Telegram Tips

Picture-in-Picture Playback. Continue watching videos while you browse other chats or even other apps.

Tap or click the PiP icon in the media viewer on any app to switch to picture-in-picture mode, and pinch or drag to move and resize the player window. To close the window, drag it off screen or tap the :cross.

On iOS, drag the player to the side of your screen to hide the video and keep listening to its audio.

Bot Admins. Some bots are built for use in groups and channels – to help moderators or add fun features.

Bots can be added directly to chats from their profile, letting you instantly configure their rights.

Bots can be added to groups as members or admins, but can only be added to channels as admins.

Mini Apps. Developers can create infinitely flexible interfaces for bots using JavaScript.

With these, bots can replace any website – like online stores, games and services.

Interface elements can update in real time, changing to match a user’s theme or night mode. Check out @DurgerKingBot to see them in action.

Replies in Forwarded Messages. Select messages to forward them to another chat. Forwards show replies to keep the full context of the conversation.

You can control whether forwarded messages include a link to your account in Settings > Privacy and Security.

Silence or Mute Notifications. Disable alert sounds from a chat or turn off notifications completely.

Select ‘Mute for’ on Android or ‘Mute until’ 🔔 on iOS to set a custom mute duration – pausing notifications for a specific period.

You can also quickly mute chats from your chat list.

Notification Sounds. Tap short audio files or voice messages and select 'Save for Notifications' to create custom alert tones that sync across your devices – like the 20+ sounds available here.

You can set unique tones for individual chats, or entire groups of chats. Add and manage tones via Settings > Notifications and Sounds or in specific chats.

On Android, tap ➕ > Mute > Customize in a chat header.
On iOS, tap Mute > Customize from a chat’s info page.

Browser Previews. Anyone can open t.me links to see profiles, posts or entire public channels in their browser – even if they haven’t signed up for Telegram yet.

These previews include buttons to quickly download Telegram for mobile and desktop, or to open it in Telegram Web.

Phone Number Links. Post or share a t.me link anywhere to let others quickly contact you, based on your phone number.

These links follow your Phone Number Privacy settings – if a user isn’t allowed to find you by your number, the link will not work for them.

Your phone number link can also be converted into a shareable QR Code. To create a more anonymous t.me link for yourself, add a custom username in Settings.

Streaming Software Support. Broadcast live video in groups and channels from external programs like OBS and XSplit to add extra inputs, graphics and more.

Select ‘Stream with…’ when starting your broadcast, then paste the details into your preferred streaming software.

Browse Your Gallery. Quickly access specific folders in your gallery like videos, screenshots and favorites.

On Android, pull the attachment panel to the top of your screen and tap Gallery to select a folder from the menu.

On iOS, tap the 🔎 at the top of the panel to see all your albums.

Preview Media Albums. After selecting multiple items in the 📎 attachment menu, tap ‘⋯ selected’ to preview the message before sending.

Drag an item to change its place in the album, add a caption or remove selected media.

Download Manager. Control your media and file downloads from the Downloads tab in Search, or tap the ⬇️ icon that appears in the chat list when you have active downloads.

Pause and resume all downloads or individual items – and select one to view it in chat. On iOS, you can select an item to raise its priority, so it will be downloaded first.

Navigate Recent Chats. Press and hold the ‘Back’ button to return to a specific chat after opening other chats from forwarded messages, links, profiles and more.

When jumping through unread channels, previous channels from the feed will also appear in the list.

Reaction Effects and Read Status. Animations for reactions are compact and play in real time for all chat members. To send a larger effect, press and hold an emoji in the menu.

Reactions also have read status – tap the ❤️ button that appears in chat to jump to your messages with unseen reactions.

Video Stickers. Easily create animated stickers from .WEBM video files in any editing program and publish them using the @Stickers bot.

For more details, check out the Video Sticker Manual and this step-by-step Stickers Bot Guide.

Developers can use the Sticker Import API to build apps for creating and importing stickers to Telegram.

Text Recognition. On devices with iOS 13 or macOS 10.15 and above, you can use Live Text to select and copy text directly from photos in chat.

On iOS, tap to open a photo in the media viewer, then tap the text icon to isolate words from the background. The macOS app automatically detects text in photos – ready for you to select with your cursor.

This secure image recognition is handled entirely on your device.

QR Codes for Public Profiles. Generate a QR code for yourself or any user with a public username – as well as any public group, channel or bot.

Tap the QR code icon next to a person’s username or on a chat’s info page, customize its appearance, then print, post or share the code anywhere.

You can generate a QR code for your own profile from the Settings page – those you share it with can add you as a contact via your public username or your phone number link.

Users who don’t have a username and hide their phone number from everyone generate temporary QR codes that follow their privacy settings.

Message Translation. In Settings > Language you can add a dedicated Translate button to the context menu when selecting a message.

You can also exclude languages that you speak fluently, which will hide the translation button for those messages.

Translation is available on all Android devices that support Telegram, but requires iOS 15 or higher on Apple devices.

Spoiler Formatting. Select any part of your message when typing and choose ‘Spoiler’ in the formatting menu to hide the text under an animation in chat, as well as in the chat list and notifications.

Tap the animation to reveal the hidden text – spoilers can also be combined with other text formatting, including links.

On MIUI devices, tap ⋮ in the top-right corner to show the formatting options.

Reactions. Give instant feedback on a message – double tap to send a quick 👍 or tap once (press and hold on iOS) for more options.

Reactions are always on in private chats. In groups and channels, admins can choose to enable reactions and pick which emoji are available.

You can change your quick-reaction emoji in Settings > Chat Settings on Android or Settings > Appearance > Stickers and Emoji on iOS.