Telegram Messenger, born as an alternative to WhatsApp, has grown dramatically and has now become a fearsome competitor even for a giant like Facebook. By now there are hundreds of millions of active users and every day I add new ones, also thanks to the unique features of the app and the service (in many cases superior even to WhatsApp itself). After seeing the functions that are in Telegram and not in WhatsApp, we discover in this guide the best tricks and hidden options of Telegram, so as to start using it really as an alternative to WhatsApp. Once you have learned all the features of this extraordinary service, you will hardly go back to WhatsApp or any other messaging app on the Play Store or the App Store.
READ ALSO: Download Telegram for PC, Android and iPhone
Telegram hidden tricks and options
Many of the users have already discovered some of the tricks and options present below, but we can assure you that some are so well "hidden" that they are unknown even to those who have been using the app for years. If we haven't downloaded the app yet, we can fix it right away using the following links for Android and iPhone.Turn off message preview
Previewing messages in the notification area or lockscreen can be helpful, but lets personal messages be glimpsed to people who are close to us or who use our phone. Telegram includes an option to disable message preview in the application settings.Let's go to Settings -> Notifications and Sounds, select one of the Private Chat, Group or Channels menus and disable the Preview message item.
If, on the other hand, we want to deactivate the preview visible inside the app, simply open Settings -> Notifications and Sounds and deactivate the In-app preview item.
Set custom notifications and LED color
Telegram allows you to select a personalized notification for each of the contacts and, on Android smartphones, also to choose the color of the notification LED (if present).To set personalized notifications, go to the Settings -> Notifications and Sounds path, select one of the Private Chat, Group or Channels menus, press on the Add exceptions item then select the contact to which to configure the notifications and the custom LED. With these steps we can also silence a chat, a group or a channel, so as not to be disturbed.
Make free calls
One of the most appreciated features of Telegram are free calls between the various users of the app, with a very high level of security. In fact, all calls have a visual control of encryption, based on some randomly chosen emojis: if the emojis coincide between the two interlocutors, the call is secure and cannot be intercepted.To learn more, we recommend you read our guide to Calls with Telegram, safe and of superior quality .
Add animated stickers and stickers
Telegram allows you to add sticker and animated sticker packages: they are nice images or emojis that we can add to our chats to communicate in a more expressive and fun way. The easiest way to add stickers is to click on one of them in a chat (if our friend already uses a set of stickers) and click on Add sticker in the window that appears.Another method to add new stickers is to press the smile-shaped button (to the left of the text entry field), select the Sticker icon at the bottom (the third), and finally press the Add sticker button (with a + in the center). We will thus be able to scroll through those present in Telegram or added by other users. Once a set of stickers has been added, they will be usable from any device, including PC apps or the Telegram Web site.
Add GIF from the app
If we love GIFs but don't want to waste time looking for them on the Web, we can search for them and use them directly from Telegram chats. To do this, press the smiley icon next to the text field, then press the GIF button at the bottom, so as to open the GIF search engine on the Internet.Customize chat and text appearance
If we really care about customizing each app we use, we can do it on Telegram by going to the Settings -> Chat settings path and customizing the items present, including the size of the text, the background of the chats, the theme to be applied to the app and the display of the chat list.Transfer files
With Telegram we can transfer files of all kinds between users and also in groups. Telegram allows you to send any type of file including music, videos, films and applications, up to 1.5 GB in size. To manage the downloads and prevent them from starting on their own, consuming the data plan traffic, let's go to Settings -> Data and archive and configure the Automatic media download section. We can thus choose whether to automatically download photos, voice messages, music or GIFs under the mobile network and if connected to the Wi-Fi network. From here you can also activate the automatic playback of GIFs and videos or other streaming content.READ ALSO: Transfer files to the cloud of Whatsapp and Telegram
Turn on pop-up notifications to respond quickly
If you use Telegram a lot to chat with friends, it can be handy to have pop-up notifications so you can reply from any other app without necessarily opening Telegram.Let's go back to Settings -> Notifications and sounds, select one of the Private Chat, Group or Channels menus, press on the Pop-up Notifications item and select when to show them (whether with screen off, screen on or always).
Set a self-destruct timer in secret chats
The "secret chats" are one of the best tricks of Telegram allow you to create a chat whose messages are encrypted end-to-end, so as to be impossible to intercept (even for governments and surveillance agencies). In these secret chats it is also possible to set a timer or countdown which, when it expires, deletes all messages.To create a secret chat, press the button to start a new conversation and select New secret chat . We choose the contact with which to start the secret chat, press on the menu at the top right and select the Self-destruction timer item to set a self-destruction timer on the messages sent. Once set, the sent and received messages will self-destruct and will be automatically deleted after the set time.
