Telegram has become much more than just a simple chat app: today it's a mix of messaging, social network, personal cloud, news center, and digital toolboxBetween constant updates, hidden features, and hundreds of little tricks, it's normal to feel like you're only taking advantage of a tiny fraction of everything it offers.
In this guide you will find A very complete compilation of Telegram news, updates, and tips These tips are taken from the top-ranking Google sites, but rearranged and explained in different terms. The idea is simple: you'll leave here knowing how to configure your privacy settings, manage groups, channels, bots, backups, stickers, stories, and even "unusual" features like slow mode, reminders, and secret chats.
Telegram as a personal cloud and organization hub
One of Telegram's least utilized superpowers is that it can function as unlimited storage and personal organization space, without paying a single euro more and synchronized across all your devices.
At the heart of it all are the celebrities “Saved Messages”That chat with yourself that often goes unnoticed. There you can send yourself documents, photos, videos, voice notes, links, or simple reminders. There's no overall storage limit (only a file size limit, usually up to 2 GB), so it's perfect as a quick cloud storage solution.
- You send files from your mobile to your PC (or vice versa) without cables or extra apps, just having Telegram open on both.
- What you upload stays in the Telegram cloud and you can download it on any device where you log in.
- If you want to get fancy, you can use bots or external apps (like TgStorage and similar) to manage that “hard drive” in the cloud in a more organized way.
Did you accidentally delete your saved chat messages? Bad news: What has already been deleted cannot be recovered (although you can check how Recover deleted Telegram conversationsBut you can reactivate the conversation to continue using it: simply search for "Saved Messages" in Telegram's magnifying glass, open the result, and type anything to make the chat reappear.
If you use that chat to store a lot of things, you'll end up with a huge mess. This is where two features that almost nobody uses come into play: pin messages and tag with hashtagsYou can pin key notes (a list of accounts, an important PDF, a document you consult daily) to the top and also add tags like #invoices, #travel, #work to the text of your messages. Then, when you search for them within the chat, Telegram will only show you what has that hashtag, which is great for locating specific files.
Basic adjustments that change your daily life
Before diving into bots, channels, and other weird stuff, it's worth spending five minutes on Adjust Telegram to suit your view, your schedule, and your chat styleas the Power saving modeThey're small changes that make a huge difference.
To begin, from the settings you can change font size For chats: you can adjust the font size from very small (size 12) to giant fonts (size 30) for those who don't want to strain their eyes. You can find it in Settings > Chats, by moving the "Message text size" slider.
You can also play with the themes and dark modeTelegram comes with several pre-installed light and dark themes, but it also allows:
- Activate a automatic night mode depending on the time of day or the light level of your environment.
- Explore topics created by other users.
- Create your own theme from scratch, choosing a color for almost every element of the interface and saving it to use on all your devices; you can even follow a trick to customize chat background.
Another adjustment that should be made early is the custom notificationsFrom each contact's or group's profile, you can define different ringtones, vibration patterns, or even LEDs. This is perfect for, for example, your work group might sound different from your friends' group., or so that notifications from certain chats don't make noise but still appear on the screen.
Privacy and security: how far do you want to be seen
Telegram has gained a reputation as a secure app, but there are many nuances you need to know to avoid surprisesThe app gives you very powerful tools, but you have to activate and configure them properly.
First, you can adjust who sees your "last seen" and your online statusIn Settings > Privacy and security > Last seen and online, you choose between Everyone, My contacts or Nobody and, in addition, you add exceptions such as "don't show it to X people" or "always show it to these others even if you have hidden it in general".
The phone number can also be hide or limitIn the "Phone number" section, you decide whether everyone, only your contacts, or no one can see it, and whether other users can find you by searching for it. Combined with your username (your @username), this allows you to use Telegram without a number and talk to people without giving them your real phone number.
