click the PiP icon in the media viewer on any app to switch to picture-in-picture mode, and pinch or drag to move and resize the player window. To close the window, drag it off screen or tap the ⓧ.\n\nOn iOS, drag the player to the side of your screen to hide the video and keep listening to its audio.

Navigate Recent Chats. Press and hold the ‘Back’ button to return to a specific chat after opening other chats from forwarded messages, links, profiles and more.\n\nWhen jumping through unread channels, previous channels from the feed will also appear in the list.

🌟 Emoji Statuses. Show what you’re up to with Telegram Premium – replacing your 🌟 badge with an unlimited number of emoji options.\n\nStatuses appear in chats and interfaces throughout the app, letting others know that you’re at work 👨‍💻 in class 🧑‍🎓 and more 🏖️\n\nTap your badge in the chat list or Settings to add a status, and hold an emoji to set the status for a specific duration.

Auto-Send Invite Links. When adding users who restrict invites to groups and channels, a button appears to quickly send them an invite link instead.

Reaction Effects and Read Status. Animations for reactions are compact and play in real time for all chat members. To send a larger effect, press and hold an emoji in the menu.\n\nReactions also have read status – tap the ♡ button that appears in chat to jump to your messages with unseen reactions.

Chat-Specific Wallpapers. Your favorite photos and color combinations can become unique backgrounds in any 1-on-1 chat.\n\nAfter setting a wallpaper, a special message is sent that allows your chat partner to add the same wallpaper on their side.\n\nTo set a custom wallpaper, tap ➕> ‘Set Wallpaper’ on Android, or open a profile and tap ➕ > ‘Change Wallpaper’ on iOS.

Read Time in Groups. In groups of under 100 members, you can tap to see who read your message, and at what time.\n\nTo protect privacy, these read receipts are stored only for 7 days.

Text Recognition. On devices with iOS 13 or macOS 10.15 and above, you can use Live Text to select and copy text directly from photos in chat.\n\nOn iOS, tap to open a photo in the media viewer, then tap the text icon to isolate words from the background. The macOS app automatically detects text in photos – ready for you to select with your cursor.\n\nThis secure image recognition is handled entirely on your device.

🌟 Gifting Telegram Premium. Anyone with Premium can send a prepaid subscription for 3, 6 or 12 months to another user – at a discount.\n\nOpen a user’s profile, tap ➕ or ➕ and choose Gift Premium. The subscription will instantly arrive as a special animated message in your chat with that user.

Infinite Reactions. All users have access to dozens of reaction emoji like 👍🤣🔥❤️👏🐳⚡️🏆 from an expandable menu in groups and 1-on-1 chats.\n\nPremium users can react with up to 3 emoji on any message and can use any custom emoji – for thousands more possibilities.

GIFs. Telegram has thousands of high-quality GIFs – featuring scenes from your favorite movies and shows.\n\nOpen the GIF section of your Sticker Panel to see what’s trending, search for something specific, or browse the themed tabs to find one that matches an emotion.\n\nSimply tap to send, or press and hold to preview the full image – and add it to your saved GIFs or schedule it for a later time.

Bot Admins. Some bots are built for use in groups and channels – to help moderators or add fun features.\n\nBots can be added directly to chats from their profile, letting you instantly configure their rights.\n\nBots can be added to groups as members or admins, but can only be added to channels as admins.

Browser Previews. Anyone can open t.me links to see profiles, posts or entire public channels in their browser – even if they haven’t signed up for Telegram yet.\n\nThese previews include buttons to quickly download Telegram for mobile and desktop, or to open it in Telegram Web.

Select Chats for Bots. Bot developers can add special buttons that allow users to filter and select groups, channels or contacts that meet predefined criteria.\n\nThese criteria allow users to quickly find a chat and add the bot – like where they are an admin, with topics enabled.

Granular Playback Speed. Videos, podcasts, voice and video messages can be played at any speed from 0.2x to 2.5x – for audio hold the 2X button, and for videos tap➕ or ➕ then move the slider.

Shareable Folders. Custom chat folders can be shared via invite link – letting contacts and coworkers join all its chats and add the folder in one tap.\n\nEach folder supports multiple invite links that each give access to different chats. If you update a link with more chats, existing members will see a prompt to join them.\n\nFor more details, see our in-depth guide.

