With Telegram, you can create group chats with up to 200,000 people so you can stay connected with everyone at once. Plus, you can share videos up to 2GB, send multiple photos from the web, and forward any media you receive in an instant.

All messages are in the cloud, so you can access them from any of your devices. Telegram secret chats offer end-to-end encryption. Telegram became one of the top-5 downloaded apps worldwide in 2024 and now has over 700 million monthly active users.

What's the difference between Telegram groups and channels?

  • Telegram groups are ideal for sharing stuff with friends and family, or collaboration in teams of up to 200,000 members. These groups can be public or private and you can assign several administrators.
  • Channels are for broadcasting messages to large audiences. These channels can have an unlimited number of subscribers. All the messages sent in a channel have a view counter that gets updated when the message is viewed, including its forwarded copies.

Can I use Telegram on my phone and PC at the same time?

You can use Telegram on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iPhone/iOS devices. You can log in to Telegram from as many of your devices as you like, all at the same time. Since it is cloud-based, all your chats will sync instantly.

Is Telegram better than WhatsApp?

Telegram stores all your messages in the cloud with seamless sync, meaning you can access your messages from several devices at once, and share an unlimited number of photos, videos and files of up to 2 GB each. This is a key differentiator between the two platforms.

WhatsApp, on the other hand, stores messages and all data on your device and lets you backup conversations on Google Drive or iCloud. New versions of WhatsApp allow for PC desktop clients to be connected even if your mobile device is offline.

Security-wise, WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption as the default for all private communication, this includes messages and calls, group and one-on-one chats as well as any photos or files you send. However, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook which makes many wonder about privacy.

Telegram uses end-to-end encryption on video and voice calls by default, however texts and file sharing do not. Telegram's default messaging is only encrypted between the sender and Telegram servers. In a one-on-one conversation using Telegram, you can initiate a "secret chat" that is encrypted. These secret chats are not stored in Telegram's cloud.

All in all, both Telegram and WhatsApp are robust messaging platforms. Telegram is more open to customization and less restrictive in terms of features and ways you can use it, while WhatsApp is a strong contender that may be more mainstream in some regions. If you need fully secure messaging though, you may be better off checking out Signal.

Can I make video calls on Telegram?

Yes, you can make free voice and video calls on Telegram.

Unsend Messages

We hope everybody had a great celebration. We at Telegram certainly did. One of our engineers got so excited about the new year that he mistakenly shared awful stickers with his Mom. To fix this, he quickly added a way to unsend recently sent messages. This smart move saved his morning, and it can still save yours! If you use Telegram v.3.16 or later, you can now unsend any weird messages you shared within the last 48 hours.

Shareable Chat Folders

Chat folders can now be shared with a link - inviting your friends or colleagues to dozens of work groups, collections of news channels, and more. With one tap, they will add the folder and instantly join all its chats. Each chat folder supports multiple invite links allowing access to different chats. When creating a link, select the chats you'd like to include - and give it a unique name to match, like Interns or Managers. If you add more chats to your folder and update its link, members will see a suggestion to join the new chats.

What's New

  • macOS version updated to 10.6.5
  • Windows version updated to 4.16.7
    • Switch between logged in accounts using Ctrl+Shift+[1-6] shortcuts.
    • Add poll creation in groups to the attach menu, if exists.
    • Another fix for payment card validation.
  • Android version updated to 10.10.1

Colorful Calls, Thanos Snap Effect, and an Epic Update for Bots

Telegram's 10th update of 2023 adds improved calls with a colorful new design that use less of your phone's battery, a new vaporize effect when you delete messages, the largest bot update in Telegram's history – and more.

Upgraded Calls

Telegram calls let users talk, turn on their camera or share their screen – they are protected by end-to-end encryption and available on every platform.

In this update, we have totally redesigned calls, adding new animations and beautiful backgrounds that change dynamically based on the call's status: ringing, active or ended. The new interface requires fewer resources than before, which means it saves battery life and works better on older devices.

We've also fixed hundreds of bugs and interface glitches – and added some improvements to call quality. More improvements to connection and audio quality are coming in 2024.

Thanos Snap Effect when Deleting Messages

Last month we added an experimental vaporize animation on iOS for auto-deleted messages.

This impressive (and energy-efficient) animation is now available on both iOS and Android and plays whenever you delete any message.

Epic Bot Update: Reactions and Much More

Telegram's free bot platform lets developers integrate any kind of service into the Telegram ecosystem – from simple chat bots to powerful mini apps that can replace any website.

We're closing this year with the largest update to the Bot Platform in Telegram's history. Among dozens of new features, bots can now react to messages and manage reactions, quotes, and links, send replies to other chats or topics, and much more.

With the new update, bots can also get information about giveaways and boosts in channels where they are admins.