At the second level is the app lock codeIn Privacy and Security > Lock Code, you can set a PIN and, on most phones, enable fingerprint unlock. From then on, even if someone picks up your unlocked phone, they won't be able to open Telegram without that code. You can also decide how long the app will lock itself after inactivity and whether content is displayed in the multitasking view.
The icing on the cake is the two step verificationIt's an extra measure to prevent account theft: every time you log in on a new device, you'll have to enter an additional password. It's set up in Privacy and Security > Two-Step Verification, where you choose a password, (optionally) a password hint, and an email address to recover access if you forget it.
If you've ever logged in on someone else's computer or mobile device and can't remember if you logged out, go to Active sessions Within Privacy and Security, you'll see all connected devices, including date, operating system, approximate IP address, and you can remotely close old or suspicious sessions.
Secret chats, self-destruction, and tracking
Although regular Telegram chats are already encrypted between your device and the servers, if you want the highest level of privacy you need to use the secret chatsThis mode activates end-to-end encryption, leaves no history in the cloud, prevents content forwarding, and blocks screenshots on most systems.
To start one, open a new secret chat with the contact you want. The other person has to be online for the conversation to begin. Once inside, you can activate a self destruct timer From the chat options: messages will disappear on both sides after the time you set, which can range from one second to one week depending on the function or the specific version.
If you want to go a step further, the Telegram account itself can have “expiration date”In “Delete my account when I’m away,” you choose a period (one month, three months, six months, or one year). If no one logs into your account during that time, Telegram deletes everything: messages, files, and even your username. This is useful if you use the app sporadically or don’t want to leave a permanent trace.
More common is the selective deletion of conversations. Telegram lets you do this. delete messages from you and others Within a one-on-one chat, there are no strict time limits in many situations. You can delete your own messages and check the box to delete them from the other person's phone as well, or even delete messages the other person sent you (designed to clear chats of sensitive information).
Some users also configure the self-deleting messages in all your non-secret chats. From Privacy and Security, you can activate a mode where everything written in a chat disappears for both parties after a certain period, ideal if you want "ephemeral" conversations without needing to use secret mode.
Control of space and mobile data
Since Telegram saves absolutely everything in the cloud, it's easy to spend a lot of time downloading photos, videos, and documents. filling up your phone's memory without realizing itLuckily, the storage settings are pretty well done—here are some tips for prevent Telegram from taking up space.
In Settings > Data and storage you can See how much Telegram's cache is using on your device, separating by file type (photos, videos, documents, etc.). From there you can:
- Clear the cache With one tap: you delete what's been downloaded locally, but the files remain in the cloud and you can download them again whenever you want.
- Configure how long the multimedia is stored (three days, one week, one month).
- Choose what downloads automatically depending on whether you're on data, WiFi, or roaming.
This last point is vital if you don't want to blow your data allowance: you can specify that, with mobile data, Only photos and voice notes should be automatically downloaded, leaving large videos or documents for when you are connected to WiFi.
Advanced messaging: scheduling, reminders, and silent messages
One of the areas where Telegram outperforms almost all other messaging apps is in the special actions when sending messagesHolding down the send button unlocks a lot of very useful options.
The first is schedule a messageYou write whatever you want (text, photo, audio, anything), hold down the send arrow, and choose "Schedule message." Then you set the date and time. Telegram will send it at that exact moment, even if you don't have the app open. It's ideal for greetings, reminders to others, work announcements, and more.
On that same screen you will see the option to Send without soundThis sends the message instantly, but without the recipient's phone ringing or vibrating, even if they don't have Do Not Disturb mode enabled. Very useful for sending things politely at odd hours or for writing in groups without disturbing everyone.
In your saved messages chat there is an extra feature: personal remindersIt's the same message scheduling mechanism, but designed specifically for you. You can use it as a mini task manager: type "pay electricity bill" and schedule it for tomorrow at 9:00 AM. At that time, Telegram will notify you just as if someone had sent you the message.
