Messaging To use Telegram, a user must sign up with their
phone number or an anonymous +888 number purchased from the Fragment blockchain platform. Changing the phone number in the app will automatically reassign the user's account to that number without exporting data or notifying their contacts. Phone numbers are hidden by default, with only a user's contacts able to see them. Sign-ups can be done only on an Android or iOS device. Messages users send and receive are tied to their numbers and custom usernames, not the device. Telegram content is synced between users'
logged-in devices automatically through cloud storage, except for device-specific secret chats. By default, any account that is inactive for 6 months is deleted, but the period can be shortened or extended up to 18 months. Telegram allows groups, bots and channels with a verified social media or Wikipedia page to be verified, but not individual user accounts. Messages can contain formatted text, media, files up to 2 GB (4 GB with Premium), locations, and audio or video messages recorded in-app. Telegram messages in private chats can be edited for up to 48 hours; an "edited" icon indicates changes. Messages may also be deleted for both sides without a trace. Users may delete messages and whole chats for both themselves and other participants. Chats can be exported to preserve them via Telegram's Desktop client, but the saved data cannot be imported back into the user's account. Users can import chat history, including both messages and media, from WhatsApp, Line, and
KakaoTalk due to
data portability, making a new chat to hold the messages or adding them to an existing one. As users can be logged into many devices at once, starting to type a message on one of them will create a "cloud draft" that syncs with others, so that typing can be started on a phone and finished on a laptop, for example. Any message can be translated by opening the context menu. Premium users can translate a whole chat with one click. Users can hide the translate button for messages written in specific languages. Reactions can be used to respond to a message with emoji. Premium users have access to more reaction choices and can leave more reactions per message. Reactions are always on in private chats and can be enabled by admins in groups and channels. Specific reactions can be allowed or excluded. Reaction emoji play an animation with special effects. Users can also send stickers, which can be static, animated or video. Sticker packs are made by Telegram designers as well as regular users and can be shared via links. They use the
WebP or
WebM format and do not require special software to create or upload. Some stickers feature full-screen effects that play out when first sent or when tapped. Users can schedule messages to send at a particular time or when their conversation partner comes online, as well as choose to send a message "without sound" without a notification. Messages from private chats can be forwarded, with an option to hide the original sender's identity or to hide captions from media messages. Forwarded messages also maintain reply formatting, able to show which messages in a thread are replying to others. Any user can also send a message to a special "Saved Messages" chat as a form of bookmarking them. The contents of the chat are only visible to the user. Chats can be sorted into folders to organize them with preset options like "Unread" and "Muted" or custom separations such as "Work" and "Family". Premium users have the ability to set any chat folder as the default screen in the app while regular users will always see the full chat list when first opening the app. Users have the option to start a one-on-one, end-to-end-encrypted "Secret Chat", Secret Chats restrict screenshotting by Android devices and warn when one is taken on an iOS device, while also hiding the chat contents from the final image. Secret Chats support
perfect forward secrecy and switch encryption keys after a key has been used 100 times or a week has passed. Secret Chats are available only on Android, iOS, and macOS clients. Both in Secret and regular chats, messages can self-destruct after they are read, disappearing for all parties after a period set by the user, ranging from one day to one year.
Groups and channels Telegram users can create and join groups and channels. Groups are large multi-user chats that support up to 200,000 members and can be public or private. Users can freely join public chats and find them using the in-app search function, while private chats require an invitation. They support flexible admin rights and can use bots for
moderation to prevent spam and unwanted activity. Groups can be split into topics, effectively creating subgroups dedicated to various subjects with separate settings for each. Admins can choose to hide the list of members in a group, as well as post anonymously themselves. Similarly, groups and channels can have content protection enabled, which prevents screenshots, forwarding and downloading of media. Ownership of channels and groups can be transferred to one of the admins if the owner wishes to give up their rights. Groups support threaded replies, where bringing up the context menu on a message allows one to open a screen with a thread of replies made to that message and the subsequent ones in the thread. Specific users can be tagged in the group by adding @username to a message, where "username" is that particular user's username. Groups and channels also support polls, which can be open or anonymous and can support multiple choices. When forwarded, polls retain the answer data and any votes cast in other chats will count toward the overall total. Channels are one-way feeds where the channel owner or admins can post content while followers can only read, react and comment, if comments have been enabled. Channels can be created for broadcasting messages to an unlimited number of subscribers. The list of those who subscribe to a channel can only be seen by its admins. Posting in the channel is anonymous, though admins can choose to add signatures to their posts. Channels offer detailed statistics on view counts, user growth and interactions, also visible only to admins. Channel owners are able to use Telegram to create giveaways, randomly awarding channel members with prizes such as Telegram Premium subscriptions to their followers, based on certain criteria. Users with a Telegram Premium subscription have a number of "boosts" that they can give to channels, which allow the channel to "level up" and unlock features, such as the ability to customize messages or post stories as the channel. In December 2019,
Bloomberg News moved their messenger-based newsletter service from
WhatsApp to Telegram after the former banned bulk and automated messaging. Other news services with official channels on the platform include the
Financial Times,
Business Insider and
The New York Times. Channels have also been used by governments and heads of state. Notable examples include
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and
Emmanuel Macron. Channels have been used by journalists in oppressive regimes to establish independent news networks.
