Message Effects. In 1-on-1 chats, you can add animated effects to messages that play when the recipient opens the chat.

All users have access to free effects like ❤️👍🔥🎉 and Telegram Premium unlocks hundreds more – including all the effects from Premium Stickers.

To add an effect, press and hold the Send arrow – messages with effects can also be scheduled or sent without sound.

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.

Tapping 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.

Topics. Any group can enable topics in Group Settings to organize their discussion into separate spaces.

Each topic works like a chat – with its own shared media and notification settings, supporting powerful features like polls, bots, games and more.

The group’s service messages and pre-topic message history are included in the default General topic. Admins can rename this topic or hide it from the main list.

Premium Stickers. Premium subscribers can send dozens of stickers with full-screen effects – which can be seen by all users.

More premium stickers from Telegram artists are added every month.

Interactive Emoji. Send and tap a single
🎆🎉🎈👍👎❤️😂😭🤩
😁😢🔥😱🤮💩❄️👻🎃💸
in any private chat to unleash a fullscreen effect.

When both users have the chat open, the animations and vibrations play simultaneously on their devices. You can tell that your friend also sees the animation from their watching status.

Flexible Forwarding. Tap Forward Message above the message bar to open a preview window and customize how the messages will appear.

Hide sender names, hide captions from media messages, deselect messages or change the recipient if you tapped the wrong chat.

In your Privacy and Security settings, you can control whether your own messages include a link to your profile when forwarded with your name visible.

Video Messages. Say hi and share quick moments with short high resolution videos – without opening your camera app.

Tap a video message to expand it and turn on sound, and tap it again to fast-forward or rewind the message.

Audio from your device keeps playing as you record, and you can pinch to zoom in when recording with the rear camera. To start recording, simply tap the microphone icon in the message bar to switch to video.

Screen Sharing in Group Video Calls. In group video calls you can broadcast video from your screen or camera – or both at the same time. On desktop, you can even select a specific program to broadcast.

Video from your screen includes audio, and screensharing is also available in 1-on-1 video calls.

To share your screen, tap or in any app and select it from the menu.

Group Calls on Desktop. Voice and video chats on desktop open in a separate window, so you can talk and type at the same time.

When you share your screen, you can choose an individual program to broadcast or your whole screen.

On desktop, when someone starts sharing their screen, that video feed will be pinned automatically.

Video Chats. Turn on your camera or share your screen in group chats with an unlimited number of viewers.

Tap any user’s video to make it fullscreen and pin it to keep that feed focused as other users join the call. Video Chats are optimized for all devices – for a bigger screen and more display options, try them on your tablet or desktop.

@TelegramTips are available in 12 other languages – with more to come in the future. 😈

Español
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
Português
Français
Deutsch
‎العربية
Polski
Bahasa Melayu
한국어
Türkçe
‎فارسی

Groups. Up to 200,000 people can talk, text and share media in group chats.

Groups can be private or public and offer powerful admin tools to manage discussions of any size – including polls to make group decisions and video chats with screensharing.

Any group can enable Topics to create separate spaces for discussing work, hobbies and more.

Send Media as a File. 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 without compression.

Auto-Delete. 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, only admins can enable auto-delete.

Saved Messages. Every user has this default chat to bookmark important messages, set reminders, store media, or send files between devices.

Whenever you forward a message, ‘Saved Messages’ will be at the top of the list – after forwarding, tap the arrow button to show it in the original chat.

To quickly access the chat on Android, tap > Saved Messages. On iOS tap Settings > Saved Messages.

Video Messages. Tap once on the voice message button to switch to video.

Tap on a video message to play it with sound.

Telegram was built to protect privacy and redefine what a messaging app can do. Hundreds of unique features are outlined in this channel, but here are some of our favorites:

• Editing messages and media
• Moving chat history from other apps
• Sending media and files up to 4 GB in size
• Deleting messages and more without a trace
• Native apps for desktop, browsers and tablets
• Multiple accounts and Chat Folders
• Usernames instead of phone numbers
• Granular Privacy Settings
• Group Chats with 200,000 members or more
• Admin tools and stats for group owners
• Channels for one-to-many communication
• Video Chats in Groups
• Live Streams in Channels
• 20,000+ high-quality Animated Stickers
• Shareable Custom Themes and Animated Backgrounds
• Video Messages
• Advanced editing tools for photos and videos
• Bots that perform tasks and integrate with other services using our open API
• Interactive Emoji
• Disappearing photos and videos
• Self-Destructing end-to-end encrypted Chats
• Partial selection for messages
• Scheduled and Silent Messages
• Pinned Messages and Polls
• Persistent chat history
• Saved Messages and Drafts
• Encrypted Voice and Video Calls

@TelegramTips are available in several other languages – here’s a list.

Partial Selection. You can select any portion of a message to copy or share, instead of only the full text. Here’s how it looks on Android.

Scheduled Messages. Hold the ‘Send’ button in any chat and select ‘Schedule Message’ to automatically deliver messages or media at a later time.

A or icon appears in the message bar of chats where you have messages scheduled – tap it to view or modify any of your pending messages.

If you can see your chat partner’s Last Seen status, there is also an option to send the message the next time they come online.

Channels are a powerful tool for broadcasting messages to unlimited audiences.

Only admins are allowed to post updates, but you can add comments to engage with users – see @contest for example.

Channels are anonymous: posts show the name and photo of the channel, rather than the individual who posted them. The list of subscribers is also private and only visible to admins.

For dozens of other channel functions that couldn't fit here, check out our full guide.