Telegram offers groups and channels, bots to automate tasks and retrieve information, and assign roles to users. Let’s take a deeper look at Telegram to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes. Let’s begin.
1. Auto Delete Account
Since most people who switch to Telegram from WhatsApp do it for security and privacy reasons, let us start with a security feature. You can set your Telegram account to auto-delete if you are away for a certain period. No need to worry about what happens when you die anymore. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security and tap on If Away For to choose time duration. You can pick a duration like 6 months, especially if you don’t use Telegram much. Otherwise, it might be deleted just because you were less active rather than inactive which we don’t want to happen.
2. Silent or Scheduled Messages
If you don’t want to get overwhelmed by notifications, Telegram gives you a control over them. You can send a silent message to your contact if you don’t want to disturb them. The recipient will receive the message but won’t be notified of the same—no sounds or vibrations. Compose your message and instead of tapping the Send button, tap and hold it a few seconds. This will reveal a hidden menu where you can either schedule a message or Send Without Sound.
3. Slow Mode
Telegram groups and channels can accommodate up to 200,000 users. An active group/channel will have hundreds of messages daily, making it difficult to keep track of who said what quickly. Thankfully, Admins have the option to activate Slow Mode that will require members to wait a set time before they can send another message. Open the group and tap on Edit > Permissions, and select the duration at the bottom of the page. This will reduce spam as now members will put some thought before hitting the Send button and use one message to say it all instead of breaking it into 2-3 messages.
4. Find People/Groups by Location
This opens up the world for you no matter where you go. Enabling the Nearby feature will allow you to discover new groups and find new people who live nearby. Note that these users and groups should have this feature enabled too. You will find the option under the Contacts tab. Give location permissions when asked, and you are ready to make new friends and find cool new local groups.
5. Bots to the Rescue
There are all sorts of bots that you can use in Telegram to get things done, set reminders, manage large groups and channels, and fetch information from the web. You can use the bots in personal chats, groups, and channels.
6. Hashtags
You are probably already using #hashtags on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram to search and filter topics. The same concept works here too. It is easy. Just tap the search bar and enter a hashtag followed by a keyword to find all messages that use that particular hashtag. This is an excellent way to filter messages and organize chats. Once you have entered the hashtag, it is easy to narrow search results by usernames and date ranges.
7. Chat Folders
Another cool Telegram trick. Are you too active on Telegram for your good? Too many groups and active chat heads? Telegram now allows you to organize these chats into folders using labels. Works something like Gmail labels that we use to sort emails and make sense of the oncoming landslide. Open Settings > Chat Folders to create your first ever folder. Some common categories could be home, office, NSFW, and hobby.
8. Edit Sent Messages
You can not only delete sent messages but also edit them. We have all made mistakes while texting, trying to outpace our thoughts with our thumbs. Interestingly, the editing feature is available for up to 2 days, which is more than enough. Simply long-press on the message you want to edit and select the Edit button.
9. Delete Messages on Both Ends
Other messaging apps like WhatsApp allow users to delete messages they sent (called Unsend), which is cool. Telegram wants to do one better by allowing users to delete messages sent by others too. This works in one-to-one chats only, but you can delete any message irrespective of how old it is on the plus side. Press and hold the message to reveal a menu where you will notice the Delete button. Selecting that will show two options. ‘Delete for me’ and ‘Delete for me and Username’. Both the options are self-explanatory and works in one-to-one chats only.
10. Share GIF and YouTube Videos
You can find and share GIFs and YouTube videos in groups and channels on the fly. Just type @vid keyword to find videos from YouTube. Similarly, you can also search for GIFs by typing ‘@gif keyword’. These are bots that we discussed above but the beauty here is that you don’t have to add these two bots before using them. These are universal bots that work everywhere inside Telegram like groups, channels, and single chat rooms too.
11. Copy Part of Message
Someone sent you a message and you want to copy part of it but can’t. This is a common issue with most messaging apps where you have to copy the full message, paste it in another app and then edit and re-copy what you need. Telegram solves this issue. Just long-press the message to reveal a menu where you can also view the message at the top. Long-press the message again and you will notice a selection menu with two bars to partially select the text message. It simply works and saves a lot of time.
Join the Bandwagon
Telegram is choked full of useful features that will help you in ways you didn’t know was possible. And they continue to add even more as new users discover the joys of using this amazing messaging app. So, which is your favorite Telegram trick? Share with us in the comments section below. Next up: An in-depth look at WhatsApp’s new feature called Disappearing Messages and how it fares against Telegram’s Secret Chat. Find out everything you must know about the said features in both the messaging apps.
