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How to use telegram app


How to Use Telegram Messaging App on iOS, Android - Laptop Mag

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With the news of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, all eyes are turning to alternate messaging apps. With its clean user interface and variety of features, it’s no surprise that Telegram is getting a lot of attention. Unlike other chat clients, Telegram is cloud-based, which means you can seamlessly move your conversations between your smartphone, tablet and even your desktop, thanks to independent developers.

Telegram is more than just a messaging client, allowing users to enter secret chats that are encrypted end-to-end for extra security. You’re also able to share more than just pictures and videos — Telegram lets you transfer documents or send your current location to a friend with the click of a button. Best of all, there are no ads and it’s completely free.

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If you want to start using Telegram to message your friends, here’s how to get everything set up.

1. Install the Telegram app. Open either the App Store or Google Play and search for Telegram. Find the app with the paper airplane logo and install.

2. Enter your phone number. After flipping through the welcome screen, you’ll be prompted to enter your phone number. Telegram will immediately send you a text message with a four digit code to verify that it’s your real number. Enter that code into the app to continue. 

3. Add your name and a picture. Telegram lets users create their own profiles, complete with name and picture. Enter this information to continue.

4. Find a friend with Telegram. Telegram can automatically search your contacts for friends who use Telegram if you grant the app permission to access your address book. When you tap the Contacts tab at the bottom left of the screen, Telegram will show a list of your friends who use Telegram followed by contacts currently not signed up for the app. You can send an invite to join a chat by tapping on a friend’s name that’s not yet using Telegram.

5. Start a regular chat. Select a friend who has a Telegram account to start a new chat. Similar to WhatsApp and other traditional texting apps, there’s a text field at the bottom of the screen that’s used to type messages.

6. Send a photo, Web image, video, document, contact or your current location. Unlike most messaging apps, Telegram lets you send a wide range of information to your friends. Tap the paperclip icon next to the chat text field and choose the type of information you want to send. You can choose to immediately take a photo or video, or select one from your library. There’s also an option to search the Web for an image, which opens a search prompt that shows only image results.

If you want to send your current location to a friend, select the Location option and approve that app’s access to your current location. Your friend will then be send an interactive map with you as a pin, which can be useful for finding each other when out and about. There’s also the option to share documents and contacts, for when you need to share a file or pass along someone’s information.

7. Start a secret chat. From the Contacts tab, select the option that says New Secret Chat and then select a friend’s name. Any messages sent in this window are encrypted, meaning that no one else will have access to the chat, even Telegram. You can send texts, media and documents just like you would in a regular chat.

You can also choose to make secret chat messages self-destruct, which means they’re securely erased after a set time. In a secret chat, tap on your friend’s name at the top of the screen > tap the Info button > and go into the Self-Destruct Timer settings. Choose one second, two seconds, five seconds, one minute, one hour, one day or one week.

8. Adjust your chat background. In the Settings tab at the bottom right in the app, you can choose an image for your chat backgrounds. Telegram has a large selection of images to choose from, allowing you to customize the look and feel of your chats. There is also the option to select an image from your photo library to use as a background for a more personal touch.

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How to Use Telegram for Beginners: 7 Steps (with Pictures)

When there is a WhatsApp outage or when WhatsApp modifies its privacy regulations, Telegram's popularity skyrockets. Thankfully, there is social life outside of Facebook's fishnet.

Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, estimates that the app currently has almost 500 million active users, which is far less than WhatsApp and Facebook's reported one-point-something billion.

But it makes no difference. What matters is that Telegram is one of the best encrypted messaging applications available, providing a cross-platform, cloud-based distributed messaging service with no advertisements.

It's comparable to Apple's Messages, except it's more stable, has dedicated apps for all platforms (PC, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS), and allows you to set up private Chats with self-destructing messages, providing you a new degree of anonymity. This article covers the basics of the telegram, for a new user.

How to Use Telegram

Use Telegram for Beginners in 7 steps

Step 1- Open telegram App: You may download Telegram, a free chat software for your phone, for free.

