In this article
A call is the only thing in Telegram that rings. Everything else waits until somebody is ready; a call demands attention now, from wherever they are, whatever they are doing.
Which makes the setting deciding who is allowed to do that to you one of the more consequential ones in the app.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Control who is able to ring you.
- check_circle Start a call the other person is ready for.
- check_circle Handle calls from people you do not know.
- check_circle Turn a call into video or a shared screen mid-way.
A call starts from a contact's profile or the chat header, and video or a shared screen can be added once connected.
ring_volume An interruption you cannot take back
Sending a message costs the other person nothing until they choose to look. Ringing them takes the decision away: the phone sounds in a meeting, a nap, a train, and they have to deal with it whether or not they wanted to.
That is not an argument against calls. It is an argument for spending one message first. "Free to talk?" and a ten-second wait turns an interruption into an appointment, and the conversation that follows is better because the other person is somewhere they can have it.
The exception is the emergency, which is exactly what ringing is for. Keep it for that and for people who have told you to call whenever, and the ring keeps meaning something.
Four situations
Two are about ringing and two are about being rung.
schedule_send Ask before you ring
shield The setting to open
report An unexpected caller
screen_share Changing what a call is
Send a message before you ring, and decide once who is allowed to ring you.
settings Getting it right
- Set the calls privacy setting Contacts is the usual answer.
- Add exceptions for the few people Who should always get through.
- Message before calling Saying what it is about.
- Start the call from the chat or profile Voice or video.
- Add video or a screen when it helps After checking what is on it.
- Hang up on unexpected callers And make contact yourself instead.
This page is about the loudest interruption there is. The curriculum step is the rest of them: which people and which chats are allowed to make a noise, custom sounds for the ones that matter, and silencing everything else without missing anything.
At a glance
- 1Who can call
Set who is allowed to call you in privacy settings.
- 2Ask before calling
A quick message turns an interruption into a plan.
- 3Strangers
Hang up on unexpected callers about accounts or money.
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