In this article
A call can have a link. Send it, paste it, or show it as a code, and whoever opens it joins — without being in your contacts, without being in the same group, and without you having to ring anybody.
It turns a call from something you start at people into something they can arrive at.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Create a link to a call and share it anywhere.
- check_circle Set one up in advance rather than ringing.
- check_circle Control who ends up in the room.
- check_circle Know when a link is the wrong idea.
The link exists alongside the call itself and can be handed over as text or as a code.
link What a link changes
Ringing somebody requires two things: that they are in your contacts or reachable, and that now is the moment. A link removes both. It can be sent to a person you have never messaged, put in a calendar entry, pasted into a channel post, or shown on a screen for a room full of people to scan.
That covers the situations calls were always awkward for — a meeting agreed by email with somebody you do not have as a contact, a session announced a day in advance, a workshop where thirty people need to get into the same room at once without anybody collecting handles.
What you give up is control of the guest list. A link is transferable by nature: whoever has it can pass it on, and the room does not ask how anybody heard about it. That is a feature in a workshop and a problem in a conversation about salaries.
Does the other person need to be a contact?
No, and that is most of the point. A link works for somebody you have never spoken to, which is exactly the case where ringing does not — a client, an interviewee, somebody introduced by email. They do need a Telegram account, but nothing about your relationship has to be set up first.
Can I set one up for later?
Yes — a call can be arranged in advance rather than started, which means the link can go out with the meeting invitation and everybody arrives at the agreed time rather than waiting to be rung. It is the difference between a phone call and a booked room, and for anything involving more than two diaries it is the right shape.
What stops a stranger joining?
Nothing about the link itself — possession is permission. What protects a small call is that you are all there and can see the participant list, so an unexpected arrival is visible immediately and can be removed. For anything where that is not enough, ringing people individually remains the stricter option.
Can I take a link back?
Links of this kind can be replaced, which is what "taking it back" means in practice: the old one stops working and anybody who needs in gets the new one. Worth doing after anything you showed on a screen in a room, and worth doing before a second meeting rather than reusing the address from the first.
Where should I not put one?
Anywhere public that outlives the call. A link in a channel post, a website, or a slide deck that gets shared afterwards is an open door left in a document, and the people who find it later will not be the people you meant. Send it where the attendees are and nowhere else.
Is this the same as a group's voice chat?
No. A voice chat belongs to a group and is open to its members; this is a call that exists on its own and is reachable by whoever holds the address. If the people you want are already all in one group, the voice chat is simpler. If they are not, the link is the only thing that gathers them.
event Arranging rather than ringing
The most valuable thing here is not the link, it is what the link permits: agreeing a time. A call that rings demands that the other person be free at the instant you decided, which for anything beyond two people is a coordination problem solved by interrupting everybody until it works.
An arranged call with a link inverts that. The time is agreed in writing, the address is in the invitation, and nobody has to be watching their phone. For a team spread across time zones this is the difference between a meeting that happens and one that is rescheduled twice.
Two small courtesies make it work. Put the time in a form that survives the reader's own clock — a date and a time, not "in an hour" — and send the link again shortly before, because the message carrying it will have been buried by then.
settings Using one
- Create the call and take its link Or show it as a code.
- Arrange it rather than ringing Where more than two diaries are involved.
- Send it where the attendees are Never somewhere public and permanent.
- Send it again shortly before The first message is buried by then.
- Watch the participant list Possession of the link is permission.
- Replace it between meetings Rather than reusing the same address.
This page hands out an address to a room. The curriculum step is how links like it are controlled generally: limits, expiry, single use, and what revoking one does to the people who already came through.
At a glance
- 1Call links
Create a link to a call and share it anywhere.
- 2Plan ahead
Send the link before the meeting starts.
- 3The link is the key
Anyone with it can join, so don't post it publicly.
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