  • You can obtain it via the Google Play Store if you have an Android device. It's available for Apple devices via the App Store.
  • To make a Telegram account, enter a new user name and phone number. To verify your identity, you will receive an OTP.
  • This guide will show you how to make a Telegram account.

Step 2- Now to edit & personalize your profile tap on the three-bar icon: A new screen with all the chats, groups, and channels open up.

  • You can see all your conversations here.
  • You can see the conversations and shared documents here.
  • On the top left side, there will be 3 lines. Tap on it once.
  • From here you can change your username and profile picture.
  • You can add your bio.

Step 3- It has all the options for editing or personalizing your profile: You'll see the personalizing options.

  • You can create new groups from here.
  • You can view your contacts who use Telegram.
  • You can access the call logs.
  • You can see your saved messages.

Step 4- To use the chat feature. Tap on the edit icon: At the bottom, you'll have a pencil.

  • You can use it to create new chats.
  • You can start conversation with new person from here.
  • You can use all the chat features with this.

Step 5- It contains options for group chatting & all the contacts. Tap on the contact with whom you want to chat: Tapping on that pencil opens a new page.

  • You can create a new group and channel from here.
  • You can start a conversation with a new person.

Step 6- Tap on the message box to enter text: You can message anyone personally or in a group.

  • You can type your message in the chatbox.
  • It could be any lengthy message.
  • It is advised to maintain professionalism, for official things.

Step 7- Enter your text & tap on send icon. Following this process, you can use the chat feature. You can send the message by tapping enter.

  • Once your message is sent you can't edit it.
  • You have to check multiple time before sending the message.

Other privacy options are available in the app. You can opt to erase any payment or shipping information sent in all of your discussions from the Settings menu. In case you forget, the app includes an option to delete your account and any related data if you haven't used it in more than six months.

You have the option of changing it to one month, three months, or a year. Screenshot of the Android app's Telegram account self-destructs settings. Either the sender or the receiver can "unsend" any message at any moment. Both the sender's and receiver's phones will be cleared of the message. There are many other features like changing the theme of your chat that you can learn from here.

Instructions for using Telegrams | About Telegram

The most detailed instruction on Telegram for people who are just about to install it.

What is Telegram ?

So, Telegram, what is it? is a free messenger for smartphones and PCs running all the most common operating systems today, which allows you to exchange not only text messages, but also various media files (pictures, music, archives, text documents, etc.)

How to start communication and what are groups (Group) ?

Telegram provides the ability to communicate with one or several people at once. If you just click on the username, you can chat with him one-on-one in chat mode. Other users will not be able to read or join your conversation. To communicate with a large number of people, you need to create a group (Group). There can be two users in a group (you and someone else. At the same time, unlike a chat, in the future you will have the opportunity to invite other interlocutors to the group) or much more. And to be more precise, the limit on the number of users in one group is 5000 (!) People. nine0005

Is chat in groups visible to everyone?

No, group members only.

How to become a member of the group?

Only by invitation of someone who is already a member. In the Telegram itself, to invite participants, you must click on the name of the group - Add member - Select the people you want to add. Otherwise, with rare exceptions, nothing. This exception is the ability to create a temporary link to a group. Only a group administrator can create such a link. He can do this in order to invite people to the group who are not yet telegram users, or who are not registered in his contacts. If you have such a link to the group, go through it and click join. nine0039 If you are an administrator and want to create such a link for your group, then for this you need to: click on the name of the group - Add member - Invite to Group via Link - copy Link or Share Link. Send the link where the person you want to invite can see it.

Are there any Telegram groups specially created to meet people united by common interests or living in the same region (city).

Yes. And they are called supergroups (Supergroup) . You can find the list of groups that will be glad to see you as their member: here ( Interest groups ) or here ( City and regional groups. Groups for residents of any countries ). If you have not found anything that suits your interests or there is no group of your city (region) in Telegram yet, you can create such a supergroup yourself. To do this, you must first create a regular group using the command in the New Group menu, and then use the Upgrade to Supergroup function in the group settings. Don't forget to add her to our group directory so that as many people as possible know about her. nine0005

I heard that Telegram is the most secure messenger, is it true?

