How to avoid spoilers in group chats, and 6 other great Telegram tips

Whether you have been using Telegram for five years or five minutes, there may be some undiscovered features and settings that can help you better utilize the chat functionality.

1. Send a self-destruct message

Whether you are an undercover spy discussing national security issues or do not want to leave any digital traces out of principle, Telegram’s Secret Chat feature can help you. On the home screen, click the Compose button (bottom right corner), select New Secret Chat , and select the contact you want to send the message.

[Related: Best Apps for Sending Self-Destructed Messages]

After entering the conversation, click three dots (top right corner), then click Set the self-destruct timer to select the time when the message is retained - you can choose from one second to one week. The timer starts to time after the other party sees your text. When the time comes, the message will be deleted at both ends of the conversation.

2. Avoid spoilers

If you can avoid it, you may not want to deliberately disrupt other people's appreciation for a particular show or movie. Fortunately, Telegram has a built-in feature that can help you avoid spoilers in conversations, for example, you can remove details from the latest Batman movie from your text. This will remind your group chat that your message contains sensitive information, so people who have not watched the movie can avoid being spoiled.

When writing a message, click and hold the text you want to hide, and select the Spoiler option from the menu that appears. Remember, this feature requires your contacts to use this feature as well.

3. Translation message

Telegram has a built-in translation feature that you can take advantage of. First, you need to enable it: On the Android home screen, click the menu button (top left corner), and select Settings and Language, click Display the translation button . On iOS, from the app's home screen, select Settings , Language , and to display the translation button .

Translation of a message is as simple as clicking on it (Android) or clicking and holding it (iOS) and selecting Translation . The platform will automatically detect the original language and the results will be displayed on the screen. Please note that this option only translates the language into the default language set by your phone, so chat content written in that language will not be displayed.

4. Quickly find media files

You may not know that when you use Telegram, you can access unlimited cloud storage for free to store pictures, videos, and audio you share on the platform. To view the clips of pictures and videos you send and receive in a specific chat, click the bar at the top of the conversation, then scroll down and open the Media tab.

Telegram adds some tricks to make scrolling through a large number of pictures and videos in lengthy conversations easier. First, place two fingers on the screen, then move them away from each other to shrink and see more thumbnails at once. Second, scroll down and jump to a specific month and date using the date button that appears on the right.

5. Respond to the message

Sometimes you don't want to send someone another message, but you do want to react to what they just said. Like many other applications, including Slack, Telegram supports reactions – small emojis are located at the top of messages, especially useful in group chats where you don’t want to mess up the flow of information.

To add a reaction to a message, just click it (Android) or click and hold it (iOS) and select your emoji. To increase the size of the reaction animation effect, press and hold it. All participants can see the reaction and you will see the love icon next to the conversation with an unread reaction in the main chat list.

6. Share any location

Telegram is very useful when meeting family or friends by allowing you to share your current location or where you are going. Click the Attachment button (paper clip) next to the Send message box, and then click Position to select the location you want to share. When sharing your current location, you can also set the length of time available for the recipient to use.

When someone you are chatting with receives a location, they can click on it for more details. On Android, there is a Route button that links to Google Maps, and on iOS you will see three route buttons – for driving, taking public transportation and walking. Click any button to select the map app you want to use, whether it is Apple Maps or other apps.

7. Switch to Telegram X

This is only available if you use Android, but it is worth considering. In addition to the main client, Telegram has developed a more experimental version of the software called Telegram X. It's much thinner—which means it runs faster—but also includes features that you can't access in standard Android applications at the moment.

[Related: Bring your WhatsApp Stickers to Telegram]

As of this writing, some of the unique features of Telegram X include the ability to pin multiple messages in a chat, adjust the video quality before sending, and display group chat statistics that are more active. You can download Telegram X for Android and use it with or in place of the primary client.

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