How to Invite Friends to Telegram: Links, Usernames and QR

Who are you inviting?

"Inviting a friend" means three different things on Telegram, and each has its own tool. Pick the row that matches, then jump to that section.

The person	What to send	What they see
Does not have Telegram yet	The download link, from Invite Friends	A message with telegram.org/dl
Already uses Telegram, does not have your number	Your t.me link or @username	A chat with you opens; your number stays hidden
Standing next to you	Your profile QR code	Your profile, after scanning
A whole group of people	One group invite link	The group, which they join themselves

Friends who do not have Telegram yet

On a phone, the Contacts tab has an Invite Friends entry at the top. It lists the people in your phone's contacts who are not on Telegram, and has a Share Telegram button for sending the link through any other app.

Tap Share Telegram and your phone's share sheet opens with a ready-made message. Choose the app your friend actually reads: a text message, email, another messenger.

Telegram's FAQ notes that on iPhone the basic invitations are SMS messages, charged as normal outgoing texts by your carrier unless they go via iMessage. Sending the same link through any other app costs nothing.

Friends who already use Telegram

If they are on Telegram but do not have your number, send them your link instead. Once you have a username, your link is t.me/ followed by that username. The FAQ explains what happens: opening it starts their Telegram app and opens a chat with you, without them ever seeing your phone number. You can put the same link in an email signature, on a business card or on a website.

No username yet? Create one first; your Telegram username shows where. A username is public on purpose, so choose one you are happy for strangers to see.

There is also a link made from a phone number, t.me/+ followed by the number in international format. The FAQ adds a condition: it only opens a chat if the owner's privacy settings let others find them by phone number. It is useful for a business number that is public anyway, and a poor choice for a personal one.

Friends standing next to you

Show your QR code and let them scan it with Telegram. Your profile opens on their phone, and they can message or add you. Telegram QR codes instead of your phone number covers where the code is on each device and what it reveals.

Bringing several people into one chat

For a family, a class or a team, do not add people one by one. Create a group and send everyone its invite link, from the group's info page. Each person taps the link and joins on their own.

A link also gets around a common problem: many people only let their contacts add them to groups, so adding them directly fails. A link always works, because they choose to join. What to do when you can't add someone to a group explains the setting behind this, and creating multiple invite links shows how to give each link a name, a time limit or a member limit.

Next step: opening Telegram links in your own browser.