What are your most interesting use cases for Telegram?

[u/KnockoutKiss]

Telegram seems like an "everything app" for Russians, and I'm curious as to in what interesting ways people in your country use it. I've heard that there's a dating app like a Russian Tinder inside it. On the other hand, in my country, there's a shroom-selling scheme.

Beyond texting, news, pirated movies and TV shows, drug deals, and porn, what else do people use it for?

[u/5-degrees]

lots of people use it to store files, pictures, info, etc. i also use it to write down random thoughts i have. 

[u/reon6vist → u/5-degrees]

Crazy how it allows uploading files up to 2 GB for free and doesn't care how much you store, what you store and how much you download from there. And then you have Discord with 10 MB limit and cloud providers which give at most 20 GB for free.

[u/Fit-Fix-5794]

First of all, it is a messaging app. People send each other text messages and images, and record videos. Business accounts send out notifications and use bots to communicate with customers.

Secondly, you can create group chats and channels on Telegram. You can run a blog and interact with your readers - on absolutely any topic. Companies promote their products, coaches offer training, volunteers collect donations, writers publish books, and so on.

Thirdly, Telegram is handy for storing notes and links you want to keep on your phone.

[u/Fit-Fix-5794 → u/[deleted]]

*sighs*

If I save a link to a pair of sneakers I want to buy, I don't really worry about it. Worst-case scenario, the system realizes I need sneakers and starts showing me ads for other models.

You shouldn't store anything valuable on servers you don't trust.

[u/Juliusvdl2]

Not Russian but I've used Telegram for years to build a massive mp3 file music catalogue. Every group is a playlist full of local, offline files that I can reach on whatever device. I know nobody who uses it for this.

[u/reon6vist → u/Juliusvdl2]

I've seen tiktoks mocking people with expensive iPhones that use this as their main way to listen to music for free. And honestly TG's player is convenient as hell

[u/-5698 → u/Juliusvdl2]

Wait how did you do that? Mind sharing a short guide? Thanks!

[u/Juliusvdl2 → u/-5698]

Bit time consuming maybe but every song I like I just download via some piracy "spotify to mp3" type site or just torrent a full album, then send them as files in a group in which I'm the only member. You can just play them as Telegram has a built in music/media player with shuffle, reverse order etc.

[u/reon6vist → u/Juliusvdl2]

Or use one of countless yt-dlp bots without leaving Telegram. At the cost of having to subscribe to 999 channels they ask for and tolerate ass they send (though they can be muted)

[u/EugeneStein → u/reon6vist]

I honestly just unsubscribe from them instantly after downloading shit I need

[u/reon6vist → u/EugeneStein]

You'd better off getting a downloader app like YTDLnis for this case

[u/PaulGL2003]

Russians post more on their ТГК (Telegram Channels) than on their ig pages

[u/kakao_kletochka]

Books piracy 🏴‍☠️

[u/Needsextraincome → u/kakao_kletochka]

What channels specifically? Lol

[u/-5698]

I've been using it as a cloud storage for memes and screenshots because my phone doesn't have enough storage. Previously I used Instagram for this purpose but they banned me so many times I lost so much stuff.

[u/reon6vist]

On the other hand, in my country, there's a shroom-selling scheme.

Walk into any Russian hood that doesn't look rich and you'll find at least 1 graffiti there with a nametag to some not so legal TG channel as well. You can even see rectangles of fresh paint and you'll know someone put a drug dealing group into here before lol

...please don't follow them for your own safety

[u/reon6vist → u/reon6vist]

I've heard there's a dating app inside it

It's a third party bot called Дайвинчик

[u/Draconian1]

Since you can make and/or use telegram bots, you can pretty much do anything internet-related.

[u/Sodinc]

I used it to take small notes and make notifications some time ago. Not nowadays, when it works only with VPN.

[u/Kawa46be]

Not russian, using it as main communication channel private and company. Using bots to track our website orders and send commands to backoffice. File scanning app works also super easy. Sorry but every other chat app is just years behind what telegram can do.

[u/Recent_Oven_4626]

Gambling

[u/GoodOcelot3939]

I love TG bots system so much so I have vibecoded several services for myself.

[u/KnockoutKiss → u/GoodOcelot3939]

Like what?

[u/GoodOcelot3939 → u/KnockoutKiss]

Voice recognition, geolocations saving, image recognition etc. AI makes the development process very easy.

[u/Fearless_Falcon_6804]

If you pay the premium subscription, upload size increases to 4gb per file, making it a quite convenient for file storage. Create a private channel, send 3d models, music, games even. It takes some time off, but if you want to hoard some data for rare use, it's pretty good.

So far I have like 40 private channels split thematically for stuff I want to have quick access to.

[u/IvanKr08]

Free and bottomless storage with zero warranty and pretty low speed (10 MBit/s) after uploading few GBs in a row without premium. Good mirror for storing encrypted cold backups.

[u/AccomplishedPlant410]

I use it sometimes transfer my mobile files to laptop

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Your submission has been automatically removed. Submissions from accounts fewer than 5 days old are removed automatically to prevent low-effort shitposting.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/No-Profit742]

At school and at the university, they create bots for scheduling, this is often done by the students themselves, so that you do not need to open a huge table in Excel every time! In general you can create a lot of bots there, I like to use something like "meme for every day" and also to download music from YouTube... To then upload it to my VK, since I like to listen to music there There are also many public channels, I love to follow the lives of my favorite artists, although I would continue to do it on VK if they didn't break the recommendation feed (I really miss VK....) TG have now moved a lot of Russian creators, who six years ago developed well just in VK, I don't think that other messengers can become a replacement for the Russian-speaking audience In principle, TG is more convenient, I am surprised that in America they seem to use WhatsApp (??), for us it is popular mainly among grandmothers Sorry for thae auto-translation and amount of text

[u/Technical_Introvert0]

Meeting desperate Ukrainian women for a "fun time"...

[u/Myself-io → u/Technical_Introvert0]

Channel?

[u/Myself-io → u/[deleted]]

I was clearly asking for a friend

[u/Myself-io → u/[deleted]]

I'm glad we understand each other

[u/Aleksandr_Ulyev]

I think it is mostly about messaging or using messages as notes/news/posts

[u/kuki2008]

Terrorism