In this article
A phone number can be written as a Telegram address: t.me followed by a plus and the number in full international form. Anybody who opens it lands in a chat with that account, without saving a contact first.
Useful for a business that publishes its number anyway — and a thing to think about carefully before doing it with your own.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Turn a phone number into a link that opens a chat.
- check_circle Write the number in the form that actually works.
- check_circle Reach somebody without adding them to your contacts.
- check_circle Decide whether a username would be better.
The address is the number with its country code, written after a plus sign.
call The format is the whole trick
It must be the complete international number: country code and all, digits only, no spaces, brackets or dashes. A local number without its country code resolves to nothing, or to somebody else entirely in another country, which is the failure people run into.
What the link does is open a chat with whichever account holds that number. It does not add a contact on either side, and it works from a browser, a web page, an email signature or a printed card.
For a business this is genuinely useful: a number is already on the shop front, and making it a link turns it into a one-tap conversation. For a person, the question is different, because what you are publishing is a phone number rather than a handle.
Four situations
The link is right in two of them.
storefront Already public
person_off Without saving them
warning Publishing your own
rule The link goes nowhere
Excellent for a number that is already public. For your own, publish a username instead.
settings Making one
- Write the number in full international form Country code included, digits only.
- Put it after t.me and a plus sign No spaces or punctuation.
- Test it yourself From a browser, before publishing it anywhere.
- Use it where people tap rather than type Website, signature, QR code.
- For a personal account, set a username instead And publish that.
- Review who can find you by number In the privacy settings.
This page publishes a number. The curriculum step is the settings that decide what that means: who can see your number, who can find you by it, what a username replaces, and how to be reachable without being exposed.
At a glance
- 1Number links
t.me/+ followed by the full international number opens a chat.
- 2Right format
Include the country code, without spaces or a leading zero.
- 3Prefer a username
For personal use, share a username instead of your number.
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