Telegram comes with one default sticker pack, and users can install additional sticker packs provided by third-party contributors. Telegram introduced affiliate programs in December 2024 that allow developers to create an affiliate program for their bot or mini app. Interfaces can be adjusted to match the app’s theme even if it changes while interacting with the bot. In April 2022, bots gained support for customized interfaces and inline page loading. It features a website widget that can be embedded into websites, allowing users to sign into a third party website with their Telegram account.
On 9 June 2019, The Intercept released leaked Telegram messages exchanged between current Brazilian Minister of Justice and former judge Sérgio Moro and federal prosecutors. Login SMS messages are known to have been intercepted in Iran, Russia and Germany, possibly in coordination with phone or telecom companies. In April 2016, several Russian opposition members’ accounts were hijacked by intercepting the SMS messages used for login authorization. MTProto 2.0 is seen by qualified cryptographers as a vast improvement to Telegram’s security. The Telegram team responded that the flaw does not affect message security and that “a future patch would address the concern”.
The desktop app runs efficiently even on low-end hardware, consuming minimal system resources and offering stable performance. Animated stickers, emojis, and chat backgrounds add personality without clutter. Accelerate collaboration and drive efficiency with custom glossaries, tone control and enterprise-grade security designed to reflect your world. Your activity on this service can help develop and improve products and services. Reports can be generated based on your activity and those of others. You may exercise your right to consent or object to a legitimate interest, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose.
The blocking of the main Smart Voting bot was criticized by allies of Alexei Navalny, a Kremlin critic and former opposition leader. Hundreds of pages of a group chat between Rosselló and members of his staff were leaked. Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council’s centre on countering disinformation, clarified that the ban was limited to official devices and did not extend to personal phones. Telegram has been blocked temporarily or permanently by some governments including Iran, China, Brazil, and Pakistan.
It supports rich group chats with up to 200,000 members, custom folders, bots, and even self-destructing messages for privacy. The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine enforced the restrictions following evidence reported to them by Kyrylo Budanov, showing Russia’s ability to access messages and user data on the platform. Third parties were asked to break the service’s cryptography and disclose the information contained within a secret chat between two computer-controlled users. The organization was favorable to Telegram’s secure chats and partially free code but criticized the mandatory transfer of contact data to Telegram’s servers and the lack of an imprint or address on the service’s website.
When an online service requires such identification documents and verification, it forwards the information to the platform with the user’s permission. Telegraph natively supports Instant View, a feature which lets users read full articles in the chat with no load time and without opening an external browser. These collectible gifts are registered on the TON blockchain as a form of NFT and can then be traded or sold both on the Telegram platform via the in-app Gift Marketplace or via outside platforms and marketplaces. In October 2024, Telegram launched Gifts, a type of virtual cosmetic item that users can purchase and send to each other in the app using Telegram Stars. In August 2022, Telegram launched an emoji platform where users could upload their own custom emoji, either in animated or static versions.
In December 2019, Bloomberg News moved their messenger-based newsletter service from WhatsApp to Telegram after the former banned bulk and automated messaging. Users with a Telegram Premium subscription have a number of “boosts” that they can give to channels, which allow the channel to “level up” and unlock features, such as the ability to customize messages or post stories as the channel. Specific users can be tagged in the group by adding @username to a message, where “username” is that particular user’s username. They support flexible admin rights and can use bots for moderation to prevent spam and unwanted activity. Secret Chats restrict screenshotting from Android devices and warn when one is taken from an iOS device, while also hiding the chat contents from the final image.
When an author adds links to YouTube, Vimeo, or Twitter, the service allows you to embed their content directly in the article. In July 2025, Telegram partnered with the rapper and media figure Snoop Dogg to release a set of limited edition collectible gifts alongside his music video “Gifts”. As of 2023, Telegram Premium can be acquired via in-app purchases facilitated by Apple and Google, directly via Telegram’s @PremiumBot, or with cryptocurrency on the Fragment platform. They were removed in 2024, with Durov saying that they had had “issues with bots and scammers”.