Telegram Mini Apps Telegram also provides an open
API for the creation of custom bots which can perform various tasks, integrate other services into Telegram chats, or work as mini apps or games. Most of them work on the 8XR game engine. In July 2024, Telegram Mini Apps reached 500 million monthly active users.
Video and voice calls Since 2017, Telegram users have been able to initiate one-on-one calls in private chats. Calls are end-to-end encrypted and prioritize
peer-to-peer connections. Video calls were introduced in August 2020. According to Telegram, there is a
neural network working to learn various technical parameters about a call to provide better quality of service for future uses. Telegram added group voice chats in December 2020 and group video chats in June 2021. Group voice and video chats support picture-in-picture video, as well as sharing one's screen, creating a recording of the call, noise suppression and selective muting. In channels, users can start a
livestream, that is able to integrate with third-party apps such as
OBS Studio and
XSplit. Once launched, a group voice chat will remain active and open to all group members until an admin specifically closes it.
Privacy and security features By default, logging into Telegram requires either an SMS message sent to the registered number or a code message sent to one of the active sessions on another device. Users have the option to set a two-step verification password and add a recovery email. In late 2022, options to
Sign in with Apple and
Sign In with Google or with an email address were added. Whenever a new device successfully logs in to a user's account, a special service notification is sent and a login alert is displayed in the chat list of their other devices. In the
Privacy and Security submenu of Settings, users have the option to hide their "Last Seen" status, which reflects the last time the user opened a Telegram app. Hiding the status obfuscates the exact time the user was online and hides the statuses of other people respectively. Similarly, users can hide their phone number and profile photo from people based on categories such as Non-Contacts or by adding exceptions. When a user chooses to hide their profile photo, they can set an alternative "Public Profile Picture" that will be shown instead. In the same menu, users can restrict the circle of people who can call them or invite them to groups and channels, while Premium users also have the option to restrict who can send them text and voice messages. The
Devices submenu shows all of the active devices on a user's account and allows them to remotely log out from those devices.
Data and storage settings Telegram clients can turn off media autoplay and automatic downloads for both WiFi and mobile data, adjusting them for media type and size. Auto download settings can also be applied based on chat type such as group, channel or private. Cache settings can be changed to automatically clear the cache once it reaches a certain size or a certain time passes. The interface shows users a visual representation of their storage usage and also lets them sort their cached media by size to clear specific items.
