If you recently started using Telegram as your primary messaging platform for texting your friends and colleagues, you may want to check out one of its unique features called Channels. Before you jump to conclusions, this is not a fancy word for group chats. In fact, it differs from groups in many ways.
Telegram Channels is a feature that allows users to broadcast messages to a large number of people. Channels can be public or private and depending on these settings, people can subscribe to channels to stay notified of all the messages that are posted in a channel. Unlike Telegram groups where anyone in the group can send messages, only the creator and admins can post in a Telegram channel. This makes it easy to stay up to date on the topics you’re interested in following, whether it’s news, entertainment, business, or anything else really.
You may have already noticed the option to make a new channel while trying to start a new conversation or create a group, but what about joining an existing public channel? If you haven’t figured it out, read on to learn how you can find and join Telegram channels for topics that interest you.
How to Find & Join Telegram Channels on iPhone & iPad
Joining a Telegram Channel is actually pretty easy, as long as it’s public. Of course you’ll need Telegram setup on your device first, but assuming that’s the case let’s take a look at what you need to do:
- Upon launching the Telegram app, you’ll be taken to the Chats section. Here, simply swipe down anywhere to reveal the search bar.
- Next, type in any topic that you’re interested in or the public channel’s name if you know it to begin the search.
- The channel results for what you typed will show up under “Global Search” as shown in the screenshot below. Simply tap on the channel’s name to proceed.
- This will give you a preview of the channel and you’ll be able to see the recent messages that were broadcasted. If you want to get notified about new messages from this channel, tap on “Join”.
Now that you’ve successfully joined the channel, you’ll get a notification every time a channel admin posts a message.
How to Leave Telegram Channels on iPhone & iPad
At some point, if you ever change your mind and want to stop getting notified, you can follow these steps to leave a particular channel that you’ve subscribed to:
- Simply open the channel and tap on the channel name located at the top.
- Now, choose “Leave” which is located just below the subscriber count.
That’s pretty much all you need to do unsubscribe from a channel.
Do remember that the above procedure to find and join Telegram channels is only applicable to public channels. If you want to join a private Telegram channel, you can either get invited to it by the channel admin or click on an invite link that was shared with you.
As you can see, a Telegram channel works in a fairly similar way to a group chat except that there are usually a lot of people in a channel, and only admins can send messages. Leaving a channel is similar to how you’d leave a normal group chat as well.
Now that you know a lot more about Telegram channels, you may be looking to create your own channel. It’s very similar to creating a new group chat within the app as well. As the channel owner, you can invite the first 200 subscribers to your channel, after which the channel will operate on its own with a join or invite link. Unlike group chats which are restricted to 200,000 members, a Telegram channel can have an unlimited number of subscribers.
Did you find and join some interesting Telegram channels on your iPhone and iPad? How many Telegram channels have you joined so far? Have you created your very own channel yet? Share your valuable thoughts and opinions on this unique feature in the comments section down below.