One of the most protected. To protect against surveillance, Telegram uses its own development - the cryptographic protocol MTProto . Without knowing his keys, attackers will not be able to read your correspondence with anyone. However, the data about your correspondence, although encrypted, is still stored on the Telegram servers. Note that this approach, in addition to the minuses, such as the potential possibility of cracking keys and gaining access to your messages, also gives a lot of pluses. For example, you will always have access to your correspondence from any device currently available to you. In addition, you can always be sure that valuable messages that you want to keep will not go anywhere. If this is not enough for you and you want to completely protect yourself, you can use the function Secret Chat . This is a chat in which messages are stored exclusively on the smartphones of its participants (the so-called " end-to-end encryption") and are deleted from all devices after a certain period of time (which one you decide for yourself).

Did you say something about the fact that you can send not only text messages but also various files?

Right. To do this:
-If you are using the smartphone version, click on the paperclip to the right of the message field (Message)
-In the PC version, click on the camera icon to the left of the text entry field (Write a message ...), and then, depending on the type of file being transferred, select either the camera again - to transfer a photo, or a paperclip to transfer any other file.

What else is in Telegram that distinguishes it from other messengers?

There are also so-called channels and bots.

What are channels (Channel) ? nine0010

Channels are chat rooms that act as mass mailings. It can be: a feed with updates to some of your favorite sites or publics (For example, @lastmag), a blog of some famous person (For example, Yuri Saprykin - @forevernotes), someone's channel created to inform their subscribers about updates to their pages in social networks, thematic channels created specifically for Telegram (For example, @historyporn), etc. The key difference from groups is that you can only read the channel (of course, if you are not its creator) and share publications from it with others Telegram users. There is no function of replies, likes and comments in channels. nine0005

What are bots (Bot) ?

A distinctive feature of Telegram from other messengers (WhatsApp, Viber, Hangouts, ICQ, etc.) is the presence of bots with which you can diversify your communication with other people (for example, the Quiz bot), follow updates from various media and others sources of information (such as @Meduza (Recognised as a foreign agent)), playing games (such as the turn-based strategy game Endless Summer), solving everyday tasks (such as a cooking bot with recipes that can be filtered based on the ingredients you have on hand, or receiving information about the weather), etc. In fact, this means that this messenger can be a useful program for you even if you don’t have a single person in it who would use it, because in addition to communicating with friends, Telegram provides a wide range of opportunities for their users, who sometimes have nothing to do with communication. nine0005

How do you manage these bots?

With commands. The command list is usually located to the right of the
message input box and is indicated either by a "/" or by four small squares in one large square. There are other ways to manage. But don't worry. All of them are intuitive and you can easily understand them.

Well, how now to search in Telegram for all these channels and all these bots that you talked about so much? nine0004

Channels, at the request of their creator, can be private or public. A public channel can be found through a Telegram search or by following a regular link posted on the Internet. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with our channel catalog, in which you can also always add your channel, if any, and is of interest not only to your friends.
You can only join a private channel if you are invited to it in the application or send you a temporary link to the channel. You won't be able to find such a channel through the search. nine0039 You can find the list of bots on our website in the Bots section. If you have written your own bot and want to share it with people feel free to add it to our list.

Where to download Telegram?

We advise beginners to download Telegram only from the links indicated on the official website of the program. Alas, on the official website everything is in English and there is no instruction on how to change the program interface to Russian. All this is on our website on the page Download Telegram in Russian. All the links to the installation files that we have indicated are identical to the links from the telegram.org website. nine0039 Note that there are many alternative messengers based on Telegrams that have both their pluses and minuses relative to the official version of the program. We think that if you need to use unofficial versions of the messenger, you can easily find them in the application store installed on your device.

How to register in it?

You just need to enter your phone number. Wait for the SMS message to be received and enter the code in Telegram that will be indicated in it. nine0005

Is it all free?

