Telegram is among the most popular WhatsApp alternatives around. Telegram supports messaging individuals and groups, but it also has social media-like channels where you can post to thousands of subscribers at once. In this piece, I’ll be focusing more on Telegram as a messenger, since that’s how I use it the most. In my decade of using the app, I’ve learned quite a bit about it, and I’m here to share the best Telegram hacks that you should know.
You need to manually enable end-to-end encryption
Unlike Signal or WhatsApp, Telegram is not end-to-end encrypted by default. End-to-end encryption ensures that your messages cannot be read by anyone without accessing either your device or the recipient’s device, and at this point, it’s become an industry standard security protocol for messaging apps. You can enable end-to-end encryption in Telegram, but it requires a few extra steps, and even then, the implementation is not very user-friendly. Secret Chat is Telegram’s name for messages that have end-to-end encryption, and to access it, follow these steps:
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Open Telegram and start a chat with a contact.
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In the chat window, tap the name of the contact up top.
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On the next page, tap more, and select Start Secret Chat.
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You now need to wait for the recipient to come online and accept your request to start a Secret Chat. When they do, that conversation will become end-to-end encrypted.
Sadly, you’ll have to repeat this process with each of your contacts, which leaves you with two different chats per contact (a Secret Chat and a normal chat). The other limitation is that you can’t access Secret Chats on multiple devices. They’re limited to your phone and the recipient’s phone, and won’t show up on Telegram’s desktop app. It’s great for security, but not as good for convenience.
Don’t forget to delete your old profile photos
When you add a new profile picture to your Telegram account, it does not automatically delete the previous picture. That means your contacts can still go to your profile and see your older profile pictures. To fix this, open the Telegram app and go to the Settings page (which is within the bottom bar on iOS and hidden under the three-lines menu on other platforms). Tap your profile photo, select the Edit button, and delete the pictures you don’t want to keep.
Disable unwanted notifications
Credit: Pranay Parab
Telegram tends to be a bit spammy with its notifications. By default, you’ll get an alert whenever any of your contacts joins Telegram, which gets tiring very fast. You can disable these unwanted notifications by going to Telegram Settings > Notifications and Sounds and disabling New Contacts. While you’re on this page, you can take a moment to disable any other notification types you might not want to see, including Group Chats, Stories, Channels, Reactions, etc.
Change when Telegram auto-deletes your account
Telegram is a bit aggressive about deleting inactive accounts. It will automatically delete your account if you don’t use the app for six months. This isn’t going to bother regular users, but it’s a good idea to customize this duration based on your needs. Telegram lets you set the auto-delete timer for anywhere from 1 month to 24 months, so you can pick the option that’s best for you. Go to Telegram Settings > Privacy and Security > If Away For to make the change.
You can block Telegram calls
Telegram supports voice and video calls, which is pretty standard for messaging apps. Unlike most of its competitors, though, Telegram allows you to block voice and video calls entirely. Just head over to Telegram Settings > Privacy and Security > Calls and select Nobody.
Enhance your Telegram account’s security
It’s never a bad idea to add a few extra layers of security to your Telegram account. The app supports two-step verification and passkeys, and you can enable both by going to Telegram Settings > Privacy and Security. Both options are located near the top of this page.
Lower your data usage
One of Telegram’s best features is granular controls for its various settings, including how much data the app uses. This is great for people with metered internet connections. You can access these options under Telegram Settings > Data and Storage. Go to Using Cellular and Using Wi-Fi to customize how much data the app uses. If you set data usage to Low, Telegram will compress media to preserve bandwidth. On the same page, you can also disable all auto-downloads for photos, stories, videos, and files. Or, if you tap any of these options, you can individually disable auto-downloads based on the type of chat. For instance, Telegram lets you disable automatic downloads of photos, videos, files, and stories from only group chats or only channels. This way, it’ll still automatically download media sent in private chats, but not in group chats.
What do you think so far?
You can also go to the Data and Storage settings page, and enable Use Less Data for Calls. This will compress audio a little bit, but can be helpful for staying under data limits.
Automate the built-in power saving mode
Telegram has a built-in power saving mode that conserves battery by reducing animations or disabling autoplaying videos and other intensive processes. Set it up by going to Telegram Settings > Power Saving. The slider at the top lets you set a battery percentage, and power saving will automatically turn on if your phone dips below it. I’ve set it to 30%, but you can choose a different number if you like. On the same page, you can also manually disable resource intensive processes, which I’ve used it to turn off autoplaying videos and gifs entirely.
Telegram groups have useful granular controls
Credit: Pranay Parab
Group messaging is one area where Telegram allows you to do a lot more than its competition. After creating a group, tap the group’s name, select Group Settings, and you’ll see a plethora of options. Under Permissions, you’ll be able to decide if group members can send messages, voice notes, photos, videos, music, links, add members, pin messages, etc. On the same page, you can also enable Slow Mode, which enforces a minimum delay between two messages from the same member. If you set this to 1 minute, then members will have to wait a minute before sending their second message.
I would love to see other apps also implement a version of Slow Mode, as it stops people from spamming the group with multiple short messages in a row. Additional settings include enabling Topics, which lets you create different “channels” within a group to keep discussions from going astray (separate from the social media “channels” mentioned at the start of this guide). You can think of these like separate channels in Slack or IRC, so in larger groups, you can have separate topics to discuss sport or politics. This keeps the main feed free of unnecessary messages and assigns dedicated spots for different topics.
Telegram Premium adds features you probably don’t need
Telegram has a subscription service ($5/mo) that lets you access features such as unlimited cloud storage (with a maximum of 4GB per document), chat transcription, automatic translation of incoming messages, support for checklists in the app, the ability to see when someone was last seen online (bypassing their privacy settings), and more. These features are great for people who have channels with a large following, but for most people, none of these features are essential. Other than the generous cloud storage, you can get all of these features in other apps for free. And even cloud storage has strong alternatives, including small providers like Proton or larger ones like Google and Apple.