Premium users get access to additional settings, like instant chat translation, and the ability to restrict who can send them text and voice messages. Similar to other social platforms, Telegram users can post stories, a type of short-form content. In June 2021, an update introduced a new bot menu where users can browse and send commands while in a chat with a bot.
Telegram clients can turn off media autoplay and automatic downloads for both WiFi and mobile data, adjusting them for media type and size. Similarly, users can hide their phone number and profile photo from people based on categories such as Non-Contacts or by adding exceptions. In the Privacy and Security submenu of Settings, users have the option to hide their “Last Seen” status, which reflects the last time the user opened a Telegram app. Whenever a new device successfully logs in to a user’s account, a special service notification is sent and a login alert is displayed in the chat list of their other devices. Other news services with official channels on the platform include the Financial Times, Business Insider and The New York Times. When forwarded, polls retain the answer data and any votes cast in other chats will count toward the overall total.
For users who signed in from the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are supported by storing data only on servers in the Netherlands, and designating a London-based company as their responsible data controller. Premium users have access to extra stickers, emoji, reactions, and customization features like a special badge and the ability to change the look of their messages in chats. The optional paid subscription gives users increased limits in the app, such as larger file uploads, faster download speeds, unlimited voice message transcription, as well as numerous other increases such as the number of pinned chats and folders. While any user can upload custom emoji to the platform, the use of custom emoji in chats is only available to users with Telegram Premium. In October 2024, Telegram added increased messaging limits for bots, allowing bots to send up to 1000 messages per second to their users.
As of March 2025,update Telegram has more than 1 billion monthly active users, with India as the country with the most users. The company’s founder has said he wants the app to have an anti-censorship tool for Iran and China similar to the app’s role in fighting censorship in Russia. All issues were patched before the paper’s publication with a security bounty paid out to the researchers.
Telegram’s FAQ page says it does not process requests related to illegal content in chats and group chats, and that “to this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user messages to third parties, including governments”. Telegram’s default chat function missed points because the communications were not encrypted with keys the provider did not have access to, users could not verify contacts’ identities, and past messages were not secure if the encryption keys were stolen. The order came following a complaint from media organizations —Mediaset, Atresmedia and Movistar Plus+— saying the app allowed users to share copyrighted content without their consent. In the same year, Telegram reportedly banned more than 350,000 bots and channels, including those that contained child abuse and terrorism-related content. In late 2020, Durov announced that the company was working on its own ad platform, and would integrate non-targeted ads in public one-to-many channels, that already were selling and displaying ads in the form of regular messages. Such bots are used, among other things, to emulate and play old games in the app and inform users about vaccine availability for COVID-19.
In 2018, Telegram sent a message to all Iranian users stating that the Telegram Talai and Hotgram unofficial clients are not secure. In June 2017, Pavel Durov in an interview said that U.S. intelligence agencies tried to bribe the company’s developers to weaken Telegram’s encryption or install a backdoor during their visit to the U.S. in 2016. Pavel Durov has said that Telegram users in “troubled countries” should enable two-factor authentication by creating passwords in order to prevent this.
However, deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov denied any data from the app being leaked. In August 2024, journalist Ko Narin of the Hankyoreh exposed Telegram chats of teenagers who used generative AI to deepfake images of their classmates and teachers for porn. An investigation published in August 2024 by the BBC showed that Telegram has not responded to requests to join the US–based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), nor from the UK–based Internet Watch Foundation, both non–profit NGOs. The President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski, along with the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev, demanded an immediate reaction from Telegram and threatened to completely restrict access to the app in the country if no actions were taken. Along with the shared photographs, anonymous accounts shared private information of the women, including phone numbers and social media profiles, encouraging members of the group to contact the women and ask for sexual favors.
In April 2025, Telegram launched secure group calls with end-to-end encryption by using blockchain-like encryption technology. According to Telegram, there is a neural network working to learn various technical parameters about a call to provide better quality of service for future uses. Channel owners are able to use Telegram to create giveaways, randomly awarding channel members with prizes such as Telegram Premium subscriptions to their followers, based on certain criteria. Channels https://chickenroadapp.in/ offer detailed statistics on view counts, user growth and interactions, also visible only to admins.
