Telegram holds several accounts in one app at the same time. Not signed out and back in — all of them live, all of them receiving, each with its own chats, drafts and settings.
The part worth learning is the gesture: hold the account switcher and the other account's chat list appears as a preview you can read without leaving the one you are in, and without marking anything as read.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Add a second account and move between them instantly.
- check_circle Look at another account's chats without opening them or marking them read.
- check_circle Tell which account a notification belongs to before you tap it.
- check_circle Know what is separate between accounts and what is not.
Holding rather than tapping is the difference between peeking and switching — the preview disappears when you let go.
switch_account Separate accounts, one app
Each account is a separate Telegram account on its own phone number, with its own chats, contacts, settings, folders and drafts. Adding one to the app does not connect it to the others in any way; they simply share a screen.
A free account can hold three of them at once, and Premium raises the limit. Switching is instant because all of them are already connected — there is no signing in, and messages arrive for every account whichever one you are looking at.
Notifications are labelled, so an alert tells you which account it belongs to before you decide whether it can wait. On a phone that is the whole benefit: one app, and no confusion about which life a message is from.
What the gesture does, and what carries across
Four questions people have after adding a second account, in the order they usually have them.
visibility Reading without arriving
lock Kept apart
group When it is worth doing
The rule of thumb: a second account for a second identity, folders for a second context.
settings Adding and switching
- Open the menu The side menu on Android, or Settings on iOS. Your account name is at the top.
- Choose Add Account Then sign in with the other number as you would on a new device.
- Switch by tapping The accounts are listed together; a tap moves you.
- Peek by holding Hold instead of tapping to see that account's chats without leaving this one.
- Set notifications per account Each has its own settings. This is where a work account gets quieter after hours.
This page is several accounts in one app. The curriculum step is the mirror image: one account across several apps and devices, how state stays consistent between them, and what that means for anything stored only on one.
At a glance
- 1Add accounts
Add another account and switch from the profile menu.
- 2Peek safely
Press and hold to preview another account's chats.
- 3What is shared
The device passcode covers all; each account has its own cloud password.
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