Telegram Glossary: 45 Terms Explained

Telegram has its own vocabulary. This glossary explains the terms you will meet as a reader, a channel owner or a group admin, in one or two sentences each.

Chats and communities

• Channel: A one-way broadcast. Admins post and subscribers read. A channel can have an unlimited number of subscribers.
• Group: A chat where every member can write. Large public groups can hold up to 200,000 members.
• Supergroup: The older name for a large group with admin tools. Today almost every group works this way, so the word is rarely needed.
• Broadcast group (gigagroup): A group that has outgrown the member limit and is turned into a group where only admins can post.
• Topics: Separate threads inside a group, so one community can hold several conversations at once.
• Discussion group: A group linked to a channel. Comments under the channel's posts appear there.
• Public and private: A public channel or group has a username and can be found in search. A private one can only be joined with an invite link.
• Username: The @name that makes a chat public and gives it a t.me link.
• Collectible username: A username bought and sold on Fragment, Telegram's marketplace.

Joining and inviting

• Invite link: A link that lets people join. It can expire, have a member limit or require approval.
• Join request: A request an admin must approve before someone can join.
• t.me link: Telegram's short link format, such as t.me/username, that opens a chat in the app.
• Shareable folder: A folder of chats you can share with one link, so people can join several chats at once.

Running a channel or group

• Admin rights: Permissions given to each admin, such as posting, deleting messages or adding members.
• Slow mode: A limit on how often each member can write in a group.
• Pinned message: A message fixed at the top of a chat, often used for rules.
• Signatures: A setting that shows which admin wrote each channel post.
• Silent message: A message sent without a notification sound.
• Scheduled message: A message set to be sent at a chosen time.
• Reactions: Emoji responses under a post. Admins choose which ones are allowed.
• Boost: Support that Premium users give to a channel or group. Boosts unlock features such as Stories and custom colours.
• Stories: Short posts that disappear after a set time, available to users and to boosted channels.
• Statistics: Telegram's built-in analytics for larger channels and groups, showing growth, views and sources.

Money and payments

• Telegram Stars: Telegram's in-app currency, used to pay for digital goods, paid posts, reactions and subscriptions.
• Paid media: Photos or videos in a channel that readers unlock with Stars.
• Paid reactions: Reactions that cost Stars and support the channel.
• Telegram Premium: A paid subscription with extra features, such as bigger uploads and more folders.
• Telegram Ads: Sponsored messages shown in large public channels.
• Ad revenue sharing: The share of Telegram Ads revenue paid to the owners of eligible channels.
• Gifts: Items you can send to other users with Stars. Some can be upgraded into collectibles.
• TON: The blockchain Telegram uses for payouts and for Fragment.
• Telegram Wallet: A custodial crypto wallet inside Telegram.
• Fragment: Telegram's marketplace for collectible usernames, numbers and Stars.

Bots and apps

• Bot: An automated account run by a program, used for tools, games, support and moderation.
• BotFather: The official bot used to create and manage bots.
• Mini App: A web app that opens inside Telegram, usually through a bot.
• Inline bot: A bot you call from any chat by typing its username.
• Bot API: The interface developers use to build bots.
• MTProto: Telegram's own network protocol, used by the official apps.

Privacy and security

• Cloud chat: An ordinary chat, stored on Telegram's servers and synced across devices.
• Secret chat: A one-to-one chat with end-to-end encryption, stored only on the two devices.
• Two-step verification: An extra password needed to log in on a new device.
• Saved Messages: Your private cloud chat for notes, files and forwarded posts.
• Proxy: A server that relays your connection, used where Telegram is blocked.

Numbers you will see on channel sites

• Subscribers: The number of people following a channel, shown by Telegram.
• Views: The view counter on each channel post.
• Engagement rate (ER): Average views per post divided by subscribers.
• Citation index: A third-party measure of how often other channels mention a channel.