Telegram Tips and Tricks for Messaging

 

Pick a Username

From now on, you can choose a public username in the Settings section of Telegram. If you do, anyone will be able to find you by your username and contact you – without having to know your phone number.

When setting up Telegram, you'll have to enter your phone number and add your first name. If you don't want to appear under your real name or phone number, or just want to be more creative and use a custom username, go into the Settings and tap on Username. 

To find people by username, just start typing any name in the search field of the Contacts section. Once entered at least 5 characters, you will see the Global Search section in your search results. This list contains people with corresponding usernames

Claim custom username in Telegram

The only snag with using a custom username is that every username is only available once. Chances are if you're going to pick a very common name or something of the sort, it'll already be taken. There is a last alternative if you do really want to use that special username: you can get in touch with the support team. The prerequisite though is that you've been using this username on at least two other services as well. To get in touch with the Telegram support team, go into Settings and tap on Ask a question

Turn off message preview

On Android smartphone, there are two ways to disable Telegram notifications. First, using the Telegram app. And second, through the Android settings.

I prefer using the Telegram app as you can disable sound, previews, or private message notifications.

Steps to follow: Open your Telegram app, and click on the top-left (3 lines) to see the menu. Here, click on Settings -> Notifications. The first section is for Private Chats. As you scroll, you will find another section: Groups and Channels.

You can click on Notifications to mute it forever, 1 hour, 8 hours, or 2 days. Or you can selectively configure your notifications. For example, if you turn on Message Preview then you will get notified without the message content.

Turning off notifications for individual contacts

Telegram appears to have recently added some settings to toggle synced contacts as well as delete existing synced contacts. They can be found under Settings > Privacy & Security > Data Settings > Sync Contacts and Delete Synced Contacts respectively.

A fair guess of what Sync Contacts does is it toggles syncing only for the device in question, while Delete Synced Contacts deletes all synced contacts from Telegram servers (Use at your own risk).

Keep in mind that the Sync Contacts toggle only allows controlling syncing of contacts on a device level, which may or may not suffice depending on your use case. The vast majority of users with a primary device would likely have all their contacts synced with Telegram servers, which is largely the cause for the automatic creation of new contact conversations in their chat lists – not that they could help, that’s just how it’s been designed to behave, with no option for disabling.

Should the two new settings still prove inadequate for your use case, or if you’re using older device(s) with a version of Telegram that does not include them, you may then wish to proceed with the following guide

 

Change your phone number on Telegram

While it doesn't happen too often, you might end up changing your phone number somewhere along the line. Even though you are registered with your old phone number, you can easily swap out your old number with a new one. Just go into Settings and tap on Phone number.

Hide "Last seen" on Telegram

Don't feel like sharing with others when you last used Telegram? Thankfully, you can customize the "Last seen" settings on Telegram. You can toggle who can and can't see your "Last seen" and even add exceptions to your rules. To deactivate or customize "Last seen" on Telegram, go into Settings > Privacy and Security > Last seen.

Lock your chats

One of the reasons why people like Telegram so much is because of its multiple built-in security features. One of them lets you lock your chats so if someone accesses your phone, they won't be able to read your chat logs. To set a passcode, go into Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Passcode lock and then enter your 4 digit code. You can even choose to unlock the chats with your fingerprint. Now that you've set a passcode, you can click on the lock in the top right corner of your chats and lock the chat.