Add a Telegram Login Email to Get Codes Without SMS

What a login email does

A login email is an address that receives your Telegram login codes instead of SMS. The app describes it plainly: "You will receive Telegram login codes via email and not SMS," and the address "will be used every time you log in to your Telegram account from a new device."

That helps in the situations where SMS fails: abroad without roaming, with a carrier that filters short-code texts, in a country where SMS is slow or expensive, or with a phone whose SIM is in another device. An inbox you can open on any computer is often easier to reach than a text message.

Where to set it

Some new accounts are asked to choose a login email during sign-up, on a screen titled Choose a login email. If you skipped it, or never saw it, you can add or change it later:

It sits in the Security section, next to Two-Step Verification and Passkeys. When an address is set, the row does not show it in full.

1. Tap Login Email. If one is set already, Telegram reminds you what it is used for and offers Change Email.
2. Type an address you can open from more than one device.
3. Telegram sends a code to that address. Enter it to confirm; Telegram Desktop says "Your login email has been set successfully."

Choose the address carefully

A login email moves the key to your account from your SIM card to your inbox. That is only an improvement if the inbox is well protected:

• Use an address you will keep for years. Not a work address you lose when you change jobs, and not a throwaway.
• Protect that email account with a strong password and its own two-step sign-in. Anyone who can read the inbox can now receive your Telegram codes.
• Keep Two-Step Verification on as well. With a password, a code alone, from SMS or email, is still not enough to get in.

If you lose access to the email

Telegram's help text sets out the options. If you are logged in on another device, you can simply change the login email there. If not, and you no longer have access to the address, you can reset it with an SMS code, but only after a waiting period that the app shows: "Email will be reset in …", with the option Reset now via SMS.

In countries where SMS is expensive, resetting immediately by SMS can require Telegram Premium; the app suggests asking a friend to gift a Premium subscription to your account. This is one more reason to keep a second device logged in. See getting codes in the Telegram app on another device.

Next step: getting codes while abroad, roaming or on a dual-SIM phone.