What is Telegram Messenger?
Telegram Messenger is basically a cloud-based messaging service, founded by Pavel Durov. It is available for Android, iOS, Windows, and Linux. It can be used for sending not just messages, but various other file types as well – such as images, videos, audio files, and more.
Read on to find out some tips and tricks that will improve your experience of using the Telegram Messenger service!
1. Hiding Your ‘Last Seen’
This is a much-favored feature, especially if you’re quite particular about taking your time to answer messages. Not only can you manage your ‘Last seen’, in the Telegram Messenger you can also personalize your last seen for selected contacts. This option can be found in the app’s “Settings” > “Privacy and Security” > “Last Seen”. From there, you can choose who gets to see your ‘Last seen’ from the options of “Everybody” or “Nobody”, or you may even add exceptions by selecting friends from the “Contacts” option.
2. Editing Messages
You can edit the messages that you send via Telegram Messenger on both private and public channels. You can easily access this feature by tapping on a message and simply selecting ‘Edit’. If you are sending a topic research or submitting a document to your professor and you’re not sure that you can craft it better then you can use essay writing services to craft a standard essay or document.
3. Managing Pop-up Notifications
While some may choose to turn off message previews using the above tips, users who are frequent texters may find the option of enabling pop-up notifications quite useful, as it allows one to reply directly from the home screen. This can be enabled through “Settings” > “Notifications and Sounds” > “Pop-up Notifications”. Here, one has the option of either setting it to ‘Always show’, or setting it to only show when the screen is ‘on’ or ‘off’. For those who are avidly fond of texting, the ‘Always show’ option is ideal, as this allows chat pop-up notifications even when the device is locked.
4. Sending Mute Messages
For those who find the option to turn off their message previews useful, the option of sending ‘mute messages’ allows them to be considerate towards their friends who, like them, might find constant message previews and notification sounds to be annoying. Through this option, one can send messages that are not crucially important or urgent, and it will be received by the recipient’s device without making a notification alert. This option may be enabled or disabled by tapping the “Mute/Unmute” button beside the text space.
5. Reading Messages while Offline
This is a really cool option that allows you to know what’s up without having to respond immediately because, through this option, you can read messages without appearing ‘Online’ and without letting the sender even know that you’ve read the message! Simply turn off your Wi-Fi or set your device to “Airplane Mode”, then open Telegram Messenger and read the message. After reading, exit the app, and turn on internet access to resume your prior activities – and no one’s the wiser that you’ve read the message yet.
6. Sending Video Messages
Like other messaging services, Telegram Messenger also allows you to send videos – and with added features at that! To record, tap on the microphone button beside the text space, and then switch to camera mode. The video will be recorded if you tap and hold the camera icon. What’s more, if you’re on multi-task, you may simply drag the icon upwards and the video will continue recording automatically. Once you are done recording, release the button to send the video. If you’re not happy with the video while recording, you can also delete it by sliding left. Telegram Messenger also allows you to preview your video before sending it.
7. Managing Media Downloads
While sending videos might be fun, receiving large files might take a toll on your mobile data, if you don’t manage which files to automatically download. As a variety of different file types can be sent via Telegram Messenger, it allows you to choose which file types you wish to automatically download, and whether you wish to download them via Wi-Fi, mobile data, or while on roaming. These options can be accessed via “Settings” > “Automatic Media Download”.
8. Locking Your Chats
In order to ensure your privacy, Telegram Messenger allows you to set a passcode lock, which will lock your chats after a certain period of time, and it also allows you to manually lock chats. To set a passcode lock, go to “Settings” > “Privacy and Security” > “Passcode Lock”, and then enable it. To manually lock chats, tap on the ‘Lock’ button on the app’s homepage.
9. ‘Self-destructing’ Messages on Secret Chat
Telegram Messenger allows you to create ‘Secret Chats’ where not only can you see if the recipient of your messages has taken a screenshot of the secret chat, but you can also set a timer for your messages to ‘self-destruct’ (or get automatically deleted for you as well as your recipient) after a certain time period. Self-destruct can be activated on a secret by tapping on the three dots on the top right corner, then “Self-destruct timer” > Set “Time” > “Done”.
10. Managing Your Message Preview
Turning off your message previews is useful for ensuring your privacy and preventing people around you from seeing your messages. This can be done through the app’s “Settings” > “Notifications and Sounds”, and then ‘turn off “Message Preview”’. Unlike other messaging apps, this option is available for all the mobile client apps that are provided by Telegram Messenger.
11. Creating A Supergroup
Telegram Messenger has an amazing feature that will allow you to turn any regular group (which has a capacity of 200) into a “Supergroup” with a capacity of 1000 with its own bonus features, like new members being able to see older messages. Once a supergroup has been created, it cannot be turned back. Note that this can only be done on Telegram Messenger’s desktop client by going to the ‘Group info’ and typing “tosupergroup”. This will give you the option to “Upgrade to Supergroup”. Simply click on it.
12. “Self-Destructing” Your Account
In case there is a long period of no activity on your account, you can set a timer for when your account will automatically get deleted. Go to “Settings” > “Privacy and Security” > “Account self-destruct”, and here you can choose the period of time after which your account will automatically self-destruct.
Are you now ready to optimize your experience of Telegram Messenger? With these twelve tips, we sure are!
