In this article
Forwarding a reply on its own strips it of the thing it was answering. The recipient gets a sentence with no question attached, and has to ask what it was about — which is the whole point of having forwarded it.
The fix is to select both messages rather than one. Telegram keeps the reply linked to the message it answers, so the pair arrives with its structure intact.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Forward an exchange so the answer still has its question.
- check_circle Quote only the part of a message that matters.
- check_circle Avoid the misunderstanding a lone reply creates.
- check_circle Decide when to forward and when to explain.
Selecting the original as well as the reply keeps the link between them when they arrive.
reply A reply is half a sentence
Inside the chat, a reply carries a small quoted header pointing at what it answers. That header is a link to a message in this chat. Forward the reply somewhere else and the message it points at is not there, so the pointer has nothing to show.
Selecting both means both arrive, and the reply still refers to the one beside it. It is one extra tap when you select, and it removes the entire genre of follow-up questions that begin with what is this about.
Where the original is long — a paragraph, a list — quoting part of it is better than forwarding all of it. Selecting text inside a message before replying carries only that fragment, which is exactly what you want to pass on.
I forwarded the answer and nobody understood it. What should I have done?
Selected both messages and forwarded both. An answer on its own is a riddle: the recipient sees a sentence with no idea what it responds to, and has to ask you the question you were trying to save them asking. Forwarding is a multi-select operation precisely so that an exchange can arrive as an exchange.
How much of a long thread should I select?
The three or four messages that carry the argument, not the whole afternoon. Forwarding forty messages so that the context is definitely somewhere inside is worse than forwarding two, because nobody reads forty — and you have also handed on a great deal that the people who wrote it did not expect to travel.
I only want to respond to one line of a long message.
Select that text inside the message before you reply, and the quote is just those words rather than the whole thing. It is much clearer than pointing at a message that said five separate things, and the quote stays linked to the original so anybody can still jump to all of it.
Is a link to the message better than forwarding it?
In a public channel, or a group the other person is already in, yes — it takes them to the real thing with everything around it instead of to a copy with none of that. Copy the link from the message's own menu. The limit is access: for anybody who cannot see that chat, the link opens nothing at all.
When should I not forward at all?
When two sentences of your own would serve better, which is more often than people expect. It saves the other person interpreting an exchange they were not part of, and it avoids passing somebody's words to an audience they did not write them for — which a forward does automatically and permanently.
What if the exact wording matters?
Then do both: forward it and add the sentence that says why you are sending it. The forward carries the words and the sentence carries the reason, and a message that has one without the other is either a riddle or a paraphrase nobody can check.
settings Doing it
- Hold the reply to start selecting Then tap the message it answers as well.
- Add any others that carry the sense Three or four at most.
- Check the list on the forward preview Before sending.
- Select text inside a message to quote part of it When replying rather than forwarding.
- Use a message link when they can already see the chat It is better than a copy.
- Add a sentence of your own Saying why you are sending it.
This page keeps context when something leaves a chat. The curriculum step is how that context is made in the first place: replying precisely, quoting a fragment, and the links that take somebody straight to the message you mean.
At a glance
- 1Keep the question
Select the question and the answer and forward both.
- 2Quote a part
Quote just the relevant sentence.
- 3Or explain
Sometimes your own summary is clearer than forwarding.
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