Yes. Installation, registration, and use are absolutely free. Like all other Telegram functions. An exception are some bots associated with the provision of various services (for example, calling a taxi). But, in this case, you pay not for using Telegram, but for the service itself.

How to invite your friends to Telegram?

Telegram is synchronized with your phone book, thanks to which you can send your friends an invitation to Telegram via SMS. There are also other ways, the number and variety of which depends on the applications that are installed on your smartphone. nine0005

A stickers (Stickers) what is it? Is it some kind of food?

Of course not! Stickers are sets of pictures that can replace some words or even sentences when communicating with friends. With the help of them, you can diversify your conversation, please a person with a beautiful picture, congratulate you in an original way on something, or simply cheer up your interlocutor.

Where can I get them?

You can download the ones that your friends already have. Or choose your favorite from our catalog. nine0005

Why is the application not Russified (there is also no Ukrainian and Belarusian language)?

The developers are not in a hurry to add the Russian language to the application interface (as well as Ukrainian and Belarusian). But you can do it yourself. To do this, use the following bots:
—Russian
—Ukrainian
—Belarusian
Next: Download the resulting file (click on the arrow icon). Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the message. In the menu that opens, select "Apply localization file", then in the list of languages, find the one you need. nine0005

Is that all?

The program is constantly updated and acquires new functions. But for now, yes! This is the basic information that will be enough for you to start using Telegram and feel like a fish in water in it. We can also advise you to read our tips for Telegram users that will make your pastime in the messenger even more comfortable. Have a nice chat!

How to use Telegram - detailed instructions for use for beginners

Telegram has become the most popular manager in the CIS, and not from a good life: Insta and FB were banned, WhatsApp is also threatened to be banned, VK shamelessly leaks user data and correspondence, and Viber, to put it mildly, is far from ideal in matters of convenience and communication quality. Telegram Messenger, on the other hand, is devoid of all these shortcomings: it is very difficult to prohibit and block it, it overtakes all other messengers in terms of convenience, and the secret chat function allows you to communicate with anyone on the most personal topics and send any photos without fear (if the receiving party, of course, will not send them to someone). Below is a great guide on how to use Telegram: how to download the app or open Web Telegram, how to register, how to create a channel, call people, look for bots, and so on. nine0005

How to install the Telegram application

How to register in Telegram

How to use Telegram: basic settings

Adding a new contact in Telegram

Chatting in Telegram

Creating a secret chat in Telegram

bots

Security rules

Let's summarize


How to install the Telegram application

Let's start with the installation. There are 3 main ways to get yourself a messenger: go to Telegram Web, download the Telegram application to your smartphone for free from any store, or install a full-fledged Telegram Online on a computer / laptop. By and large, there is no difference; using Telegram is equally convenient from any type of application. The only point is that you need to register with Telegram in order to use the web version, that is, first you need to create an account through a smartphone or computer, and then you can use the browser version. The most browser-based version is located here: https://web.telegram.org/. Telegram will ask you to log in via a QR code, which you will need to scan with your phone, after which you will be allowed into the messenger. nine0005

You can find the desktop (for a computer or laptop) version here: https://desktop.telegram.org/.


You need to click on "Telegram for Windows", after which the official site will offer you to download the client. Installation goes without any problems and pitfalls, just click "Next". To enter the desktop version of the application, you will need to log in through your smartphone - it is on it that all the security of the application is tied.

You can download the application online in Russian for Android here, for iOS - here. nine0005

Since millions of people use the messenger, the developers have done everything possible to make installing the application as simple as possible - you just need to click on "Install" in the store and wait a bit.

How to register in Telegram

Like all popular instant messengers, registration with Telega is done by installing applications on a smartphone / tablet with further registration by phone number. But there is one important difference that you need to know: if in other mobile communication applications you can restore your account in case of loss of access in several ways (telephone and mail at least), then in Telegram you can restore access to your account, as well as enter it only with a phone number. Therefore, we recommend that you install the application on the device that has your main phone number. nine0005

So, to register, you just need to launch the application, after which it will prompt you to create an account. Now you need to allow the application to access calls so that it can identify you. You give access, indicate your number - and the application systems automatically check that you have entered the correct number (either you will receive an SMS, or you will receive a call from a robot).


