Telegram

Apr 8, 2025

Why Telegram

Telegram is much more than a messaging app and goes beyond the concept of social media. Compared to many of its competitors, it has many features that make it a tool worth knowing how to use.

In addition to exchanging messages, with Telegram you can make video and voice calls, edit or delete messages even after they have been sent, exchange large files without space limits, and much more. We hope this tutorial can help make it easy to learn and, above all, join the numerous Bitcoiner communities present on Telegram.

Telegram mobile

Although Telegram is available from official stores, the advice is always the same: download from the developer's site, a good habit for those who, like you, are on a privacy-conscious journey.

With your phone's browser, go to the site telegram.org. You can choose your preferred language, but I recommend proceeding in English, so choose Telegram for Android

On the next page, you will find some useful tips for downloading the .apk file; if you don't need them, click directly on Download Telegram.

Your stock Android operating system might try to discourage a direct download, informing you that the file could be harmful. You choose Download anyway.

Once downloaded and installed Telegram, you can choose Open on the final screen.

Creating this tutorial, I used a phone where Telegram was already installed. At the first installation, you will find Install, instead of Update, choose to install.

Let Telegram install

then open it from your phone and choose Start Messaging.

Like any good VoIP messaging app, Telegram's operation is also based on a working phone line. To start, you must enter your phone number: Telegram will send a verification SMS with an OTP code.

On the next screen, you can double-check the number you have provided. If it's correct, click on Yes.

Telegram is now fully functional on mobile, we can move on to the first basic settings.

Security and privacy settings

Username configuration

The Telegram username - sometimes also called handle - is much more than a mere fancy. The handle is indeed unique for each user. On Telegram, it's easy to encounter impostors who write in private, pretending to be someone they're not. Every user can fall into the trap and reveal personal information believing they are chatting with a contact they fully trust. We will see that the handle is the best defense to mitigate these kinds of dangers. From the main menu, choose My Profile.

In the next screen, select the "pencil" icon at the top right to enter the profile editing menu.

You will see all the sensitive details of your account, including your phone number and two empty fields: Bio and Username. By clicking on each, you can fill them with your choices. When setting up the Username, Telegram alerts you if the handle is available or not. (This screenshot is also taken from a phone with the username already set).

Click on Set Username (here Change Username for the reason just mentioned)

and configure your handle, then save by clicking on the checkmark ✅ at the top right.

In most Telegram groups and channels, this username is required as a prerequisite for access. For the administrators of such groups, it is one of the ways to keep bots and spam at bay.

⚠️ You should always check the handle of anyone who contacts you in private and never give out confidential information such as passwords or mnemonic phrases to anyone, even if they claim to be official support or offering help (perhaps requested by you). Block users who contact you without your permission, because they are certainly doing so with fraudulent intent.

How does an impostor assume someone else's identity? They can't, thanks to the uniqueness of the username. What they can do is display a "similar" handle, changing slightly (a letter/number), so that only a careful eye can clearly see that it's a scammer. Always pay close attention to the username, and you'll see that impostors won't have an easy game.

Privacy

Another important precaution you can take is to limit the information you let out from your newly created account.

Go back to the main menu and then into Settings:

Now choose Privacy and Security

Here you will find a whole series of important parameters to adjust according to how you want to use your Telegram account.

Be sure to set:

Phone Number to "Nobody"
Calls to "My Contacts"
Invites to "Nobody" These are measures that will prevent exposing your phone number, so you won't receive unwanted calls or be unknowingly added to groups of dubious origin. Later, you can adjust all the other parameters as you wish. Now that your Telegram account is set up and you have gained a bit of privacy, you can start using it.

Adding contacts and chats

If your account has just been created, it's likely that the main page will appear completely empty.

Here you can already see the 2 main functions you will use for messaging:

a search command, at the top right;
the icon with a pencil, at the bottom right, which will allow you to open the dashboard from which to manage new messages.

Clicking on the latter, first, Telegram will ask for permission to access the contacts in your address book, which you can grant or deny depending on your needs. By approving, you will be able to reach the first friends who have already downloaded the app.

After that, the contacts will appear on the main screen.

Clicking on the icon with the pencil, at the bottom right, activates the screen to add more contacts, but not only.

Telegram offers the possibility to search for Groups on specific themes, which are very much like forums where different users gather to talk about a specific topic, or Channels, usually used as means of information where only administrators can post and followers can consume the content.

Selecting the profile picture of a contact in the list, you access a vast menu to perform interesting actions:

see all the contact's details;
start a video call (a);
start a voice call (b);
start a chat (c);
customize notifications (d).

You can access a very advanced menu by clicking on the 3 dots at the top right, to:

set a timer for auto-deletion of messages;
share, block, or edit the contact;
send a gift (usually Telegram Premium);
start a secret chat, which is one of the nicest features of Telegram: a secret chat is a space from which, for example, it is not possible to take screenshots, it is a very private chat and is active only on mobile;
add the contact to the home screen. By default, everyone, from individual users to thematic channels, is identified by their handle. When searching for someone or something, it's enough to put the at symbol @ followed by a name. ⚠️Attention: avoid joining groups and channels without verifying their authenticity. To find the official Telegram channel/group of a company or topic you wish to follow, seek assistance from the Contacts section of official websites or from highly reliable sources.