Bots In June 2015, Telegram launched a platform for third-party developers to create
bots. Bots are Telegram accounts operated by programs. They can respond to messages or
mentions directly or can be invited into groups, and are able to perform tasks, integrate with other programs and host mini apps. Bots can accept
online payments made with credit cards or
Apple Pay. The Dutch website
Tweakers reported that an invited bot can potentially read all group messages, when the bot controller changes the access settings silently at a later point in time. Telegram pointed out that it considered implementing a feature that would announce such a status change within the relevant group. There are also inline bots, which can be used from any chat screen. To activate an inline bot, a user must type the bot's username and a query in the message field. The bot then will offer its content. The user can choose from that content and send it within a chat. Certain approved bots are also able to integrate into the attachment menu, making them accessible in any chat. Bots can handle transactions provided by
Paymentwall,
Yandex.Money,
Stripe, Ravepay, Razorpay, QiWi and
Google Pay for different countries. Bots power Telegram's gaming platform, which utilizes HTML5, so games are loaded on-demand as needed, like ordinary webpages. Games work on iPhone 4 and newer, and on Android 4.4 devices and newer. People can use
Internet Of Things (IoT) services with two-way interaction via
IFTTT implemented within Telegram. In April 2021, the Payments 2.0 upgrade enabled bot payments within any chat, using third-party services such as Sberbank, Tranzoo, Payme, CLICK, LiqPay and ECOMMPAY to process the credit card information. Bots are also commonly used for businesses to communicate with customers as the bot APIs integrate with communication platforms so that Telegram messages can be sent and received in an
omnichannelinbox. These platforms also enable businesses to add Telegram chat widget to their websites and gives them the option to automate conversations or let human agents reply. Examples of platforms providing Telegram bot integration include respond.io, Manychat and Trengo. In February 2018, Telegram launched its
social login feature, Telegram Login. It features a website widget that can be embedded into websites, allowing users to sign into a third party website with their Telegram account. The gateway sends the user's Telegram name, username, and profile picture to the website owner, while the user's phone number remains hidden. The gateway is integrated with a bot, which is linked with the developer's specific website domain. In June 2021, an update introduced a new bot menu where users can browse and send commands while in a chat with a bot. In October 2024, Telegram added increased messaging limits for bots, allowing bots to send up to 1000 messages per second to their users. Messages beyond the free limit of 30 per second are paid for using Telegram Stars. Telegram introduced affiliate programs in December 2024 that allow developers to create an affiliate program for their bot or mini app. Any Telegram user can join the affiliate program and be rewarded for referring others to the bot or mini app by receiving a commission from purchases made by the people they referred.
Stickers, emoji, reactions and effects Telegram has more than 40,000
stickers. Stickers are cloud-based, high-resolution images intended to provide more expressive
emoji. When typing in an emoji, the user is offered to send the respective sticker instead. Stickers come in collections called "packs", and multiple stickers can be offered for one emoji. Telegram comes with one default sticker pack, and users can install additional sticker packs provided by third-party contributors. Sticker sets installed from one client become automatically available to all other clients. Sticker images use
WebP file format, which is better optimized to be transmitted over the internet. The Telegram clients also support animated emoji. In August 2019, Telegram introduced animated emoji, larger versions of familiar emoji with unique animations. In September 2021, Telegram added interactive emoji, a type of animated emoji which also play a fullscreen effect in the chat. These kinds of effects were later used for Premium Stickers in June 2022 and for message effects in May 2024. In August 2022, Telegram launched an emoji platform where users could upload their own custom emoji, either in animated or static versions. While any user can upload custom emoji to the platform, the use of custom emoji in chats is only available to users with Telegram Premium. Reactions were first added to Telegram in 2021 and expanded to include more emoji options for Premium users. They were removed in 2024, with Durov saying that they had had "issues with bots and scammers".
Stories Similar to other social platforms, Telegram users can post
stories, a type of short-form content. Telegram stories have several distinctive features, like a dual-camera mode, extra privacy settings, the ability to edit stories after posting them, as well as to rewind and fast-forward them while watching.
Premium features Telegram Premium was launched on 19 June 2022 with regional pricing. as well as numerous other increases such as the number of pinned chats and folders. Premium users have access to extra stickers, emoji, reactions, and customization features like a special badge and the ability to change the look of their messages in chats. Premium users get access to additional settings, like instant chat translation, and the ability to restrict who can send them text and voice messages. As of 2023, Telegram Premium can be acquired via in-app purchases facilitated by Apple and Google, directly via Telegram's @PremiumBot, or with cryptocurrency on the Fragment platform. Users are able to purchase a subscription for themselves, or purchase a subscription for someone else to send as a gift. Premium subscriptions can also be won through official Channel Giveaways, in which Telegram channels pre-purchase a specific number of Premium subscriptions that are randomly given away to their subscribers.
Gifts In October 2024, Telegram launched Gifts, a type of virtual cosmetic item that users can purchase and send to each other in the app using Telegram Stars. In January 2025, Collectible Gifts were released, which are unique collections that contain special artwork and attributes. Specific limited-edition gifts can be upgraded to a collectible version, unlocking a random appearance and other attributes. These collectible gifts are registered on the
TON blockchain as a form of
NFT and can then be traded or sold both on the Telegram platform via the in-app Gift Marketplace or via outside platforms and marketplaces. In July 2025, Telegram partnered with the rapper and media figure Snoop Dogg to release a set of limited edition collectible gifts alongside his music video
"Gifts". In November 2025, Telegram began using an auction-based system for new sets of collectible gifts and partnered with
Khabib Nurmagomedov and with the
UFC for two limited-edition releases. == Related platforms ==