Everything is ready, you can use Telegram.

In addition, the application on your smartphone / tablet will allow you to install Telegram on your computer or use the web version, as we have already mentioned above. nine0232

How to use Telegram: basic settings

If it was not a problem for you to install the program, then you will also figure out the settings very quickly. The settings themselves in the application can be found in the top menu (3 bars). The settings themselves look like this:


3 bottom buttons - reference information, you can see the answers to the basic questions of beginners, study the capabilities of the messenger in more detail and write to technical support. Just above these three buttons is the scale of the interface, if it is difficult for you to see the buttons / messages / avatars, etc. - you can zoom in. nine0005

Out of scale - a language you are unlikely to change.

And now let's move on to interesting settings. They are all grouped:

  • Edit Profile . Here your personal information is edited: avatar, name, phone number, your ID, a short description.
  • Notifications and sounds . Here you can configure the actions that occur with a particular event, most often we are talking about new messages.
  • Privacy . Your privacy and security settings - who can write to you, who can invite you to chats, and so on.
  • Chat settings . Here you can configure the display of information in the chat.
  • Folders . Tool for organizing chats.
  • Advanced settings . Fine settings of the messenger. Climb here with caution, a couple of wrong changes - and the messenger will stop working.
  • Call settings . There are a couple of settings here, like a standard camera or microphone. There is nothing to configure here, in general, Telegram will select all devices by default for you. nine0263
Now let's go through these sections in more detail.

Change your profile

Here you can put a photo so that other people recognize you, write a short description of yourself (up to 70 characters), indicate a number, indicate a tag, link another account. You most likely won’t need the latter - the management of several accounts is mainly handled by marketers and group administrators. You will need to change your number if you want to transfer your account to a new number - please note that for this you need to have access to both numbers. Finally, your tag starts with @ and you will be searched for in Telegram and mentioned in chats. Therefore, come up with a tag that will be easy to remember. nine0005

Notifications and sounds

Telegram allows you to fine-tune notifications about various events.


We recommend changing the sound to your own if you are tired of the standard one, as well as removing notifications about contacts and pinned messages that have joined the messenger - after that you will receive only really useful notifications, like new private messages.

Privacy

The most important settings section.


  • Phone number. Here you can set your phone visibility settings - that is, who can see your number when viewing your profile. Usually, channel and chat owners turn off visibility for everyone, ordinary users also rarely turn on visibility to remain anonymous.
  • Last activity. Specifies who can see when you were last online, you can set the settings for any user or for individuals. nine0263
  • Message forwarding. Who can forward your messages to other people and other chats.
  • Profile photo. Who can see your avatar.
  • Calls. Who can call you, works on both mobile and desktop/web versions.
  • Voice messages. Is it possible to send you voice messages, the ban can be set only if you have a Premium subscription. If there is a premium, any version of the program will block sending you voice messages. nine0263
  • Groups and channels. Who can invite you to groups/channels. It is recommended to set this setting in "My Contacts" so that you are not bombarded with spam.
  • Safety section . Here you can block individual users, see who logged into your account, set a login passcode, and enable two-factor authentication.
  • Sensitive materials. If you enable the setting, Telegram will block any 18+ content. nine0263
  • Delete payment and delivery data. If you ordered something somewhere through Telegram bots, you can clear all the data by pressing one button.
  • Deleting an account. According to the standard rules, an account is deleted if no one has logged into it for 6 months. This setting can be changed.

Chat settings

Background, emoji and themes can be configured here.