Phone Number Links. Post or share a t.me link anywhere to let others quickly contact you, based on your phone number.\n\nThese links follow your Phone Number Privacy settings – if a user isn’t allowed to find you by your number, the link will not work for them.\n\nYour phone number link can also be converted into a shareable QR Code. To create a more anonymous t.me link for yourself, add a custom username in Settings.

🌟 Restrict Voice Messages. Premium subscribers can control who is able to send them voice and video messages.\n\nLike other privacy settings, this supports exceptions – choose specific people or groups with different permissions.\n\nThe 🎤 voice and 📷 video buttons fade out for anyone who you don’t allow, letting them know you prefer text.

Auto-Save Incoming Media. Media from any chat can be automatically saved to your gallery – filtered by size, format and chat type. \n\nIndividual exceptions can be added for any chats to change their parameters and ensure that nothing unnecessary is saved.\n\nTo enable this setting, go to Settings > Data and Storage and look for Save to Gallery on Android or Save to Photos on iOS.

Video Stickers. Easily create animated stickers from .WEBM video files in any editing program and publish them using the @Stickers bot.\n\nFor more details, check out the Video Sticker Manual and this step-by-step Stickers Bot Guide.\n\nDevelopers can use the Sticker Import API to build apps for creating and importing stickers to Telegram.

QR Codes for Public Profiles. Generate a QR code for yourself or any user with a public username – as well as any public group, channel or bot.\n\nTap the QR code icon next to a person’s username or on a chat’s info page, customize its appearance, then print, post or share the code anywhere.\n\nYou can generate a QR code for your own profile from the Settings page – those you share it with can add you as a contact via your public username or your phone number link.\n\nUsers who don’t have a username and hide their phone number from everyone generate temporary QR codes that follow their privacy settings.

New Login Alerts. Whenever a device logs in to your account, a notification is sent to all your devices, and the new login is added to your Devices page.\n\nAdditionally, a login alert will appear at the top of your chat list – if you don\'t recognize the device, instantly tap to secure your account.\n\nFor even more security, consider adding a Two-Step Verification password to your account.

Media Permissions in Groups. Admins can decide which media types are allowed in their groups – each with individual toggles.\n\nWith this, groups can cut down on clutter, create unique conversation styles, or even disable text messages for media-only groups.\n\nSpecific users can have their own unique permissions by adding exceptions.

Message Translation. In Settings > Language you can add a dedicated Translate button to the context menu when selecting a message.\n\nYou can also exclude languages that you speak fluently, which will hide the translation button for those messages.\n\nTranslation is available on all Android devices that support Telegram, but requires iOS 15 or higher on Apple devices.

Streaming Software Support. Broadcast live video in groups and channels from external programs like OBS and XSplit to add extra inputs, graphics and more.\n\nSelect ‘Stream with…’ when starting your broadcast, then paste the details into your preferred streaming software.

Power Saving Mode. Animations, autoplay and more can be disabled to extend battery life and improve performance.\n\nIn Settings > Power Saving you can configure your Power Saving Mode with individual toggles and set it to automatically turn on at any battery level.\n\nOn Android, the app will recommend optimized default settings for your device.

Interactive Custom Emoji. Many custom emoji are also interactive when sent in 1-on-1 chats – anyone can ❤️ tap to play synchronized full-screen effects.\n\nTry it with common emotions like 😂😍😁😱👍🥳🔥 and more.\n\nAll custom emoji are included in emoji suggestions – you’ll also see suggestions from your custom packs after typing static emoji.

🌟 Real-Time Translation. Premium users can tap to translate entire chats, dynamically updating as they scroll.\n\nWhen browsing chats with text in a different language than your interface, a translation bar will appear – which also gives quick access to your translation settings.\n\nAll users can enable translation, adding a dedicated button for individual messages.

Temporary QR Codes. Any user can quickly share their contact info with others by generating a QR code from the Settings page.\n\nIf you don’t have a username and hide your phone number from everyone, the QR codes you generate will be temporary – working for just a few minutes. Temporary QR codes never share your phone number, only your chosen name.

Hide Members in Groups. Admins of groups with 100+ members can hide the member list to give participants more privacy.\n\nIf members are hidden, only admins will be listed on the group’s info page. If an admin is anonymous, they will not be included in the list.\n\nTo hide the member list, go to the Group’s Info Page > Edit > Members > Hide Members.

Bot Interfaces. Developers can create infinitely flexible interfaces for bots using JavaScript.\n\nWith these, bots can replace any website – like online stores, games and services.\n\nInterface elements can update in real time, changing to match a user’s theme or night mode. Check out @DurgerKingBot to see them in action.

