Patrick Casey

Patrick Casey Telegram

While WhatsApp remains the king of instant messaging in terms of sheer user base, Telegram is one of its main competitors and for good reason. The app offers speed, security, and simplicity, and is a strong WhatsApp alternative. Whether its due to WhatsApp being a Meta-owned company, or the privacy policy updates, or anything else, a lot of users have switched to Telegram over the last few years. If you’re on of them, here are 35 cool Telegram tricks to let you make the most out of the messaging app. At the same time, all existing features that users have come to expect and rely on for nearly a decade remain free. Moreover, non-premium users will be able to enjoy some of Premium's benefits: for example, download the extra-large documents and view stickers sent by premium users, as well as tap to increase counters on premium reactions that were already added to a message. The aforementioned secret chats are where you can take part in end-to-end encrypted messaging with a contact. But that’s not its only benefit: Secret chats also don’t allow a person forward messages from there or take screenshots. Of course, someone could take a picture of the screen with another device, but it’s still discouraged, and it’s bolstered by another feature: self-destruct timers.

System Default (Android) or System (iOS): Matches the theme to your operating system's current mode. On iOS, Telegram offers you the flexibility to choose a default browser where the links are opened. Though Safari is set as the default option, you can set other browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge as the preferred choice. This is useful when you are on your way to a meeting or trying to coordinate with friends at a large event. Rather than sending static locations every minute, you can share your live location with your friend circle for 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 8 hours. Of course, you can stop sharing at any time. Telegram’s core functionality is the same as most other messaging apps: You can message other Telegram users, create group conversations, call contacts, make video calls, and send files and stickers. However, there are a few specific features that make it work differently from other chat apps.

Turn off/on the auto-night mode You'll have four options to choose from: Mute a Telegram chat If you are a group admin and it’s getting hard for you to manage the group due to the sheer amount of messages, you can use utilize the slow mode feature.

Never Share With: Hide your profile photo from specific people. Table of Contents