Another curious function is that of send a message “when the other person comes online”In some Telegram clients, when you hold down send, you'll see this option: the message won't be sent until the other person appears online for the first time since then.
Text formatting, special fonts, and integrated translation
Telegram allows formatting text within chats in a fairly advanced way. You can mark bold, italics, strikethrough, underline, and monospace text using both symbol shortcuts and the context menu.
If you prefer not to memorize symbols, simply Select the text you have written and tap on “Bold”, “Italic”, etc. from the menu that appears. This can be combined with links, long paragraphs, and more, which is very useful for posting clear announcements in groups or channels.
There is also third party keyboards that allow you to write with unusual fonts and styles (blue letters, script, etc.). These keyboards generate valid special characters, so the other person will see the message in that style, even if they don't have the keyboard installed.
For conversations with people from other countries, you can activate the translate button In Settings > Language, you'll see a "Translate" option in each message, which uses external services (like Google or Yandex, depending on the client) to show you the content in your language. It's fast and works especially well on international news channels.
Groups, supergroups, slow mode, and surveys
Telegram groups are one of its biggest draws. They can be small groups of friends or true communities of Thousands of people with rules, bots, and advanced moderationOnce they reach a certain size, they become supergroups, with additional features: visible history for new members, fine permission controls, message pinning, etc.
If you manage a large group, an essential tool is the slow modeWhen you activate it (from the group permissions), you can set a time interval, for example, 15 seconds. Each user will only be able to send one message every X seconds. This helps curb spam, shouting matches, and makes people think a little more about what they write.
Another commonly used resource is... surveys and questionnairesThey are created from the attach icon > Poll, and allow you to ask multiple-choice questions, anonymous or not, and even in multiple-choice mode with one correct answer. They are great for quick polls, choosing a date for a meet-up, or playing trivia games in large groups.
You can also see in the groups who has read your messagesBy tapping on your own message, you'll see "X people have read it" at the top, and if you tap it, you'll see a list of members who have opened it. This is very useful for checking if an important announcement has reached everyone or for... mark as read several messages.
And finally, you can pin important messages so that they always appear at the top of the chat. This is useful for rules, pinned information, links of interest, etc. In channels, this pinned message is displayed to all subscribers as soon as they join.
Channels, news, stories and Telegram as a “social network”
Over the years, Telegram has also embraced the role of content distribution platform and lightweight social networkThis is where channels, stories, and some of the latest updates come into play.
The channels These are chats where only administrators post. They can be public or private, with a custom URL or invitation link. Media outlets, content creators, businesses, crypto communities, and more use them to share news, offers, articles, or lists of new products. Using Telegram's search function, you can look by topic (news, technology, recipes, sports, etc.) and you'll see popular channels marked with a speaker icon.
In addition, Telegram has been releasing features such as Stories for users and for channelsSimilar to Instagram or WhatsApp, these stories allow users to share ephemeral content (photos, videos, even content that disappears or is hidden behind a "spoiler"). These stories can be controlled through privacy settings, allowing users to choose who sees them, and in recent updates, they have also been extended to select groups.
For some time now, the platform has also been consolidating itself as ecosystem for cryptocurrencies and external servicesWith integrated wallets, official project channels, and embedded trading tools, Telegram has a strong presence. However, some controversial decisions regarding data sharing with authorities and blocking illegal markets have sparked debate about whether Telegram remains the "promised land" of absolute privacy.
Even so, as a regular user, what you'll notice most is that Every so often an update arrives packed with new featuresNew reactions, superchannels, advanced stickers, integrated app store, internal browser improvements Chromecast compatibilityImproved voice-to-text transcriptions, etc. If you install Telegram from the official APK or sign up for the beta, you'll see many of these features before those using the Google Play version.
Bots, automation, and minigames
If groups and channels are the “social” part of Telegram, then Bots are the engine that gives him superpowersA bot is like an automated account that responds to commands or events: it can remind you of things, translate texts, search for videos, organize raffles, or even converse with you using AI.