Advanced Messaging Features

Telegram allows you to use unique advanced features when it comes to exchanging messages. Enter a chat and click on the background, next to any message from another sender.

A series of options appear with which you can:

pin messages (pin A) for a quick search of important ones;
start a call (B);
insert reactions (C);
forward, copy, delete the message (D);
select more than one message for multiple actions.

If you do the same operation on one of your messages, instead, you'll discover that you can edit your own messages, even those already sent.

You can also attach large files, exchanging "heavy" media easily, much more so than all other apps of this type.

Personal Cloud

Among the many incredible features of Telegram, there is also a personal cloud that - at the time of writing - is unlimited.

We're talking about the famous "Saved Messages", or Saved Messages of Telegram. It's a chat where you can send almost (1) any type of information, for example transferring files from PC to mobile and vice versa.

To access the Saved Messages of your account, go to the main menu and select the relevant item among the options that appear on the screen.

The chat appears in the foreground, ready to be used.

(1) Do not use Telegram's cloud for confidential information such as passwords, pins, mnemonics, and data of this kind.

Scheduling Messages and Silent Sending

Other useful advanced features allow sending messages respecting the privacy of the recipients, choosing between silent sending, and scheduling the message at appropriate times and days. All you need to do is write the message but, instead of sending it immediately, press and hold the send icon for a few seconds. What usually becomes a sent message, gives way to a new screen where you can choose from:

schedule the message (date and time)
send only when the contact is online
send silently, so as not to activate the recipient's notifications.

Clearing your phone's cache

Another useful practice to keep your phone running efficiently is to clear the Telegram cache from time to time. Depending on how many groups and channels you follow, in fact, the information and media coming from these sources could accumulate in the cache, making your phone slow.

Enter the main menus again by clicking the three bars at the top right and choose My Profile again. This time, however, select the 3 dots at the top right.

A dropdown menu will open from which you must select Log Out.

⚠️ You will not log out, do not worry: we choose this menu only to access the functionality we are talking about.

Among the options, choose Clear Cache.

The device begins to quantify the used storage space. Once the calculation is finished, the Clear Cache button will appear.

Clicking it will show you a confirmation screen, on which you must choose Clear Cache again to proceed.

Once the process is finished, Telegram shows a screen where - under the outcome of the cleaning - also appears an interesting setting, the possibility to choose how much cache space should be dedicated to media. I recommend not keeping unlimited space for photos and videos, but to allow the app to remove heavy files once this limit is reached. You can see in the following photo where to find this setting.

Telegram desktop

Telegram can be used from your computer, so that it is synchronized with the account displayed on your phone. You can choose not to download the application and to use it only via web. However, this version has limitations compared to the one run on the computer, therefore I recommend downloading and installing it to make the most of this powerful tool.

All the options seen so far with the mobile model, can be exploited in the exact same way from your computer. Also for this installation go to the official website telegram.org. From the homepage choose Telegram for PC/Linux. In the screen that opens, click to download the executable suitable for your operating system.

Install Telegram and launch it, so you immediately find the first screen where you will click Start Messaging.

A QR Code will be displayed on the screen, to be scanned with your mobile device, the one on which Telegram is already active: this is how you can use that account via desktop.

Open the app on your mobile, go to the main menu (the three lines at the top left).

Select Settings

and then immediately after Devices.

Now select Link Desktop Device

Your phone's camera activates. On the first use, it's likely that your Android will ask for permissions: grant them.

Now scan the QR Code that appeared earlier on the computer screen.

A notification on your phone confirms that the new device has been added successfully.

Especially, Telegram is active and usable also on your desktop computer.

Group Call

If you are an administrator or owner of a Telegram group, you can start a call from the group's menu itself. This way, you can do live streaming with multiple participants, record them in audio and video, share them, or use them for purposes such as education.

In the following image, you can see how to start a group call using Telegram desktop: go to the chat of the same and in the upper right part of the screen there is the icon of a screen. By clicking on that, you can decide whether to start the call immediately or schedule it for a predetermined time.

Final Considerations

Now that you have read through this tutorial, you are perfectly capable of choosing how to use Telegram, without being influenced by the noise generated by the hype of its users, or by the mainstream. You can start with a mild approach and then discover how to make the most of it, for your personal needs, this messaging app.

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Author

This tutorial has been written by f205sats

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f205sats

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Author of tutorials and lecturer on techniques to simplify the practical use of various tools related to Bitcoin self-care, both software and hardware. Anyone can meet the challenge this technology offers, with commitment and the right help. I started from scratch, slowly carrying out some PoW each time. Nostr-maxi. EST 720730, LN at [email protected]

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