Learn Telegram

Introduction

Basic information

ICT Competency	Telegram is a cloud based messenger application. It supports synchronization, resulting as you can access your telegram account with several devices at once and share the resources.
Educational application and relevance	Telegram as a messenger supports to make groups thereby allowing group communication between students and the faculty. Creating a channel, conducting quiz through poll makes relates it to educational purpose as well.
Version	Version - 4.7.1
Configuration	Telegram need to be configured by scanning the device's QR code. It can be installed on Windows, Ubuntu, MAC OS, Android and iOS.
Other similar applications	Dino
The application on mobiles and tablets
Development and community help	Telegram

Overview of Features

With Telegram you can send messages, photos, videos and files of any type (doc, zip, mp3, etc), as well as create groups for up to 2,00,000 people or channels for broadcasting to unlimited audiences. You can use this tool to create group of people with folder by project and this will help you to use this for any projects related discussion and communication in the team. You can write to your phone contacts and find people by their usernames. As a result, Telegram is like SMS and email combined — and can take care of all your personal or work messaging needs. In addition to this, it supports end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls, as well as voice chats in groups for thousands of participants.

Installation

For Ubuntu OS

1. In case you do not find it on your computer, you can install by typing Telegram-Desktop on top search bar in Software Centre(App Grid).
2. If you would like to install through the terminal follow these steps below:
   1. Open terminal by clicking Applications->System Tools->Terminal or through Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T
   2. In the terminal window, type below command and press enter to start the installation by providing your machine password:
   3. sudo apt-get install telegram-desktop

For Windows OS

To install and use Telegram on your Windows computer, you can follow these steps:

1. Download the Windows x64 option of Telegram-Desktop version from this link

2. Now go the downloaded path on your computer and double click on "tsetup-x64..." file to begin the installation.

For MAC OS

1. Download the installation file for MAC OS from this link

2. When the download is complete, find the downloaded .dmg file and move it to the application folder to install it.

Working with the application

Using Telegram

Edit, Reply, forward, Deleting the messages

Whenever you will be sending messages using telegram you may come across a situation of typing error or even the message you sent may not be valid at some point of time. In such cases you may feel to edit or delete the messages. Telegram lets you edit your messages even after you sent the message and seen by the receiver.

You can edit the message by right-clicking on the message and clicking ‘edit’. You can modify the text according to the need and then press 'enter'.

To reply a message, you can click 'reply' option for the message you want to. Another simple option is, double-clicking the message will indicate that you are replying to the corresponding message.

In some situation you may want to forward a message exactly to someone else. To forward a message you can right-click on the message and click 'forward' and then choose the contact you want to forward it to.

You can delete the message that is sent by you. To delete any message you can right-click on the message and click 'delete'. You can delete it only for you OR delete for the receiver OR all the participants in the group.

Using emoticons

Emoticons are special feature which is usually in an animated form in telegram. You can also search for a particular type of emoticon by using the expression you want to show by prefixing a colon (:) symbol.

To show a sad expression, you can type :sad in the text area, immediately you will get the emoticons that shows sad faces. Below image depicts the same.

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Translating text

While working with Telegram, you may get a in some other languages which you do not understand. As Telegram supports multiple languages you can simply translate the text within Telegram without the need to depend on any other external translators.

• Translating the text
• 

  Tick "Show translate button"

• 

  A sample output of translation

To do that, Click on three lines on top left of the "telegram → Settings → Language"

Tick the "Show Translate button" → OK. Now on wards, if you receive text in any other languages that your default one, you can select the text, right click on that and click on "Translate selected text"

Text which is in some other language gets easily translated with two clicks without need of external translator applications.

Voice and video calls

Telegram is not only a instant messaging application but it also allows you to make a voice and video call with screen casting. This can be used whenever you want to have a quick video call or screen cast your screen to do a quick presentation etc. It also allows to make group video calls up to 30 users to join from their camera device and the video call can be attended by 1000 people at the same time.

To make a voice or video call you can click on 'phone' icon on the recipient’s name box as shown in the image.

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  Calling interface in Telegram

Once you click on it, it will try to connect to the recipient and established a connection. Once the connection is established it gives an option to switch to video call and also allows to share the screen with the users.

Creating a poll

In general, a poll is used to collect information, opinion, decision etc. Situation could arise when you want to collect people's opinion for a particular question. Poll gives you an idea of their thought. It is good that, to create a poll you don’t have to have the administrator rights. This involves few steps.

To create a poll,

Click on the group in which you want to create a poll --> Click on three dots on the right side of group name --> Create poll.

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  Creating a poll

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  Creating a Poll : Interface

Customizing Telegram

Editing the profile

You can edit your profile based on your need.

To do that, you can click on three lines on "top left of telegram --> Settings --> Edit Profile".

• You can change your first name and last name by clicking 'Name' field.

• You can change your contact number

• You can add username for your account so that the people cannot figure out your contact number and you can be uniquely identified by your username.

Note that this will be the global username, with this feature you need not be searched with your contact number.

Creating a folder

Telegram lets you create folders to group common related chats or community. You may want to bifurcate chats or groups based on projects or teams, in such cases you can create folders. You may also want the official groups to be separated from the personal ones in Telegram.

• 

  Click on "Settings"

• 

  Click on "Folders"

To create a folder,

"Click on three lines on top left --> Click Settings --> Click on Folders --> Create a new folder"

• 

  Click on "Create new folder"

• 

  Give a folder name

You can type the folder name and choose what are the chats that you want to appear on this folder or chats that you don’t want to appear on this folder. With these two options you can bifurcate the contacts/groups that exists in your contact.

Having an unread folder

Whenever you feel you need a separate folder for all unread messages, you can add an "unread" folder to the telegram.

• 

  Click on "Add"

To add unread folder,

Click on three lines on top left --> Click Settings --> Click on Folders --> In Recommended folders section there is an option to add unread. Click on that and close the window.

Creating a saved messages forum

You may have come across a situation where you want to save some particular resources for your own references say, text notes, to-do list, images, links, videos etc, but you don’t want to disturb others by sending them those. In such case you can create a “Saved Messages” by your own.

To create a saved messages forum,

Click on three lines on top left of telegram → Click on “Saved Messages”. You can use this space for yourself. This is like your personal workspace.

Changing the download path

Usually the files you download from the Telegram will be downloaded to the default folder. The default folder will be "/home/user/Downloads/Telegram Desktop". You can change the default folder to download the files to make it more convenient to you.

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  Download path in 'Advanced'

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  Changing the download path

To do that,

"Click on three lines on top left of the telegram --> Settings --> Advanced --> Download path."

There will be three options for download path,

1. Telegram folder is system under 'Downloads' directory which is the default path
2. A temporary folder that can be cleared on logout or uninstall
3. Custom folder in which you want to store your files and clear it manually.

Having a secret chat

Secret chat is a device-specific chat box which is secure with end-to-end encryption. Interesting thing in secret chat is that there is an option of self-destruct timer after which the messages disappear automatically.

Secret chat option is available only on Mobile phones.

To open a secret chat,

Open the contacts in telegram --> There will be an option say, “Create a secret chat”.

Setting pass code for telegram

If you want telegram to ask for a pass code when the system is idle after some particular time you can do so by setting up the pass code.

To do that,

Click on three lines on top left of the telegram --> Settings --> Click on Privacy and Security --> Click on Local Pass code.

You can enter a pass code and confirm it. You can also auto lock telegram for some specific amount of time after which your account should ask for the pass code.