Folders

A very handy feature for advanced users. In this settings section, you can create up to 5 folders, after which you can specify for each folder a list of channels that will be in this folder. When there are a lot of channels (and this will definitely happen), you will not get confused with the help of folders. We recommend creating a separate folder for personal messages. nine0005

Advanced settings

Here you should be guided by the rule "If you don't know, don't bother". Interestingly, you can specify the path to save any files and change the auto-download of videos / photos so that large files, for example, are not downloaded without your permission.

Adding a new contact to Telegram

Telegram allows you to add contacts either using mobile phone numbers or by user tag. In both cases, you need to go to the "Contacts" section, and then enter either a number or a tag (starts with @). If such a user exists, it will be displayed in the list. nine0005


Correspondence in Telegram

After you have found the right contact, you can write to him. Here it is very simple: open a chat, write, send.

The process is no different from other instant messengers.

Creating a secret chat in Telegram

A secret chat is a special kind of chat. It can be quite finely tuned - to prohibit the forwarding of messages and screenshots, to configure the deletion of posts after a while, and so on. In addition, such an even cannot be hacked if the hacker does not have access to the device of one of the chat participants - without going into details, the encryption keys that are needed to decrypt protected messages are transmitted bypassing the Telegram server, that is, only the chat participants own the keys . nine0005

Creating a chat is as simple as a normal chat - just go to the message menu, select the option to create a secret chat, add people.


Calls to Telegram

Calls, as we said above, can be configured - you can specify who can call you. So, if the user has not forbidden you to call him, you can contact by voice. To do this, go to the correspondence with the person and click on the handset in the upper right corner.


The application will ask you to grant it access to the microphone (on mobile devices) - allow it.

In general, calls work on any device, as long as you have a microphone.

Stickers, emojis and gifs in Telegram

Stickers, emojis and gifs will help you diversify your communication in Telegram. All of the above are pictures that are sent in messages (gifs are animated pictures, emoji are emoticons). To send one of these, you need to click on the emoticon in the message send line, select the category (emoji / gif / sticker), and then send what you want. Emoji can be inserted directly into the message, in the middle of the text, stickers and gifs are sent as a separate message. nine0005


GIFs and stickers must first be added to your collection. There are dedicated bots and sites to find the content you need, but the easiest way is to add yourself a gif/sticker set you like that you see in a chat somewhere. To do this, you need to click on the sticker, after which a menu will open with all the stickers in the package.


Click on "Add stickers" - and they will fall into your collection, after which you can use them. nine0232

Interaction with TG-bots

Bots are robots that do something specific. Bots are very different, and there are tens of thousands of them in Telegram: some advise movies, others collect discounts, others issue exchange rates, and so on. Bots can be very convenient, or they can be intrusive. If you want to search for a bot according to your needs, use the search on specialized services or see our material on the best bots in Telegram. Interacting with bots is very simple: when you add it, you will need to write / start to the chat with the bot, after which the bot will either issue buttons with which you can use its functionality, or indicate a list of commands. If you want to delete a bot, just select "Stop and Block" from the bot menu. nine0005


If a bot offers you something forbidden, you can report it and the bot will be promptly banned.

Security rules

  • Set privacy . Above, we gave a list of privacy settings - do not be lazy and close your profile from strangers. This will protect you from dubious contacts and spam.
  • Separately, prohibit people not from your contact list from adding yourself to groups . Otherwise, you may suddenly find yourself in groups with questionable or prohibited content. nine0263
  • Use the blocking function . No messenger is 100% protected from spam - if someone suspicious writes to you, just block him.
  • Do not share your login information with anyone . Let your account remain yours.
  • Do not send information about bank cards via messengers . The less traces you leave on the Internet, the safer your money will be.
  • Do not share personal information with questionable bots . Bots are created by third-party people, and Telegram catches unscrupulous bots, but it's better to play it safe.

FAQ

How can I restore access to my account if my phone number is lost?

No way - these are the security rules of Telegram . You will have to create a new account.

How to delete an account?

In the account settings, you can set auto-deletion if no one has logged into your account for a while, and manually delete the account, for which you will have to enter a special code on the Telegram website that the administration will send you. nine0005

To summarize

Briefly :