It’s great to auto-delete your messages, because it kills two birds with one stone: your different apps and social networks will not get clogged with conversations that no longer matter, and you do not have to worry privacy considerations associated with the fact that your messages stay put forever. I especially like Telegram’s new approach to deleting old messages automatically: the app can now delete entire conversations automatically for both parties. Sorry, people looking through old chats to get you out with something you said months ago.
To get started with this ever useful feature, make sure you have updated to the latest version of Telegram for Android or iOS, then launch the app and have a conversation. Tap Android on the triple dot icon and select “Delete history,” and choose your duration.
On iOS for a long time, tap on any message in the group chat. You will see an option to “select” the message. Tap on it and then tap on “Delete chat” in the upper left corner. You will then receive the following question:
Tap Activate Auto-Delete, and you can choose whether messages in the chat should disappear after a day or a week for all members.
G / O Media can get a commission
Whatever you choose, on whatever platform, your group chat will automatically notify everyone that messages will now be automatically deleted. Be prepared for the subsequent onslaught of answers.
That’s it. I recommend turning it on, because honestly, how often do you go back to old messages? If you think you need to refer back to something, you can still take a screenshot before the message appears.
How to create time-limited Telegram invitation links
Speaking of privacy, Telegram’s update also adds new outgoing invitations. This feature means you can send invitations to your various groups and channels without worrying about the links that forever give someone who finds them.
To get started (at least on iOS), drag a group or channel, tap the icon in the top right corner and tap Add members. Tap on Invite to group via linkand then tap Manage invitation links. Tap on Create a new link, and you can then limit how many times people use the link according to a period (one hour to one week), expiration date, or number of users (and uses).
Although I would have liked it if the feature had the option to kick people out after a certain period of inactivity (like Discord’s temporary invitations to servers), Telegram’s updates still offer incredible tools to manage your more expansive chats.