Telegram Video Calls: Picture-in-Picture and Flipping Camera

Starting a video call

Video calls on Telegram are one-to-one calls with the camera switched on. You can start one with the camera on, or start a voice call and add video once you are talking. Either way, the call is end-to-end encrypted.

On Android, open the chat with that person and tap the menu at the top right. Video Call rings them with your camera already on. The phone icon in the chat header starts a voice call instead.

The same choice is on their profile: tap their name at the top of the chat and you see Call and Video side by side. Telegram's own announcement of video calls describes starting them from the contact's profile page, and this is the route that works the same way on phones and tablets.

On a computer, start a call from the phone icon at the top of the chat and turn your camera on in the call window. The person you call needs a camera and a recent Telegram app; if their app is too old, Telegram tells you they need to update before you can video call them.

Voice first, video later

Starting with voice and adding video is often the polite way: the other person can answer from anywhere, and you both switch the camera on when it suits you. During a voice call, tap the camera button; Telegram asks Switch to video call? before your camera turns on. You can switch video on or off at any point in the call.

During the call

You want to	What to do
Show what is in front of you	Tap Flip to switch between the front and back camera
Read a chat or check something	Leave the call screen; the video shrinks into a small floating window (picture-in-picture) and the call carries on
Show your screen instead of your face	Use screen sharing from the call screen
Check that nobody is listening in	Compare the four emoji at the top with the other person
Bring in more people	Turn the call into a group call

Picture-in-picture is what lets you look up an address or a photo while you keep talking. On Android, Telegram may first ask for permission to draw above other apps; without it, the small window cannot appear, though the call itself goes on. Using picture-in-picture covers the small window in more detail.

For screen sharing, sharing your screen to help someone explains what the other person can and cannot do. Never share your screen with someone who contacted you out of the blue claiming to be support from a bank or from Telegram.

The four emoji

When the call connects, four emoji appear at the top of the screen. If the emoji on both screens are the same, the connection between you is encrypted with no one in the middle. Read them out to each other during the call; comparing screenshots in a chat proves nothing. Verifying that a video call is encrypted explains what the check does and does not prove.

More than two people

A video call is for two. To see several people at once, turn the call into a group call, which Telegram's FAQ says can hold up to 200 participants with end-to-end encryption, or start a video chat in a group. Starting a group video call shows both ways.

If strangers keep calling you, you do not have to answer every ring: controlling who can call you limits calls to the people you choose.

Next step: starting a group video call.