Browse Your Gallery. Quickly access specific folders in your gallery like videos, screenshots and favorites. \n\nOn Android, pull the attachment panel to the top of your screen and tap Gallery to select a folder from the menu. \n\nOn iOS, tap the 🔍 at the top of the panel to see all your albums.

Device Management. In Settings > Devices you can see all the places where you are logged in.\n\nTap Link Desktop Device to quickly log in on Telegram Desktop or Web via QR Code.\n\nSelect an individual device to choose whether it can accept incoming calls or Secret Chats – or to log it out remotely.\n\nAll devices can also be set to log out automatically after a certain period of inactivity – ranging from 1 week to 1 year.

Public Profile Photos. Telegram’s privacy settings give users full control over their visibility, including who is able to see their profile photos.\n\nAdding any restrictions or exceptions for your profile photo unlocks the option to set a public photo that will be shown to everyone that can’t see your main one.\n\nTo change who can see your phone number, last seen time, profile photo and more, go to Settings > Privacy and Security.

🌟 Custom Emoji. Premium users can include 😎 unique animated emoji in messages and captions to add even more expression to chats.\n\nOpen the 🙂 emoji tab of the 📑 sticker panel to browse your packs or add new ones. You can tap a message to view and add the packs it\'s using (press and hold on iOS).\n\nEmoji are an open platform – anyone can upload custom packs with their artwork. All users can 🤓 see any custom emoji and use them in their Saved Messages.

Animated Profile Pictures on macOS. Create a custom, looping profile video on macOS from your favorite animated stickers and emoji – complete with gradient backgrounds and patterns.\n\nYou can add one to your own account, or create them for groups and channels – quickly giving any chat a personalized icon.

Spoiler Formatting. Select any part of your message when typing and choose ‘Spoiler’ in the formatting menu to hide the text under an animation in chat, as well as in the chat list and notifications.\n\nTap the animation to reveal the hidden text – spoilers can also be combined with other text formatting, including links.\n\nOn MIUI devices, tap ⋮ in the top-right corner to show the formatting options.

Data Usage. You can see how much data Telegram has used with detailed pie charts for both WiFi and mobile data in Settings > Data and Storage.\n\nYour auto-download settings are easily accessible on each page to choose when certain media is downloaded – helping maximize your data plan.\n\nTo free up storage space, take a look at all the options on the Storage Usage page.

Detailed Storage Usage. You can see how much space each chat is using on your device and clear the media of individual chats from your cache, filtered by file type.\n\nClearing your cache does not delete any messages or media from your chats – they stay in the chat history, ready to re-download when you need them.\n\nThe Storage Usage page has several settings to maximize storage space – like automatically removing older media from your cache.

Profile Picture Maker. All users can turn animated emoji and stickers into custom profile pictures for their account, groups or channels.\n\nOn desktop or mobile, choose ‘Set Emoji’ when adding a profile photo to design your picture – with infinite options for emoji and backgrounds.\n\nLike other photos, you can set or suggest emoji pictures for your contacts.

View-Once Media. In any 1-on-1 chat, photos and videos can be sent as View Once – which permanently deletes the media after it is opened.\n\nTapping the ⏲️ icon in the media editor lets you send media as View Once or with a timer – media sent with a timer can be re-opened until the timer runs out.

🌟 Transcribe Video Messages. Premium users can tap the →A button next to video messages or voice messages to generate a transcription of its audio.\n\nAfter transcribing, you can switch back to the video view by tapping the🔼 button.

Silence or Mute Notifications. Disable alert sounds from a chat or turn off notifications completely.\n\nSelect ‘Mute for’ on Android or ‘Mute until’ 🔔 on iOS to set a custom mute duration – pausing notifications for a specific period.\n\nYou can also quickly mute chats from your chat list.

Preview Media Albums. After selecting multiple items in the 📎 attachment menu, tap ‘⋯ selected’ to preview the message before sending.\n\nDrag an item to change its place in the album, add a caption or remove selected media.

Replies in Forwarded Messages. Select messages to forward them to another chat. Forwards show replies to keep the full context of the conversation.\n\nYou can control whether forwarded messages include a link to your account in Settings > Privacy and Security.

Stories: Front Flash Settings. When using the front-facing camera for a story, hold the ⚡ icon to adjust the warmth and intensity of the front flash.