Communities in Telegram

In the Telegram beta for Android, version 12.9, users can now organize communities that bring theme-related chats closer together:

• Group owners can create new communities or add their chats to existing ones.

• In community settings, you can set a name and profile picture.

• Each chat can be either “Visible” or “Hidden”. A user who is already a member of a community can join any of its visible chats. A hidden chat can be seen only by those invited to it separately. This is similar to general and hidden channels in Discord servers.

• By default, any member can add their groups to the community. Community admins can choose to limit this: in “Only admins” mode, regular members can send suggestions, but admins must approve them.

• If a chat is linked to a community, this will be highlighted on the chat's profile page. This is also where members can navigate to the other chats in the community.

• In the chat list, all groups continue to display separately, but admins can turn on the “Show as One Chat” toggle to merge them into a single item. This is similar to forums, but each topic is instead an independent chat you can join.

• As soon as you find yourself in one of the chats that are part of a community, Telegram treats you as a member of that community. Telegram won’t add you to the other chats in the community, though you can still view them.

Creating communities is available only on the test server at the moment.

Currently, only group chats can be added to communities. The app strings mention adding channels, but the feature is unavailable, and it is not clear whether it will be added in the future.

You can add your group chat to a community in chat settings — just tap the “Add Group to a Community” option.

#Android