There are bots for almost everything: reminders, to-do lists, package tracking, surveys, HTML5 games, Gmail and YouTube integration, AI services like Copilot, Bard, and ChatGPT, utilities for downloading audio from YouTube, managing stickers, automating tasks with IFTTT, and more. Many are activated by typing @botName within a chat and adding what you want to search for. Others are used in private conversation.
With IFTTT, for example, you can make When you post something on a social network, Telegram will instantly send it to your chat.Or you could receive a message when there's a new entry in an RSS feed, when someone mentions a word on Twitter, or when you save a location on Foursquare. All of this is channeled through the official @IFTTT bot, which acts as a bridge.
In the more playful realm, there are bots like @gamebot or @gameeThese apps offer dozens of minigames within Telegram itself, many with leaderboards and competitive group modes. And on a more practical note-taking level, they include bots for taking notes, quick calculators (@calcubot), scientific search engines (@SciHubBot), translators, and much more.
Even sticker management involves specific bots: the official sticker bot guides you step by step to create your own packs uploading cropped images (in PNG or modern formats, transparent background, 512Ă—512, adjusted weight), assigning emojis to them and publishing the package with a unique link that anyone can add to their account.
Stickers, photos, video, and multimedia content taken to another level
Telegram has been a step ahead for years in everything related to photos, videos, GIFs and stickersNot only for the quality, but also for the options it gives you before shipping.
When you send a photo, you can decide whether to send it as a normal image (Telegram compresses it and adapts it to a reasonable size, ideal for quick sharing) or as an archive to preserve the original qualityIf you choose the second option, there is no rescaling or extra compression: perfect for work, professional material, or photos you want to save as is.
The built-in photo editor lets you adjust light, contrast, and saturation, apply selective blur, and add all kinds of stickers, drawings, and text. Plus, with the latest versions, you can Create stickers directly from the app using your own photosautomatically cropping the background and saving them in a personal package.
For videos, Telegram includes fairly advanced editing tools: exposure control, contrast, saturation, RGB curve, duration trimming… and support for animated stickers overlaid on the image. When sharing a video, you can also pin a timestamp (“look from 1:20”) that the receiver can tap to play from that exact point.
Another gem is the possibility of convert a short video to a GIF Simply mute it before sending. Telegram will treat it as a looping animation, perfect for quick reactions taken from your own camera.
And, of course, the sticker system is huge: there are hundreds of official and third-party packs, both static and animated, all free and easy to add with a single tap when someone sends you one you don't have. From Settings > Chats > Stickers and Skins, you can manage your collections and delete packs you no longer use to streamline the sticker selection.
Telegram as a music player, blog, and multi-platform tool
In addition to all of the above, Telegram can replace several apps at once if you want to simplify your digital life. One of its lesser-known features is that it serves as a simple music playerIf you send yourself multiple MP3 files, it groups them into a playlist with pause, next, previous, shuffle, and loop controls.
For quick blog posts and long texts, you can use TelegraphThe mini-platform integrated into Telegram. Accessing its website from your mobile device, you can create articles with a title, author name, formatted paragraphs, images, and links. You don't need an account; articles are saved anonymously, and you can then share the link in your chats or channels. Telegram offers "Quick View" to load these articles almost instantly, without leaving the app.
And finally, let's not forget that Telegram is available on virtually any operating systemAndroid, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and even a web version. All sessions are independent (they don't depend on your phone being turned on like WhatsApp) and you can have several open at the same time. This, combined with the saved message chat, makes it a very convenient way to move files between devices.
With all these news, updates, and tricks together, it's clear why Telegram is much more than just a WhatsApp replacement: it's a dynamic platform that constantly releases new features (from stories and superchannels to app stores and AI bots) and, when properly configured, can become your digital hub for communicating, organizing, staying informed, and even entertaining yourself without overcomplicating your life.
