At first glance, Telegram does not allow users to send self-destructive messages. This "secret" feature, however, will make it possible.
In recent years, Telegram has quickly become one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. It has many features that other popular apps (including WhatsApp) do not, like sending messages to yourself and easily sharing files between devices. With the recent explosion of artificial intelligence, Telegram also included some options to integrate ChatGPT with your chats.
At first glance, however, Telegram seems to lack one prevalent feature readily present on Signal and WhatsApp: sending self-destructing messages.
That, however, is not the case: it is perfectly possible to send self-destructing messages on Telegram, it just takes a bit of know-how. In this article, we will reveal this “secret”.
How to send self-destructing messages on Telegram
Images and other media are the only messages that have a self-destructing feature from the get-go. On both Apple and Android, select the picture you want to send and select the little clock in the lower-right corner. Then, Telegram will ask you how long the “lifetime” of the picture should be. Once the time reaches 0, the picture will self-destruct.
Other than that, Telegram allows self-destructing messages too. However, they don’t exist on regular chats, and users have to create a “Secret chat” with the person they want to text with.
To create a Secret chat, start by tapping on the username of the person you want to text with. On the upper-right corner (for Android), or below the name and profile picture (for iOS), tap on the three dots to open a menu. Then, select “Start secret chat".
Once the secret chat is created, the same clock for self-destructing pictures will appear in the white box for text messages. Clicking on it will open the same timer, after which the message will self-destruct.
Are Telegram self-destructing messages safe?
Generally, Telegram is a very safe messaging app. In regular chats, it uses end-to-end encryption for calls, which is extended to messages in secret chats.
Bear in mind that this type of encryption is not used on channels and groups. This can open a swath of safety breaches by scammers and bots. Indeed, Telegram can be a nest of awful scams if users are not careful.
Nevertheless, secret chats are extremely safe. Telegram usually stores chat data on its servers, but that does not happen with secret chats.
Alternatively, if you are worried about safety on Telegram, you can try using a VPN to shield your IP address.
