title: “Telegram Usage Guide” tags:
- Communication Tools
- Software Recommendations slug: 255465aa date: 2023-05-27 23:25:20 summary: “An introduction to using Telegram, including recommended channels/bots, registration tips, common settings, and practical usage suggestions.”
Introduction
Telegram is a free instant messaging app, similar to WeChat. It offers rich groups/channels/bots, and its open API makes it easy to build your own automations. It’s relatively open, too. Outside of work, Telegram is a great tool for staying informed and boosting productivity.
Registration
I recommend using an overseas phone number, for example registering with a Google Voice number.
Recommended Channels/Bots
Telegram’s channels and bots are powerful. A few recommendations:
Shared subscriptions/carpooling — https://t.me/hezu2
Aliyun Drive resource sharing — https://t.me/yunpanpan
Suggested flow: find a movie resource in the channel → open the Aliyun Drive link and add it to your own drive → on TV/Mac, add Aliyun Drive in Infuse → start watching.
YouTube video downloader — https://t.me/Youtube_dwnldr_bot
When you see any YouTube video you like, send the link to this bot, choose the format/resolution, and download.
Twitter video downloader — https://t.me/xx_video_download_bot
Vultr — https://t.me/vultr_helper_bot
Link your Vultr account to easily check usage/balance information.
Besides the above, you can create your own bots based on your needs — for example, a bot for GitHub CI deployment notifications, a personal Z-Library bot, a personal ChatGPT bot, etc.
Common Settings
Proxy
If your system proxy has issues, configure a proxy directly in Telegram to solve connectivity problems.
Set Username to empty to avoid receiving messages from anonymous users.
