WhatsApp’s User Policy change is causing a few people to switch to the Telegram app. Meanwhile, Telegram users keep getting ‘Telegram Join’ notifications and it’s totally annoying to get more than 10-20 notifications daily. So, if you want to turn off such communication notifications from Telegram, there is a way but a catch.
The overall process can be divided into multiple parts – turn off notifications, disable opening chat topics and mark chats as unread/delete chats. We’ve covered them all here. You can only do the first or a few. It depends on your need and preference for how you want to use Telegram.
Let’s check the steps to disable notifications associated with contact in Telegram and other things.
Who Gets Notifications When You Join Telegram?
Any Telegram user who saves your number in their phone’s contact list will be notified that you have joined Telegram. It doesn’t matter whether you save their number or not. There is no way to join Telegram without telling others, unless you turn off notifications or your number is saved in their contacts.
You can see contact merge notifications from random contacts on Telegram. This happens because you allow Telegram to access your phone book. Basically, these ‘random contacts’ are actually saved in your contact list and you may have forgotten them now. We recommend reviewing your contacts from the phone’s Contacts app to view them.
Fly: If you are using Telegram on more than one device, you should check the contacts on all devices.
Now let’s check how to get rid of the notification.
How to Stop Communication Joined Telegram Message Notification
Telegram provides a way to turn off the notification. However, the following method will only disable the push notification. It does not prevent Telegram from creating a new chat. See the section ‘How to desync contacts from Telegram’ for this.
Note: When you turn off the notification on one device, it doesn’t mean that the same thing will change on all the devices on which you use Telegram. If you are using Telegram on more than one device, you should turn off notifications on each device individually.
Here’s how to do this on Android and iOS.
Turn off Contact Join Notification on Android
Stage 1: Launch Telegram app on your Android phone.
Step 2: Tap the three-bar icon at the top. Select Settings from the menu.
Stage 3: Tap on Notifications & Sounds.
Step 4: Proceed to the Events section. Turn off the switch next to ‘People who joined Telegram’.
Turn off Contact Join Notification on iOS
Stage 1: Open the Telegram app on your iPhone.
Step 2: Tap Settings at the bottom. Tap Notifications & Sounds in Settings.
Stage 3: Scroll down and you will find ‘New contacts’. Turn off the transition.
Fly: Check out 5 messaging apps that work without a phone number.
What is Contact Sync and How to Turn off Contact Sync on Telegram?
As mentioned earlier, turning off the contact merge toggle will only stop the notification, not the chat thread. To stop Telegram from automatically creating new chat threads for new joiners, you need to stop contacts from syncing with Telegram. For this, a feature known as Contact sync is available in Telegram settings.
Basically, Telegram needs to sync your phone contacts to show in the app. Syncing contacts helps Telegram show them on all your devices using Telegram. If you do not enable the sync feature, you will not be able to access your own phone book in Telegram. So you won’t see your contacts in Telegram list. With no contacts synced to Telegram, the New message screen looks like this:
note: In the screenshot above, I also deleted all previously synced contacts with Telegram. Existing chats are untouched.
Now, then you must be wondering how you chat with people who are new to Telegram? Well, that’s the limitation.
You will need to add them manually using their number or username. When added with a number, the contact is saved as a Telegram contact. Think of it as a separate list of contacts that can be accessed from any device you’re signed into on Telegram.
Note: If you disable contact sync, nothing will happen to previously synced contacts or chat threads. You can send messages to existing contacts as normal as you only prevent new contacts from syncing by turning off sync.
How to Turn Off Telegram Contact Sync on Android and iPhone
Stage 1: Launch the Telegram app and go to its Settings.
Step 2: Tap on Privacy and Security.
Stage 3: On Android, scroll down and turn off the switch next to Sync Contacts. Also, tap on Delete synced contacts. Confirm when prompted.
Tap Data settings on iPhone. Turn off the switch next to Sync contacts. Next, tap on Delete synced contacts.
Note: When you delete synced contacts, you only lose access to synced Telegram contacts, not your phone contacts.
Mark All Chats as Read in Telegram
If that green (1) icon next to new chats in Telegram bothers you, you can mark all chats as read.
To do this on Android, open Telegram Settings. Scroll down on the Settings screen until you see the version number. Tap and hold. You will see the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ emoji popup. Tap and hold the version number again. A drop-down menu will appear. Tap on Read all chats.
On iPhone, go to the Chats tab. Tap the Edit icon at the top. Then tap on Read all.
How to Delete Multiple Chat Topics in Telegram
If you want to go one step further, you can delete newly created chat topics from the Telegram home screen. This will give you a cleaner interface.
To do this on Android, tap and hold any chat thread. Then tap on it to select other chats you want to delete. After selecting the chats, tap on the Delete icon at the top.
Tap Edit on the Chats tab on iPhone. Then select the chat threads you want to delete. Press Delete.
Fly: Learn how to share live location on Telegram.
Get Rid of Unwanted Notifications
Currently, Telegram does not offer a direct way to stop creating new chat threads. We hope Telegram will offer a better way to stop annoying people joining Telegram notification in the future.