Hide access for specific users only
The ability to hide the last time you were online in Telegram is very similar to that of WhatsApp, with the option, very advantageous, of being able to hide the last time online only to some contacts and not to all. This way you can keep some privacy with some people and instead stay in constant contact with others without creating problems or embarrassments.To do this, go to the Settings path -> Privacy and Security-> Last Access and online, then choose whether to show access to everyone, only to contacts or to anyone, with the possibility of adding exceptions, which can therefore ignore the settings made (we can therefore hide access to everyone except our wife / husband or girlfriend / boyfriend).
Search for messages
To find and reread old messages, old links, old photos or old quotes without having to scroll through the whole chat, we can use Telegram's internal search engine; to start it, go to a chat, press the menu on the top right and select the Search item.Block access to chats
If we want to prevent unauthorized access to Telegram, we can set a chat access code. To activate it, go to Settings -> Privacy and Security, press on Lock code and enable the homonymous entry, so you can choose our lock code. If you forget the code, simply uninstall the app and enter your account number to pick up where we left off.Check active sessions
Telegram supports connecting to chat from multiple locations simultaneously without limits; you can then start chatting on your PC, then switch to your mobile phone and continue on your tablet, even at the same time. From each station it is possible to check the active sessions, i.e. the devices from which Telegram was accessed. If we have doubts about where a section of our Telegram is active, go to Settings -> Privacy and Security, select Active sections and check the apps or locations from which we accessed with our account. If we find something anomalous or suspicious, press the End other sessions button to leave only the current one active (all other sessions will be disconnected).Set up two-factor authentication
To further increase the security of our Telegram account, we can set up an additional security check by going to Settings -> Privacy and Security, pressing on Two-step verification and finally pressing on Set additional password . From now on, with each new access to our Telegram account, we will be asked for an access password and a unique code via SMS, thus making access more laborious but considerably safer.Send silent messages and edit messages in channels
A hidden Telegram option allows you to send silent messages through public or private channels. The silent message will not send any notification sound on the recipients' phone, which is very useful when you want to send messages without disturbing the recipients. To send it, press the bell button and disable it before writing and sending. In a channel you can also edit a message by touching it and selecting "Edit".Use the Telegram bots
Bots are special Telegram chats that can be designed to provide automatic services or responses, even within other chats. We can thus replace the mobile phone apps with some very useful services such as Trackbot, which allows you to track shipments and send notification messages with each update. All the added bots will be shown as chats with the name of the bot and the symbol of a robot next to it, and from these same chats we will be able to manage its operation (whether to start them, whether to turn them off or whether to manage only some functions).To learn more about the operation of Telegram bots and discover new ones to add, we invite you to read our guide to the best automatic and multifunction Telegram Bots .
Similar to Bots, but only to receive updates and information messages, there are channels to follow and in another article we have listed some of the popular Telegram channels to follow
Read a message without going online and without letting it know
You can read a couple of messages received in Telegram from the notification area, even without the phone being online. In addition to this Telegram also allows you to read a long message while staying offline. After receiving it, we disable the mobile data and WiFi connection or activate airplane mode; now open Telegram, read the message, then close the app and reactivate the network. This way those who sent that message will not know that we have read it.Hide photos received from the Gallery app
If you participate in chats and groups with very nice friends who send us photos and images that it would be better not to keep in the phone gallery, we can prevent these contents from being added to the phone gallery, remaining available only on Telegram. To hide the received photos, go to the Settings -> Chat settings path, then remove the check mark from the Save in gallery item .Delete the Telegram account
Telegram includes an option to self-destruct and cause the account to be automatically deleted if it has not been in use for a certain period of time.The option Delete my account if far away is located in Settings -> Privacy and security and allows you to set a period of time, after which the account disappears forever; currently we can choose between 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year . If you want to cancel the Telegram account immediately it is better to act from the deactivation web page.
In any case, you can register a new account even after having canceled it, using the same name and the same phone number.
Turn any group into a supergroup
Telegram groups can become super groups to which up to 20, 000 members can be invited. In the supergroup the new members have the possibility to see all the previous messages also the deleted messages disappear from the device of each member. The super groups can also be public, really good if we manage a site, a blog or a constant information service (also for offers, coupons etc.). To carry out the conversion, open the group of which we are administrators, press the button at the top left and press Convert to supergroup . Once you upgrade to a supergroup, you cannot go back and bring it back to a normal group.How to cite messages
To reply to a previous message, especially in crowded groups, we can quote it by holding down on that message and pressing the top button with the arrow going to the left. Another way to quote the message is to swipe left from the message itself.How to use hashtags
Hashtags are similar to those used on Twitter and Facebook, putting the # in front of a word.In groups, messages with the same hashtag can be grouped in a filtered section by touching the hashtag itself; hashtags can also be searched in the Search option, so that they can be used as a sort of "bookmarks" that everyone can draw on to trace an old important message.
